The importance of panels being properly supported, especially in doors or large openers

One of the main reasons that leaded panels fall apart is that they aren't properly supported ....

That is an obvious statement, but in the modern age few people actually understand how a panel is held together, and it's very tempting to take things out to provide clean lines in our homes. To prevent excessive movement, any leaded light panel with a dimension over three feet (or, in a door, over two feet) must be supported with saddle bars - as per the photo below.

Saddlebars are often removed in the desire for cleaner lines, but this is always a mistake. (It is possible to co-ordinate them with the decor - with a brass sleeve, or even white plastic; and I do now recommend fixing the panel to the bars with cable ties, rather than the traditional twisted wire - which will rip dusters to pieces when you clean your windows!).


Doors, window openers, and any panel that is exposed to strong winds are particularly at risk. When new, a panel will be rigid, the glass held in place firmly by cement; over time ( thirty - eighty years) that cement dries, loses it's adhesion on the glass, and the panel becomes weaker. Eventually pieces break and have to be replaced - at which point saddle bars should be put back, and new cement spread to hold it all together again. This is a job I've had to do on a number of occasions; the photo below is actually a time when this wasn't quite the case - the breakages were caused by a broken sash cord, but saddlebars had still been taken out!

If you have a really smashing time when such a problem arises it may be better for the panel to be rebuilt with new leads - but, if only three or four lights are broken, in situ repairs may be easier.

The window in this second photo had clearly had the problem before - moct of the glass was English Muffle, but some water glass had been used as replacements (not such a good idea for a bathroom, which this was!)

Modern panels fixed to uPVC doors

Like it or not, uPVC windows and doors are used widely by the building trade. They aren't really 'maintenance free' and they don't last for ever (unlike a properly maintained leaded panel fitted in a wooden frame) - we've all suffered from misting when the seals go, and then the only answer is a new unit.

Worse, uPVC windows are ugly. Big chunky white frames blot out the light like a size 20 woman in a bikini. The sealed double glazed units let light through perfectly; sometimes, too perfectly - who wants a view of a twenty foot high brick wall at the bottom of the garden? And you don't want the whole patio door in frosted glass because, yes, you'd rather like to see your garden.

It was to solve this 'view of a twenty foot high wall' problem that I made these panels. Roughly 20 by 12 inches, the Wissmach glass refracts the glass into a rainbow effect, with the coloured lights giving some impact, fitting the top of a double glazed patio door unit.

The panels are edged with zinc came to provide rigidity.

Fitting something like these to a uPVC frame will always be a challenge; I've used 3M's 'Command' self-adhesive hooks, with large ones at the top (each rated at 3lb) at the top, taking the weight, and little 8oz ones at the bottom keeping the panel tight against the frame. For security, I've added 0.4mm silver plated wire loops up to the sash lifts (which I added for this purpose, to match those on the adjacent windows). These should hold the panel if one of the hooks does give way. The sticky pads for the hooks have been kept clear of the moulding that's used to retain the double glazed unit in the frame.

The panel can be lifted out of the hooks for cleaning.

With uPVC frames you have to be careful - you can't put screws in just anywhere! The 3M hooks can be removed completely, and shouldn't affect the integrity of the frame.

With the warm weather recently these doors have been open, a very different effect occurs with the morning sun catching the pattern in the Wissmach:

 

Glass thickness

I was at an old chapel recently which was converted to flats perhaps ten years ago. An accident had revealed something that anyone living in such a building might want to be aware of.

A window, some six feet off the ground, had been broken, and the owner had kept a piece of the blue glass which she would like me to replace.

I noticed it was very thin; in fact, it was one-sixteenth of an inch (about 1.5mm) thick. (The Methodists who built the chapel clearly didn't believe in spending any more on luxuries like glass than they really had to.) Being over 1500mm above the ground the building reg rules about thickness won't actually apply, but tapping some of the (unbroken) windows around the property we came to the view that there could be some glass of that thickness at a lower height elsewhere in the building.

The coloured glass I normally use is 3mm (one-eighth) thick; in some high rick places 4mm is preferred (or required, in Building Regs).

The thinner glass breaks very easily.

I have a suspicion that glass thickness had not been on the list of things that were thoroughly checked by Building Control when the conversion was done - it is difficult to tell glass thickness when it's in a window! The piece will have to be replaced with 3mm glass, it's almost impossible to get hold of anything thinner these days.

