All-inclusive Stained Glass Kits

Compare Stain Glass Kits for Value and Quality

Stained glass kits make your life easy, but how can you be sure that your stained glass starter kit is both high quality and contains everything you need?

• Read on to find out which stain glass kits are made up from top class tools and the most useful stained glass materials.
• Learn about the range of stained glass kit packages available and which one will suit your project best.
• Discover the best value stain glass suppliers and choose a bundle to suit your creative needs and your budget.

The first question to ask is what is your stained glass kit for?

If you are going to be copper foiling your projects you need a stained glass starter kit that focuses on stained glass copper foil tools.

If your passion is for lead, the kits suited to you will include all the leading stain glass tools.

If you’re not sure at this stage, choosing a general glass tools kit will save you money and give you the option to go in either direction at a later date.

There’s also specific stained glass kits that equip you for one particular bit of the stained glass making process rather than the whole lot – soldering or lead came polishing for example.

I haven’t done all the sums down to the last cent, but a quick check shows that if choose from this list of ready-made stained glass kits you’ll be looking at about a 15-20% saving on regular individual prices.

All the following kits can be found at Delphi Stained Glass. They make it easy to shop online and they ship all over the world, but obviously the further away you are from the US the more it will cost you in postage. So if you’re miles away it might be better to find a more local store that sells stained glass art supplies. I’ve always found Delphi to be really helpful and the website very simple to navigate. They’ve got so much amazing stained glass ‘stuff’ available, it’s probably worth making a list first and sticking to it, otherwise you could find yourself spending more than you wanted to!

Stained Glass Kits for Copper Foiling Projects

For copper foilers there’s a choice of three kits – the “Premium” and the Ultimate Stained Glass Start-up Kit or the “Deluxe” Stained Glass Tool Kit.

The Deluxe Stained Glass Tool Kit doesn’t have any instructional material or – importantly – a glass grinder, but is still made up from some very good looking stain glass tools. It has a highly-rated Studio 100 watt temperature-controlled soldering iron, a Supercutter dry wheel glass cutter and two pairs of robust pliers. You could do well with this kit, but the lack of a glass grinder is a blow as you will definitely need one to achieve the precision cuts needed for copper foiling.

The Premium stained glass starter kit has the most equipment and is about $30 more than the Ultimate. For that money, it has a tiny bit more glass, a beginners’ instruction book with stain glass patterns, a grinder cookie to help hold the glass close to the grinder head, some Mark Stay line preserver and a soldering iron stand. I personally don’t think any of those items are worth the extra $30 odd.

You can find stained glass patterns free on the web and there’s a DVD in both the kits so you may not need the book as well, your fingers are fine for holding glass close to the glass grinder head and Vaseline is a cheap alternative to Mark Stay. All soldering irons will come with some sort of holder – albeit a bit more basic than the one in the Premium kit. Sorted.

All the other tools and materials in the Premium and Ultimate stained glass kits are the same, apart from:

• soldering irons – both good makes, 100 watt and both temperature controlled, so nothing much in it here
  
  
• cutters – the Premium has an oil-filled glass cutter, which is more convenient as you don’t have to keep remembering to oil the wheel. On the other hand the ‘dry’ cutter in the Ultimate gives you a choice – you may not want to use oil, especially if you’re fusing
  
  
• glass grinder – the Ultimate has my preferred Inland glass grinder, which can easily and cheaply be adapted for drilling glass.

Although these three kits are all of high quality, on balance I would recommend the Ultimate Stained Glass Start-up Kit, and spend the $30 you’ve saved on choosing some glass that’s absolutely perfect for the project you have in mind.

Glass is like paint to a stained glass artist – its colours and textures show off your individual creativity, so it’s always worth splashing out on the best!

Stained Glass Kits for Leading Projects

There’s three stained glass kits in this category, the Beginner Lead Start-up Kit the “Ultimate Lead Tool Kit” – don’t confuse this with the recommended copper foiling “Ultimate Stained Glass Start-Up Kit” above – and the “Basic”.

If it’s a stained glass starter kit you’re after, then the Basic is no good for you at all. This stained glass kit is designed and is perfect for a crafter who already has all the stained glass tools for copper foiling and who only needs a couple of additional tools and materials to give leaded panels a try.  
Of the other two, there’s a huge difference between the Beginner and the Ultimate stained glass kits.

If you are just starting out, the Ultimate stained glass kit simply doesn’t give you enough tools to make stained glass. At the very least, you would have to add a glass cutting tool, running pliers, breaker/grozer pliers and a soldering iron. It does however include a pack of glass, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I would far rather it included the essential stained glass tools for leading and gave you the delight of choosing your own glass.

The Beginner stained glass kit does include all the above essential stain glass tools – a high quality 100 watt temperature controlled soldering iron, a Studio Pro oil-filled pencil grip cutter, heavy duty running and breaker/grozer pliers – along with a soldering iron stand, a flux pen and flux remover.

Of course that’s not all – both the Ultimate and Beginner stained glass kits come complete with an instructional DVD, lead knife, nippers and vise and all the materials and miscellaneous other tools you need for a stained glass leaded project.

I’m not sure who this ‘Ultimate Lead Tool Kit’ is aimed at. It seems to cover the less important tools and materials in detail, but misses out some absolutely essential items.

The Beginner Lead Start-up Kit is a much more balanced selection, mixing quality must-have tools with a whole range of sturdy and useful items. And you get to pick your own glass! 

Glass Tools Kits

These are the stained glass kits that provide the stained glass tools just for cutting glass. They don’t include anything for stained glass copper foiling or leading, but would be good if you needed to cut glass for a fusing project.

There are two kits here to suit different budgets and skill levels – “Basic” and “Value”.

The Value is very, very skimpy and the tools perhaps not the best quality, but they would be perfectly adequate if you just wanted to try out cutting glass to see if you got on with it.

The stained glass tools in the Basic Glass Tool Kitare much better quality and will last longer – for example sturdy metal running pliers rather than the plastic ones in the Glass Tools Value Kit.

Specific Stained Glass Kits

You could easily add to one of the Glass Tool Kits above to expand your creative possibilities. There’s a Soldering Starter Kit that would enable you to make leaded stained glass windows, along with a Lead Came Finishing Kit. I’m not sure that this is the best way of building up stained glass kits, as although the soldering iron is very good quality you could do without the stand, tinning block and solder wick – they’re wish list material rather than essential. It’s the same with the Lead Came Finishing Kit – you only really need the black cement and the whiting powder, all the other items can be cobbled together cheaply at home.

As you can see there are so many stained glass kits available it’s difficult to choose. Hopefully you know enough now to feel confident to take the plunge and pick a stained glass kit that suits you. Delphi Glass are very prompt with their delivery times, so the next thing to do is to start designing your stained glass masterpiece!

While you’re waiting, have a look at my free tutorials on how to make stained glass so that you’re familiar with each process.

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