Guide: Foiling

Within this guide you will find all the information required for applying Foil for Foil Construction. This guide assumes you have materials prepared for this step already.

Required Items:

• Prepared Materials - Most likely the glass you are trying to assemble.
• Foil - This is what is applied to your prepared materials.
• Fid, Lathekin, Marker or some other smooth hard object - Used to Burnish the foil to the prepared materials.

Optional Items:

• Scissors/Thread Snips - Used for cutting the foil or backing paper. You can just tear them instead too.
• Damp Towel - Used to clean the glass prior to foiling if dirty.
• Dry Towel - Used to dry the glass prior to foiling if wet or to wipe off dust.
• Foiling Tool - Device used to help apply or crip the foil to your material.

1. Edge Surface Prep (Optional)

While foil should stick to most things, rougher surfaces will allow the foil to stick better than a smooth surface will. Roughing up smooth surfaces with your Grinder or a Carborundum Stone can help with getting the foil to stick better.

2. Edge Surface Cleaning

Applying Foil requires the surface it is being applied to be free of oils, dirt, dust, moisture and other grime. You are applying a metal tape and if it's not clean it will just fall off or barely stick.

3. Pick Appropriate Foil

Now we need to pick appropriate foil for the material we plan on applying it to. There's lots of options, thus lets go over each part individually.

Foil Thickness

Thickness of the foil determines how easy it is to bend, flex and tear. Thin foil can easily tear while being worked while thicker foil will be stiffer and harder to tear.

Foil Thickness

Mil (Thousands of an Inch)	Uses
<1	Don't bother. It will tear like tissue paper, often found as "electronics" foil.
1	Almost as common as 1.25, Tears easy, Folds easiest, Stretches less when worked.
1.25	Most common option, Tears moderately, Folds well, Stretches moderately when worked.
1.5	Least common option, Tears hardest, Folds stiffly, Stretches harder when worked.

Foil Backing Color

Foil has a couple options for the backing color it has. These backing colors aren't super important but using one or the other may have a very small effect on the look of the project. The color of the backing is an artistic choice that has no other meaning, they all will work the same otherwise.

Foil Backing Colors

Backing Color	Uses
Black	Good all around option, Hides edges on clear or Cathedral Glass, Looks good with any Patina.
Silver	Best used with no patina on clear or Cathedral Glass, can reflect light back into the glass.
Copper	Best used with Copper Patina on clear or Cathedral Glass, Best option for Opaque Glass, can reflect the copper color back into glass which can create unique effects in transparent or semi-transparent glass.

Foil Width

This is your most important part of the foil as the width determines how wide your solder joints will end up being and the foil must be wide enough to hold the parts you have in place by wrapping over the front and back faces.

Foil Widths

Width	Uses
5/32	Used on thin glass or for other specialty applications. Barely covers the edge of average Sheet Glass.
3/16	Common to use for those wanting fine lead joints with average Sheet Glass. Does not work well for uneven/highly textured average Sheet Glass.
7/32	Most common and popular size. Works well for most glass and textures.
1/4	Common beginner size due to how easy it is to work with. Looks more like Came when used. Works for almost all average Sheet Glass.
5/16 and larger	Not commonly used outside of super wide lead lines, decorative foiling or for foiling thick/heavily textured glass as the extra can be easily trimmed back when custom sized foil is needed.

Apply the Foil

This is where foiling can get tricky as there's many ways to peel back the paper and apply the foil.... there's no one technique that is perfect and there's even tools to help that you may have different results with. Regardless of what method or tools you use the goal is the same, get the foil on so it's evenly overlapping the front and back faces of whatever is being foiled.

So let's split this into parts and feel free to try a bunch of things! Including things not covered here!

Before we get started, we need to talk about concave parts. These parts will be more difficult to work with due to the foil wanting to pull straight, Foil Splits occuring and the possibility of tools not fitting in places. They will require you to slow down and give them a bit more attention!

Foiling by Hand

TODO

Seems like you have stumbled into a page that isn't complete yet! If you can help fill in the following missing content please feel free to contribute!

