Quote:
Originally Posted by losthelm
Most kilns don't have the thermal mass to cool as slow as beads need to cool.
You can take a thermal probe or thermalcoupler and chart the data between an annealing cycle and what occurs naturally with your kiln.
Things like ambient temp, humidity, and air circulation in the room will effect how quickly a kiln will cool.
Kilns can be built in the shop if you have time and money for tools and materials.
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I primarily work boro. I also always run an annealing cycle. That said.... I have a Glass Hive kiln. I've actually charted its "cooling down" process once "crashed" at 1150. It is VERY close to the minimum annealing requirements for boro. I've also examined pieces that were in the "crashed" kiln with a polariscope. They showed no stress points. I still like to run an annealing cycle, but it's good to know that in the event I need to crash the kiln (like a power outage or needing to leave the house) the pieces are probably fine.