Repairs to Stained Glass Panel

This stained glass panel was brought to me by the same customer who created the glue chip glass and bevel panel posted previously.  This panel had a few cracks in it, and needed hanging hooks installed.  Here's the process ..


This abstract panel has cracks to three pieces.  They're marked by the round colored stickers.

I began the repair by scoring and then cracking out the glass in the yellow piece as shown.  Here I'm tapping the scored piece with the metal end of a glass cutter, in order to loosen the glass.

All of the glass is removed.  Now I'm using needle nose pliers to tug off the old solder and copper foil.

The copper foil and solder have been removed.  Now I'm burnishing new copper foil which I just placed along the border of the open area.

Now I'm tracing around the border onto a piece of Manila folder which will serve as my template for the replacement piece of yellow glass.

The new yellow glass is in place.  With this piece of glass removed, I have access to the cracked red border piece.  Therefore I decided not to solder it in place until the red piece is replaced.  Here I'm preparing the template for the new red piece.

Here I've moved aside the yellow piece and the red piece is ready for foiling.

Now the red border piece and the yellow piece are both foiled.  I'm applying liquid flux to the copper foil.  This chemical enables the solder to flow freely over the foil.

Now the yellow and red replacement pieces have been soldered in place on the front and the back of the panel.

Note that there is glass missing in the reddish-white strip beside the flower-like design in the center.  I sent off that chip in hopes of finding a good match for it.  However, there was nothing available.  Therefore, after consulting with my customer, I suggested replacing both panels beside the flower with the light blue glass which appears on the border.  I thought it would be a nice tie-in and bring more cohesiveness to the design.  She agreed, so I went ahead.

Here's a blue panel being run through the electric grinder.

Now I've replaced both sides of the flower with a nice strip of blue which matches the borders.

One of the final steps is to clean off the liquid flux, let it dry, and then apply the black patina as shown here.  Its a blue liquid which makes the solder turn black instantly.

Using a product called Kwik-Clean, I'm washing off the excess patina after giving it some time to set.

Now I'm moving on to creating and installing hooks as requested by my customer.  Since this is a heavy panel, I'm using 12 gauge wire which I cut into short lengths.  I wrapped them around a pen as shown, and crimped the ends together using the needle nose pliers.

Then I used a steel brush to scrub off the old patina from the corner needed a hook which I marked with blue tape.  Then I applied some liquid flux onto the scrubbed area.

I added some hot solder to the area.  When it cooled off, I used the needle nose pliers to hold the new hook in place.  Then I heated up the hook until it sank into the pool of solder, creating a very strong and permanent bond to the frame.  I repeated this process on the other side.

And here is the repaired panel, with new hooks for hanging.

Another view, on top of a light box.  Thank you Jane and John, for bringing this panel to me also!  I'm pleased that I was able to put it back in service so you can enjoy it for years to come.

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