Leading - Establishing the perimeter

The first thing to be established about the panel is the placing of the came that goes around the edge of the panel.

Fix your cut line cartoon to the work board.  Usually a long strip of masking tape on all the edges will be sufficient.  To establish the placing of the battens, which will form the frame for the leading process, you need to determine the spacing from the cut line.

This shows the initial battens in place and ready for the final two battens to be put in place before soldering.

To determine the size of the off-set of the battens you should cut a short piece of the came you will be using for the outside and use that as a guage.  Place the heart of the came on the outside cut line near one end and move the batten to the side of the came.  Nail that end of the came to the board.  Move the guage came to the other end of the cut line and do the same with the batten as you did for the other end.  Establish one other batten at right angles in the same way.  Then you are ready to place the cames.

Make a straight cut across the came to be used for the outside and put that trimmed end into the corner and along the vertical wood strip. The lead should extend beyond the cut line to accommodate the length of the upper horizontal came. The minimum length must be longer than the width of the perimeter came that will butt against it. If it is even longer, the extra can be trimmed off after the leading is complete or after soldering.


Next butt a trimmed piece of perimeter came along the horizontal wood strip. This one should be shorter than the cartoon. It should be half the width of the perimeter cames to allow the vertical came to butt against it. The reason for having the vertical cames running from bottom to top is that there is a fraction more strength in the heart of the came going all the way to the bottom of the panel, rather than resting on the flanges of the came.

This is how the finished perimeter cames will appear:

These perimeter cames should be held in place with horseshoe nails. Try placing the nails only where a lead line will be soldered in order to cover any nicks the nails might make. Alternatively, you can place the nails at the ends of the perimeter cames to keep them from sliding vertically or horizontally.


If you want to have mitred corners, this post will show you the method.

The next stage of placing the first pieces of glass is shown here.