How To Repair An Insulated Stained Glass Unit

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Glass Artists Newsletter - January 2010

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You can read our current newsletter here on-line each month, free of charge. We hope you will take the opportunity to let your stained glass artist friends know about the newsletter and if you have students, encourage them to read it.

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In the meantime, we welcome your input and support. Let us know if you have tips and techniques or product information you'd like to share.

Our show last month was a great success, we'll be taking it down after the new Mayor's Inauguration. 

Last month we had a first. In all the time that we've been building stained glass, we've never before had a client get their window and burst out, "My wife will hate that!" Turns out the husband was particular in his desire for color choices, but he had his wife direct the design of the window. The moral is that if you are picky and you know you are, you should be involved in ordering your custom stained glass.

So this month we show how to repair an insulated unit.

Katherine built a stained glass piece for a friend. The sand blasted and painted face of Jack Skellington is perfect!  Most of the artists who displayed work in our show last month posed for this picture in front of Lynne Farr's painting, who showed up moments after this was taken.
 
This month we show how to repair an insulated stained glass unit. It's not a procedure you have to do very often, thank goodness!
 

How To Repair An Insulated Stained Glass Window

Here's the finished window. The clients didn't care for some of the color choices.

They sent us a picture of a window. They wanted us to design a window that would be similar.

To repair an insulated unit, you've first got to cut the butyl rubber gasket on both sides of the art glass.

Start with a very sharp utility knife. I like to pull against the strip on the work bench. It takes a great deal of effort to split the rubber. But once both sides are split the unit will open like a book.

The only piece to be repaired that intersected an edge of the panel was an orange piece of glass. To peel the rubber away, the utility knife was effective. First I peeled back the top piece of rubber, using care so that it would be intact later when I put it back.

I also cut and peeled back the bottom piece and the piece that was left on the edge of the glass.

The three strips of rubber were peeled back so they wouldn't be in the way.

Then I scored the glass to be removed many times and began tapping underneath to remove pieces.

Then I used pliers to remove most of the glass. At this step, one should use care not to damage the foil. It's time well spent because repairing the old foil is tedious and more difficult than keeping the old foil intact.

Then a hot iron is used to melt away the solder holding the glass in place.

I hold the foil to be removed, and slide the iron carefully between the foil that held the broken out piece and the pieces that are to remain. 

Then the new glass is cut out.

And the glass is ground to fit.

Then the new piece is fit to the opening and trimmed just a bit till it fits perfectly.

Then the foiled glass is tacked in place.

Once the soldered piece is complete, the rubber strips are eased into place.

After the first leaf is replaced, I moved to the next cluster of pieces to be replaced. I felt it important to replace one section at a time so that the window wasn't weakened too much.

The pieces were removed just as those before.

A small piece of glass was laid under the replacement pieces to boost them up to the proper height while they were soldered.

When all the pieces were replaced, and soldered in, the window was flipped over and soldered on the back.

Jeanne scrubbed the window with CJ's flux and patina remover, then patina'd the lead lines as they had been before the repairs were made.

Then she polished and polished to remove every smudge.

(We sell chemicals from our web store, click here)

Meanwhile, I polished the inside surface of each of the tempered glass.

Once it was all clean, I was able to place the tempered glass onto the art glass.

I had to reseal the rubber gasket using butyl rubber from a tube.

Here's the finished panel, much the same as when we started, just some different colors.

Lily Havey, one of our favorite retired stained glass artists, wrote with a concern after this newsletter went out: I was under the impression that once you broke the seal on an insulated panel all the dead air space was replaced by air so that it became useless as insulation. 

My Answer: That's true, and then you stick it back together and you have dead air space again. The butyl rubber stays quite sticky and if you replace the glass very soon, the rubber that's left on the art glass bonds back together with that on the tempered glass. If it's no longer sticky, you can add a thin film of bonding agent available at Home remodeling centers in the roofing department. We use "Henry 209 Elastomastic" because it bonds with butyl and it's black like the rubber. I've been told that silicone shouldn't be used because it tries to dissolve butyl rubber.

They used to put Argon in between windows but found that over time (5 years) the air gasses migrate through the glass so the slight insulative advantage of argon is lost and isn't worth the extra expense.  

 
 

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Email:  david@gommstudios.com

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Fixing An Insulated Unit
takes time and patience.


This month's featured 
decorator piece.