The problems of matching colours

I did the necessary work on the broken Victorian panel (see Feb 2016 post) recently. The glass we had ordered was indeed a close - but not perfect - match, the three replaced lights can be readily identified in the photos I took on my phone (which perhaps bring out the difference more than is apparent when actually looking at the panel).

Closer examination of the glass in question did lead me to wonder whether it was the same as the glass I had removed, or the matching pieces at the other end of the panel.

I have left the customer a piece of the yellow glass I used, just in case she wants to replace the bottom left light; however, when reviewing the photos I took in February, I noticed that that piece was slightly darker than those I had replaced anyway.

The glass will, of course, weather a little, and I was not able to polish the panel aggressively while the cement was still soft; once it has hardened some Mr Sheen and an old pair of tights will work wonders. I will still notice the difference in colours, but possibly others won't!

Lettering on glass

I've been working on a piece ( a gift - photos of it will follow once the recipient has it) incorporating some lettering.

Large letters - 2 inches high or more - I tend to cut in glass, using copper foil to solder them into the panel. There are some in the piece.

In this case it's was also necessary to use smaller lettering, using paint or similar to add the required text onto the glass. Traditionally, this would be done in enamel and fused into the glass with heat; modern technology does provide alternatives, one of which I've been experimenting with.

Many of us have used Letraset lettering on paper in the past (younger readers may not be so familiar with it, now that Microsoft Word and the like are used to produce reports).

The photo below shows two tests of black Letraset, applied using a burnishing tool onto white glass.



In both cases the lettering didn't quite go down perfectly, but did give an acceptable effect; however, I needed to protect the delicate lettering with varnish. For that on the left I tried a squirt of gloss polyurethane, on the right I brushed on some clear nail varnish. Both varnishes did soften the lettering enough to cause slight runs, but the final effect of the spray was more than acceptable - that's what I'll be using to protect the text on the final piece (which is complete, apart from the text - I will apply the letraset now the panel has been fully soldered). The nail varnish can be returned to the bathroom shelf!

Update on mirror and restored panel

I've now finished work on the mirror, and it's now installed on an external wall, reducing the amount of visible brickwork in the garden and reflecting light onto a lemon tree. It's mounted on a wooden frame, with the mirror itself being held away from the wall; previously, a plastic mirror was in this spot and failed quickly due to the silvering not coping with moisture that sometimes runs down the face of the wall in heavy rain.

There's another plastic one to the left (visible in the first photo, giving rise to the 'bent' reflection). The glass mirror I've made reflects light 'straight', whereas the plastic mirrors didn't sit 'flat', giving a reflection not wholly unlike the hall of mirrors in a funfair! (If using them again I would mount them on very solid board, to try to stop them bending.)

In low light the colour plating picks up the light from the sky; who says you can't have colour in your garden all year round?

The plan is to make another similar mirror to fit the wall to the left, turning a corner of the garden into a mini-light box.

I've also completed the soldering and recementing work on the panel I picked up at a reclamation yard: this would ideal to add a bit of decoration to a uPVC window or conservatory. I'm putting it on sale, initially in newspapers and on the internet.

Transporting and moving leaded panels

There's a programme on TV this week (Channel 4, 5.30pm) which is a sort of competition for the transportation industry. One of the things that had to be transported was a set of seven Victorian leaded stained glass panels.

The commentator kept describing them as 'irreplaceable' - actually, the glass was mostly pastel English Muffle, available from Decorative Glass (http://www.decorativeglasssupplies.co.uk/). Maybe this was to wind up the contestants a bit, who seemed very, very nervous about trying to move them.

Actually, it's easy. Each panel must be on a firm board (12mm MDF is best), ideally with two sides edged with 2 x 1 timber. It should be kept on it right until it is fitted into the frame: here's a photo of my garden mirror panel, on its board, prior to fitting:

 

The board can be leant at an angle, and the timber edges keep the panel on it. For transportation, I cover the panel with either hardboard or stiff cardboard, and tie the whole thing up with strong tape, before putting the board into the car or van, ideally on its long edge with the timber support at the bottom, and secured in place, padded out with old curtains or something soft. They'll survive anything encountered in normal driving if protected like this.

 

#Stainedglass #Transportation