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We recommend that windows which exceed 3′ by 4′ in size be reinforced to prevent breakage. If a window is 3′ by 3′, it might not need to be reinforced, that’s usually a judgment call based on where it is to be installed.

Go to http://www.betterstainedglass.com/Newsletter/Archives/2006Aug-reinforcinglargepanel/aug2006reinforce.htm to see the photos that go with this article.

In the old days, when a panel was large and needed to be reinforced, artists actually installed big pieces of rebar, no kidding rebar, in window frames and wired the stained glass to the rebar. This was an effective method of reinforcement, but it was far from attractive.

Now, I’m not complaining, but doesn’t the art of stained glass have enough restrictions already? Are you telling me that I’m going to have to work my beautiful design around chunks of concrete reinforcement? Fortunately there’s something fairly new on the scene to help in that area.

The secret? A thin strip of copper which is thin enough to fit between existing lead lines. You solder them in place and you’ve got a substantially stronger panel.

How can that be? It’s so thin and floppy? See how easily it bends.
That’s part of what’s so cool about this strip of copper, it bends easily in one direction, allowing us to follow the most meandering lead lines, but it’s fairly rigid in the other direction, adding strength to the glass.

Before this new copper strip was available, we used to go to a sheet metal shop and have them cut 1/4″ wide strips of thin gauge copper on the shear. Then we had to bend it to follow our lead lines using needle nosed pliers. It was fairly complex and when done, you still had a piece of copper that stood 1/4″ above the surface of the window. It sometimes cast a shadow on the panel and soldering the back was a challenge as well.

When reinforcing a window (using this or any other method) it is important to remember that the reinforcement must run from one side of the window to the other to do any good. If a piece of copper is run to the middle and then it just stops, you will actually be creating a place where more stress will be applied to that spot and the window could break there.

The copper strip comes in a roll and will cover a lot of glass. The idea is to run the copper back and forth along lead lines so the glass will have more strength than it did before, and will transfer the stresses on it to it’s outer edge where it is stronger since it’s installed in some sort of rugged framework. This will prevent the glass from getting cracks either from being pushed on, or from the weight of the glass being pulled down by gravity over time and sagging.

This panel is so large that we need to reinforce it a great deal. I begin by running strips up and down the length of the window. I used some spray cans which were handy to weight the strip down in between the glass. Make sure if you use this method to remove cans before soldering because heat and pressurized cans can be hazardous.

At places where the copper strip intersects another piece of copper, I have to cut the new piece so I can continue on across the panel.

I bend a little “L” on the end so the copper won’t slide as I install it. Then I gently press it in between the glass, the foil and the other copper strips. I use something to weight it down, or it will pop out from between the glass.

I then string the copper out to the edge of the panel. When doing this, I keep the roll of copper in the bag it came in and gently pull it out as I need it. I use care not to let it tangle or slip out of the bag so that I don’t have to relive the disaster with my “Slinky” when I was a kid.

I use tin snips to cut the copper, about 1/4″ from the edge of the glass.

With all the reinforcement strips in place, I begin to tack the glass together. I make sure that the glass is pushed into the right place (on pattern), the copper has a tendency to push things around. Arrows point to all the places where copper has been installed to properly reinforce this panel.

After soldering the panel, I need to clean up the areas where copper extends beyond the edges.

Using the tip of my soldering iron, I push the copper strip over the edge, which bends it.

Holding the strip in place with needle nosed pliers, I solder the copper against the edge of the foil. When it’s done, you can’t even tell that the window has been reinforced.

Since this panel is being installed in a door, once it’s soldered, it gets sent out to be encased in tempered glass and insulated. The tempered glass adds an additional amount of strength to the panel.

David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back in 1983 and has become an expert at many aspects of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at his http://www.betterstainedglass.com website. A gallery of his stained glass work can be viewed at http://www.gommstudios.com

[tags]stained glass,stained glass repair,home d

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Okay, it’s not brain surgery, it doesn’t even sound that complicated, but if you follow these steps, you’ll have success when applying patina, and if you don’t, you’ll end up with very mixed results. Check out the photos that go with this article at http://www.betterstainedglass.com/Newsletter/Archives/2006Oct-cleanandpatina/cleanandpatina.htm

1. Patina is a chemical that changes the color of the outer layer of a metal. Sculptors apply it to statues to age them and copper roofs sometimes get patinas applied to them to hurry the aging process along.

The element that is common in all applications is that the metal needs to be clean for the chemical reaction to work well.

2. To get our window clean, we first apply a blue window cleaner to the window to get the major debris off of it. The flux we use in making windows is water soluble, so the blue cleaner does a good job cleaning it from the surface of the window. So squirt some on and then towel it off.

3. Next we need to clean the window even more thoroughly so that it will readily accept the patina. We apply kwik-clean brand cleaner. It chemically removes flux that might remain on the lead we want to patina. So we squirt some on and then towel it off, getting it nice and dry.

4. Now we can apply patina. The patina will dissolve the rag that is used to apply the chemical, so we use one which is very small and then toss it out when we get done. We don’t use paper towels in any of the steps because they disintegrate.

5. Here we are applying black patina. It’s important to pour a generous amount of the patina on the window. Flooding the area lets the patina react properly. If too little is used, the patina may try to turn copper instead of black.

6. Here we are applying copper patina to a panel. It needs to be applied generously or it will try to turn black. Avoid running any of the patina to the outside edges of the window if it has a zinc border. Zinc will react to the patina and turn black and then try to turn the rest of the lead black instead of copper.

