UK STAINED GLASS NEWS in 2009
FOILERS - DOES PRICE MATTER?
WHICH GLASS FOILER? by Ed Potterton
Many years ago, when I first bought a machine to apply copper foil, I
was, like most newcomers to the game, totally driven by price. Nevertheless,
I wanted the machine to do two things:
speed up my work
and improve the quality of my foiling.
In the UK there are two kinds of foilers that do this:
- Plastic bearings:
Glastar and Inland etc.,
- Metal Bearings: Diegel Foiler
The plastic bearing foilers retail at around £30.00 and the Diegel at
almost double that, at £50 odd.
Well, as far as I was concerned there was no contest, I bought a Glastar, although I think the Inland foiler is nicer looking.
Many years later, when I owned Broadland Stained Glass, I was sent a Diegel machine to try out. I screwed it to the bench and gave it a go, and was hooked almost immediately. Here are the differences:
- Tension: The cheaper foilers set the tension by tightening or loosening a screw. This is difficult to set, and later, as the wheels turn, the tendency is to tighten or loosen the screw. The tension requires constant tweaking. The Diegel on the other hand, sets the tension by means of push on clamps. It remains as set.
- Wheels: The Diegel wheels are a very hard plastic with a groove the exact size of the copper tape. This means that the tape is kept in exactly the same position at all times. You centre the glass on the tape by eye. With the Glastar, the wheels apply and crimp together, so there it is very difficult to keep the tape centred. There are glass guides, but they do not guide the glass, only your eye. I found them unusable. Further, if the wheels are not set right, the tape will not run cleanly (no setting of the wheels required with the Diegel).
- The wheels on the Diegel are much smaller than the other brands, allowing machine foiling on a much tighter radius, and on smaller pieces of glass.
- Finish. Because the Diegel does not attempt to process the tape as it passes through, it keeps the tape exactly flat on the wheels. This allows the artist to accurately locate the glass edge on the tape. When it is then hand crimped, it is found to be very even and neat: unbeatable
Just these three reasons alone were good enough for me to change forever. Although the Glastar and Inland claim to crimp, they only part crimp and it is necessary to finish off the job. In the case of the Diegel, the advantage of the tape being flat and therefore being able to exactly centre the glass, outweighs the disadvantage of no start being made on the crimping.
My recommendation:
- Diegel wins on manufacture quality (particularly the bearings)
- Diegel wins on quality of finish and speed
- Glastar and Inland win on price
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