Stained Glass Questions

In my DVDS, I swear by oleic acid flux. It is an oil-based flux rather than the other fluxes, which are all water-based. This oil based flux does not sputter when heated like water-based fluxes do. I get a much better look with both lead and foil, and have not even tried a water-based flux for decades.

All soldering needs to happen in a well ventialted area. Oleic acid may fume more than other fluxes, but adequate ventilation for other fluxes should be sufficient for this flux, too.

The flux name used to be and probably still is Soleic Acid. You should be able to find it online by searching for "soleic acid flux" or "oleic acid flux." I bought a gallon of it decades ago and still have most of it (I use it VERY sparingly).

I cannot fully advise you on the size of a soldering iron you should buy. I haven't bought one from a stained glass supplier in years. The one I use the most is a Hexacon. I can't even tell you the wattage because it's so old there's no lettering on it. All I can tell you is that bigger is generally better as you will burn out a smaller iron once your use of it exceeds it's ability to keep up. Buying a larger iron and using a rheostat to control the temperature is the way to go, in my opinion. If the largest one your local stained glass supplier sells is a 100 watt iron, then I would search online for a bigger one. Pay no attention to temperature-of-the-tip information; once you own a good iron, you'll experiment with it and make markings on your rheostat for zinc ("Zn") lead ("Pb") and copper foil ("Cu"), the latter being the lowest setting because too much heat into the glass will cause it to break.

However, you can always start out with a smaller iron and work up to a larger one later on. If you continue to pursue stained glass, you will no doubt need another one at some point, although the better ones should last for decades.

The last one I did buy - for a very large project - was one I found online designed for sheet metal work, and considered far too big to be sold by stained glass suppliers. It is an American Beauty, and it cost about $250 plus $30 for each of the two tips I bought (the tip I use most often with this iron has a four-sided point on it). I LOVE THIS IRON! It gets so hot that it will melt zinc, something that no 100-watt iron will do. I use this one whenever I am using very wide lead or zinc cames - 1/2" or bigger, or when I do a project that is either all zinc or has many all-zinc places to be soldered. If you purchase one of these, test it out on scraps of lead and zinc, and make marks on your rheostat (temperature controller) that clearly indicate where to set it for lead and for zinc. Failure to do this WILL cause melted cames, trust me. This may sound dangerous or hard to use (it is heavy), but it makes big soldering jobs a breeze, and I'm glad I bought it every time I decide to use it, which is less than 10% of the time overall.

I prefer my home-made rheostat to any of the ones sold by stained glass suppliers. Those ones seem flimsy and heading for burnout, to me. the one I use now I made about two or more decades ago, and even when it has stopped working, only one part needs replacing rather than buying an altogether new one. The one I made is a two sided electrical box (the metal box sold at hardware stores that is designed for side by side light switches or side by side electical outlets). On one side is mounted a dimmer switch, a light switch with a round rotating nob designed to adjust the brightness of a light bulb or lampshade, and on the other side is a double electical outlet. These are wired in series (not in parallel) with five feet of lamp cord leading to an electrical plug.

4] Use a bigger iron than necessary, and control the temperature with a rheostat. A big soldering iron tip is fine, too, even for the thinnest of copper-foil leadlines or very thin lead cames. It’s your technique with the iron that produces great results, not the size of the iron or the size of the soldering iron tip. A better way to say that is - the iron and/or the soldering tip could be too small for a particular project, but they usually can't be too big. I use a 3/8” chisel tip (on my Hexacon soldering iron) for 99% of what I make.

5] Keep the solder joints as small as possible because a good looking solder joint requires having the entire joint liquid at the moment the iron is removed. This allows the solder to settle into a smooth solid joint. Long arms of solder are unnecessary (strength-wise) and unsightly, and make a smooth joint almost impossible to achieve.

6] Use as little solder as needed. Too much solder leads to long arms or a bad silhouette (corners and points filled in by too much solder). It's better to start with too little solder on your iron and have to add a little bit more than to put on too much solder at the start. Solder can be difficult to remove, and doing so puts contaminants into the solder as discussed in #7 below.

7] Do it quick. The more you touch the joint with the iron, the more oxidation and other contaminants you introduce into the solder. Too much re-manipulation of the joint will quickly get it to the point where it will not rest smoothly. If this happens, remove extra solder by swiping it off sideways, then let it cool a bit, then reflux, then try again to do it quickly.

8] After soldering, wipe the joints well with a flux-dedicated rag. With oleic acid flux, no flux residue cleaners will ever be needed. I have never owned one.

TINNING YOUR IRON

I probably don't tin the tip of my soldering iron as often as people recommend. It doesn't seem necessary, and my tips last almost forever, so that's not the issue. I used to tin my tip by rubbing it on a sal-ammoniac block which I purchased from my stained glass wholesale supplier. I was always disappointed after a while because the block would eventually fall apart, and the resulting pieces seemed like a waste. Then I came up with a solution that I'm sure means that I will never again have to buy another sal-ammoniac block. I cleaned out a small tin can (it had originally held cat food). Then I hammered the pieces of my sal-ammoniac block to bits about as fine as beach sand (with some larger pieces still present, too). I added this to the tin can, and then added some bits of solder (I add more bits of solder whenever they end up on my work table while I'm working). I tin my soldering iron tip by holding the hot iron vertical (tip facing down) with one hand and holding the tin can securely on the table with my other hand. Then I lower the iron into the can a move it around in circles for about 20 seconds. This makes a lot of fumes, so definitely do this where you have good ventilation and also avoid breathing in the fumes. I have been tinning my tip this way for about three years and it looks as though the amount of sal-ammoniac does not diminish over time.