Lentil bead drilling (cleaning bead release)
 

Hello all,
I bought few lentil presses (size 20, 30 and 38 mm) and while drilling beads (cleaning bead release) they all broke. I’m thinking is happening because of the realy flat lentil shape? Should I clean lentil beads in a differrent way?
Or is it more from the thermal shock?
Did you too sometimes notice that it’s more tricky to drill lentil beads?

Thank you very much and all the best! 🔥

I've had no problem drilling lentils but you do need to make sure you have sufficient glass on either side of the mandrel. I've read at least 1- 1 1/2 times the amount of glass on either side as the thickness of the mandrel. And don't force the bead reamer. Let the grit do the job.

Also, did they break in half or just crumble into pieces. In half means thermal shock and they weren't evenly heated after pressing.

Hello, thank you very much for your advice !! Probably my mandrels were too thick. And beads break in half so seemengly they weren't evenly heated after the press.
Thank you!!!

That's a common problem for that bead shape, you will get the hang of it. Your mandrel size should be fine if it fits in the slots on the press.

Evenly heating the bead is the trick, so make sure you do that, and leave enough glass on either side of the mandrel. Heat the mandrel to red hot briefly and lay down the footprint. Roll gently & carefully to ensure that it is even. Use the press early to help with the glass distribution and keep doing frequent and quick presses as you need. Don't wait until you have one biggish glob. You're more likely then to have an unbalanced bead as the core is too cold to get a good press. One side will be too thin and might chip at the edges or break.