7. Once the reaction has taken place we can clean the window again. We flood the window with water (or blue window cleaner) and then use kwik-clean to clean and neutralize the patina. It needs to be applied generously so that there is enough to get under and around all the places where patina might have gotten.

8. Finally, we apply wax to the window to seal the lead lines so that they won’t get corroded as easily. We use Clairity brand finishing compound. we pour a small amount on the window and rub it all over the surface.

9. We let the wax dry. And then rub it vigorously with clean dry rags. We rub and buff vigorously till the window glistens.

The only time we skip this step is when the art glass is insulated. In that case the wax prevents the binding butyl rubber from sticking to the art glass. We used black patina and the metal begins to shine and glisten and almost looks silver, but it really is black at the right angle.

So finally, we have the completed, backlit copper panels. They glisten from the waxing and the polishing. They really look like a piece of art.

David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back in 1983 and has become an expert at many aspects of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at his http://www.betterstainedglass.com website. A gallery of his stained glass work can be viewed at http://www.gommstudios.com

[tags]stained glass,stained glass patina,home d

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Many times we meet people who are interested in stained glass, but they haven’t learned enough about it to really be able to tell whether a piece of glass is a true work of art or just a good piece. I once overheard a woman gushing over a piece of glass that had been painted with fake glass paints, the kind that craft stores sell. “Oh, Look at that, I love stained glass, that is just exquisite!” Her comments were nice since she had an appreciation for art glass, but they were also ridiculous because painted fake glass just isn’t in the same class as other techniques and certainly should never be described as “exquisite”.

So that incident prompted me to write this brief description of what the different types and qualities of stained glass are. After reading the following paragraphs, you will be more qualified and more able to distinguish between good glass and great glass than the majority of people you meet. You will be well on your way towards becoming a “Stained Glass Expert.”

1. Brass And Glass - made of Brass pre-shaped metal (or brass encased lead), called “came”. The stained glass is encased in the pre-formed metal and the joints where the metal meets are then soldered. After the panel is completed and soldered, the joints are colored with a brass colored paint so that they look brass.

Advantages: Brass windows match the brass plated hardware on many homes. Brass windows are almost always mass produced, so cost is usually lower than other styles of stained glass.

Disadvantages: Brass windows usually don’t get the glass and metal cemented to each other, so they are not as strong and have a tendency to rattle more often than any other stained glass window. If the panel is sandwiched between tempered glass sheets, the lack of strength is not a big deal.

Quality: This is the lowest quality of stained glass available and is usually found in cheap furniture and mass produced door frames. It hasn’t been around for a long time and is often associated with the cheap waterbeds of the 1960’s.

2. Leaded Glass - refers to both beveled glass and colored glass surrounded by pre-shaped lead, called “came”. The stained glass is encased in lead and the joints where the metal meets are then soldered. The solder and the lead look very similar, so no special treatments are needed in the joints as with brass came. After the panel is completed and soldered, the windows are cemented by forcing cement in under the metal and the glass. Then the exposed glass is cleaned thoroughly.

Advantages: Lead construction is the most common type of stained glass to be found. If cemented well the window is fairly strong. The leaded method is fast to construct, so is quite popular in commercial installations.

Disadvantages: If the window isn’t cemented, the lead will easily stretch over time and the glass shapes will deform quite easily. Windows that are placed in insulated units can’t be cemented because the cement reacts with the desiccant in the foam tape used to create insulated units.

Quality: This is the mid-range of stained glass quality. It’s not bad, just not the best. There is pretty good detail available in this type of panel and it is quite good for many styles of glass design. If it wasn’t fairly good it wouldn’t be found in so many highly respected installations.

3. Copper Foiled or “Tiffany Style” Glass - refers to stained glass construction where each piece of glass is individually wrapped in a copper foil tape and the gaps between the glass are soldered with lead and tin based solder, usually 50/50 mix or 60/40 mix. After the panel is completed it is very strong and pretty often water tight. Chemicals are then added to color the lead lines, either copper, bronze or black. The lines can also be left pewter-like gray or they can be polished to bright shiny silver. It’s often called “Tiffany Style” because the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany are credited with coming up with the method in the late 1800’s.

Advantages: Copper foiled windows are very strong and allow the artist the most detail of any of the construction methods. It also allows for the most ranges of patinas of the methods discussed. The copper foil method allows an artist to follow contours and so lamp shades and other 3d construction is almost always built using this method.

Disadvantages: It takes a lot of work and is more labor intensive to hand solder each and every solder line in a stained glass window, so these panels usually cost more than the leaded type. Also, because the resulting windows are so very strong, they can develop very slight hairline cracks as the glass expands and contracts in the heat of the day and the cool of the night. These cracks usually develop in the first year after a panel is installed and are minor.

Quality: This is the highest quality of stained glass, but there are different ranges of quality in this style. Imports will often have very thin lead lines not as a design element, but as a way to save money on the amount of lead used to construct the panel. The highest quality of copper foil constructed lamps will feature a built up lead line which will often stand up the same height as an extruded lead line. Best quality soldering will feature very consistent lead lines and few if any areas where the lead has shrunk after cooling.

4. Epoxy Glued Faceted Glass - refers to a technique where thick slabs of glass are broken in rough pieces and glued together using epoxy glue to form the joint between the various pieces of glass. It’s very uncommon and not available in any but the most unusual commercial construction.

David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back in 1983 and has become an expert at many aspects of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at http://www.betterstainedglass.com

He also has a website with many other articles at http://www.gommstudios.com

These articles may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as the entire article, copyright notice, links and this resource box are unchanged, or if using a portion of the article, it points back to one of our pages where the entire article resides. Copyright © David Gomm All Rights Reserved.

[tags]Stained Glass,home d

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