Anyone else get a sample of those thin black plastic strips to be used in the lead came hearts? I got a handful of them in the mail to try out. You insert them and then use a heat gun to get them to liquify in place. By coincidence I repaired a big panel this week that used those strips inside the oak frame. Like to hear of any experience with this stuff. Anything beats puttying... if it works!
Who makes them?
I'm thinking that these magic strips combined with a 900*F turbo soldering experience could just be 'da bomb, eh?
You are supposed to heat the strips up to "activate" them. How did you do that in a wood frame?
Vic
I guess whoever made the panel used a heat gun on the edge that went into the frame.
How dare you doubt dbrady, if you look on this independent page is is posiblile to turbo solder a piece in 20 seconds with a special debrady turbo iron!
How dare you doubt dbrady, if you look on this independent page is is posiblile to turbo solder a piece in 20 seconds with a special debrady turbo iron!
I will check it out, but watching the video of the product being used, I noticed that they avoided showing the panel being soldered. I wonder what happens to the material when soldering (does it ooze out the bottom?). Also, not puttying eliminates the easiest method of cleaning flux residue: Scrubbing the panel with whiting/saw dust. It would seem to me that one would still have a significant cleanup after soldering to clean a panel and remove all the flux.
The installation of the product looks very time consuming. Their animation shows the product being pressed into the glass after heating. That would mean that you would have to heat the material as you go to avoid the panel "growing." Doing that- twice- for every piece of came could become a significant time factor.
I would love to avoid puttying, but the more I think about it, I do not think this stuff will speed anything up.
Finally, a panel installed on the interior side of a thermopane is subject to significant heat build-up. What would happen to this stuff over time exposed to the sun? Would it slowly ooze out?
I ordered a sample anyway, just to try it out.
--Cactus Bob
I intend to put it inside against the heart with each piece until the entire window is done. Then I'll apply the heat gun to the whole panel. The stuff is so slight that I doubt it would drip at all. I don't think it liquifies as much as gets gooey. One of my competitors use silicone instead of putty and swears by it!. I'm sick of 25 years of puttying.
I can see some applications for in-situ repairs, when the window is too large to be easily taken out of the building. What little I could tell about the technique of inserting the stuff inside the came, it sure looks awfully fussy. When you figure out the time that it takes to fit that stuff....basically doing the whole leading operation twice...., the time spent puttying and cleaning up with whiting isn't all that different.
I'd like to see how your competition gets the silicone off the glass. That's gotta be a real trip.
I've developed a cleaning/polishing system that fits on a slow-speed sander/polisher. I polished both sides of a 36"x 72" panel in less than 15 minutes, total. I'm talking about making the lead dark gun-metal blue-black and not having any residue in the corners of the lead joints, too. I use it on all my in-shop repair work to really spiffy up the panels. So...I've gotten to the point that I don't really mind the puttying.
I used the silicone technique for 6 large and narrow panels that were installed pretty high up,and woudn't ever be touched. After an hour or 2 the panels were hard and stiff as rocks, and were transportable without any crating or support. It does have its applications, but I wouldn't be too happy repairing broken pieces set in silicone. As for this stuff, it does look a bit fussy to use. but may be great for stuff like diamond panels.
I thought about that approach too, but according to their animation on how to use the product, the glass must be pressed into the warm strips in order to spread it evenly, thus reducing the overall size of the panel. Therefor, you would not get the proper coverage around the glass by leading an entire panel and then heating it. I would be useful, though, if it did allow you to p reassemble the window then run on a conveyor through an oven (you could run it up to Dominos during your lunch break!).
--Cactus Bob
How many pieces fit perfectly on all sides anyway? The strips look to be about 1/16". I can cut a hair smaller if I have to. I'm doing it my way and we'll see what happens.
I'll admit that I haven't seen the product in use, but I can't imagine doing little detailed areas of leaded work with that material. Like a little flower-head where you're generally fumbling around trying to get the pieces of lead that are taller than they are long to stand up straight, and the little fingernail-sized pieces of glass that pop up.....Now I'd have to keep little strips of stuff balanced in the lead channel too?. Sounds impossible. Is the stuff adhesive backed? That would make it easier.
As I said I plan to try it out with a diamond or boxes type of simple design. Small pieces are enough trouble.
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