Soldering

I was lucky enough to get a soldering iron for Christmas. It's a Weller W101 Line Soldering Iron 230v if you're interested in that kind of thing. It's ideal for lead work as it has a thermostat that stops it from getting too hot and burning through the lead cames. Which would be a bummer!

I have been waiting for my stained glass class to restart as I was a little nervous to try soldering on my own. I needn't have worried, it's pretty straight forward. You just need to rub tallow onto any joins in the lead, which acts as a flux. Then its just a matter of putting the tip of the soldering iron on the end of the solder and melting it onto the joins. It took about 2 hours to solder both sides of my window, but there are lots of joins. It's best to rub the excess tallow off whilst its still warm with a natural fibre brush.

Next week - cementing!