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Insert images and a gif someday....

1. Grab your foil and get the end started.
2. Pull off a small section of paper, not too much as we don't want the foil to stick to everything else while we start it.
3. Pick the end of a side to start at this will be our anchor point to hold the foil while we lightly pull on it.
4. Try to center the foil as best as possible then press it on good.
5. Rotate around to the next side, peel back more paper if you need to and lightly pull the foil taught.
6. Line up as much as possible in the center of the foil.
7. Press it on once centered.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 until back at the start, being careful if the part has any concave sides.
9. Once you get back to the start point you can cut or tear the foil so that there's a small bit of overlap.
10. Move to the next step!

Foiling with Tools

As there's lots of tools that exist they will each get their own page for detailed instructions. Though they all follow the same general idea.

1. Pick the correct tool/parts for the width of foil you are planning on using.
2. Thread the foil through the tool.
3. Set any gauges, stops or other things the tool may have.
4. Run the tool along glass or run the glass through the tool till you get back to the start.
5. Cut or tear the foil so that it overlaps the start point if you didn't go past it.
6. Move to the next step!

Foiling Tool Guides

Todo: Put them here someday hah.

Crimping & Burnishing

Now that we have the foil on the glass on the edge, we need to fold over the bits hanging out. This can be done in one or two stages depending on what shape the part is and what you are comfortable with. If you used a tool it may have already crimped the foil down for you.

1. If you did not use a foiling tool, Grab your Fid, Lathekin, Marker, Pen or other hard smooth object. Using light to medium pressure, press the foil that you placed on the edge all the way around so it sticks in place good.
2. (Optional) Crimp the foil with your fingers or tool by just pinching/pushing it over the edge.
3. While making sure you are holding the tool flat against the glass, using light to medium pressure, press the foil down so it's nice and smooth on one side. What part of the tool you use doesn't matter as long as it's making full contact.
4. When you get to a corner make sure to fold it so that the adhesive side is down.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 or 3-4 as required.
6. Flip the glass, repeat.

Done!

If everything went well and to plan you are ready for soldering!

Tips, Tricks, FAQ

• When burnishing small parts it might be beneficial to complete one whole side so you have a decent spot to grab the part.
• Placing the part on the table after crimping to burnish is also a good option if you can't hold it or don't want to. Just make sure the corners are folded down or you could bend them the wrong way!
• If a corner or any section of foil is showing the adhesive side you need to try and correct it. Solder will not stick at that location.
• If you have any Foil Splits or other damaged foil you will need to Repair it before soldering as the solder will only stick to the foil and nothing else.
• Foil can easily be trimmed with a craft knife! Get creative!

• Why does my Foil not stick?
  • Foil does have a shelf life! Even sealed the adhesives can dry out and not stick anymore. Once open foil will dry out faster. While you can still use it, it's not enjoyable. You can test the foil by sticking it to a fingernail and pulling. It should peel like tape and not just pop off.
• Why does my foil always tear in this spot?
  • Foil while malleable can't just be pressed flat in all spots, try gently pushing it over a little at a time going back and forth across it until it's flat. TODO: make a gif of this.
• Help! I changed my mind about the patina for the solder!/Do I need to match my foil with my solder?
  • It's fine! Do what you want! It may look better matched but you probably won't notice unmatched in most cases. Most people wouldn't know the difference anyway.
• My foil is way too wide but my smaller foil is too small!
  • Ah yes, when you need an in-between size but it doesn't exist. The easiest option is to line up the overlap on the FRONT SIDE of the glass so it looks correct and put all the extra on the back. Then use a craft knife to trim it so it's the right size! That way you don't need to trim it two times!
• How do I get foil into deep/small textures?
  • This is a tricky one.... Depending on the texture you may just end up Splitting the foil tons. In cases like this using something like a Ripple Bit or Face Grinding to reduce the thickness changes would be beneficial. Otherwise just get it as close as possible. It isn't really noticeable unless using a backing that doesn't match the solder finish. It also won't really affect the strength at all.