Ship Repairs, pt 2

Slow progress on the ship panel due to the tail ends of other projects. This shows the split in the panel and the two main/obvious breaks in the ship's hull. All the blue pieces have to be re-foiled, as they are so loose now. Teh yellow piece on the right of the ship needs to be removed to get the bow out.


The following photo shows the main tools I use to get the panel apart. I heat up the solder and use the cut up drinks can to separate the foil while the solder is molten. The lead knife helps to cut the excess copper foil from the glass. The brass wire brush assists in removal of the solder beads. The sal amoniac block is needed to clean the solder bit which gets very dirty from the patina.

Some of the broken pieces have been removed and taped together for reference in cuting the new pieces.

Here you can see the process of removing the bead, by heating and brushing away the excess solder. The drinks can then can help to separate the two foils. You can see the cleaned foil along the ship decks. The foil is heated and rubbed with the iron until a piece comes free. It is then grasped gently with the pliers and pulled away from the other foil as the iron makes the jointing solder molten.

Finally, the bottom of the panel is dismantled. I did break an additional two pieces with the heat that I was using. This is part of the risk.