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Fill, build and finish the seams INSIDE FIRST THEN OUTSIDE.
It is almost impossible to fill the space between the foiled
glass parts with solder without some solder flow through. When
the inside seams are filled and finished first it is easy to
make smooth outside seams, solder flow through will be minimal
from the outside to the inside.
The portion of any seam you are working on must be positioned
near level. The inside and outside of a dish shaped lamp shade
is easily leveled by propping it up with small blocks of wood,
styrofoam, etc. See LampLeveler.
The Touch-Pause-Lift Method of Building Seams
Level the seam. Dip the tip of a brush in flux. Cover the
copper foil only where you want solder to adhere. There is no
need to flood the seam with flux (an inexpensive artist brush
about 1/8" wide will work fine).
Using a hot iron, melt and spread droplets of solder along the
seam tinning the foil and filling the gaps. Try to gauge the
amount of solder that will be needed to make each seam between
seam intersections.
To smooth, brush extra flux over the droplets of solder along
the seam. Touch the droplets, wait until that portion is liquid
and has melted into the first touch point. Touch-Pause-Lift.
Try to make one pass across the intersections and then try to
work away from intersections. Continue the Touch-Pause-Lift motion
until the seam is completed.
As work progresses, keep wiping the surface with a wet cloth
or sponge. If the solder becomes tacky, let it cool, then
apply extra flux and redo. Do not worry about solder flow
through to the outside.
Do not try to build the seams too high. If too much solder
has been applied, push it out on the glass. Do not attempt to
pick solder up from the glass with the iron tip. The glass piece
may crack from the heat
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Variations of Touch-Pause-Lift
Variations of the Touch-Pause-Lift method are: (1) drawing the
iron along without lifting it; (2) feeding solder to the seam
by touching the solder to the top of the iron tip as the iron
is drawn along the seam.
Replacing Cracked Pieces
Replacing cracked pieces is not hard to do. A glass cutter with
a ball molded on the handle is used to shatter the broken glass
pieces. Use a needle nose pliers to remove all glass shards.
A hot soldering iron is used to melt the solder at the end of
the copper foil that was wrapped around the part. The end of
the foil is grasped with the pliers and is gently removed by
pulling as the solder is melted out with the tip of the soldering
iron. A new part is cut, foiled, pressed into place, soldered
and antiqued.
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