Visit our
Message Board:
Let's Talk Glass!
Attaching wings to lead figurines...
This month I would like to share with you how to deal with those little lead figurines. Some say that the solder just won't stick or that they cannot for the life of themselves get the wings on straight. In this area I will claim to be an expert *LOL*. Pretty bold statement I know but after making and selling a lot of these little fairies I have learned and come up with a few tricks that I will gladly pass on to you. It is pretty safe to say that most of the lead figurines, made by monster metals, and the one I use very often the creative castings figures are both the same "hardness". They are harder than lead, containing lord knows what, they are not just solid lead so they need more heat to get the solder to melt into the body. I would definetely recommend that you use an 800 degree tip on a temperature controlled iron. If you don't keep the iron tip clean than you are going to have problems. Attaching the wings to the body can be difficult since the wings extend out from the back of the figure. I have tried many ways of setting the fairy on its side so I can keep the solder from dripping down the body. Well the best way I have come up with is a small container full of sand. For the little sitting fairies all you need is a tuna can full of sand. Any kind of sand will work. It works great to position the fairy in any concievable position and the sand doesn't interfere with the solder even though it can stick to the flux a little. To position the wings simply flux the body, melt a little bit of solder into the area where you will attach, then barely tack solder one wing at a time onto the body. Hold the iron there for a few seconds because the body melts at a higher temperature than the solder. Stand the fairy upright and make sure the wing is where you like it. If not than repeat the process. Ideally you can move melt the solder where you have tacked it lightly and slightly move or tilt the wing into position. With a little practice this becomes very simple. After attaching the second wing, flux all around the wing and attach the wing in enough places to make sure it is nice and stron. If you don't melt the solder long enough than you will not get a good join and the wings will come off in time. After all this soldering these figures will heat up quite a bit so you might want to invest in some forcepts or other locking needlnose pliers to hold the wings for attaching. Have fun!
If
you want to visit the Tech Tips archive.....click
here.
-
updated on September 15, 1998.
This
Stained
Glass Artists site
is owned by 