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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #1  
Old 2012-06-01, 11:56am
Deb L's Avatar
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Default Switching from Batch to Garage

I need advice about switching. I have a small fusing kiln and I recently purchased a bead door for it. Yippee! I'm hoping to make some larger beads. I actually like batch annealing as I don't often have enough time to make a lot of beads but most of my large beads end up cracked.

My kiln does have a nice controller but I don't know an appropriate holding temp to use while I'm working and where to go from there. I'm guessing you hold lower than proper annealing temp and then go up to annealing temp when you're finished for the day and complete the program? A starting-point program would be appreciated.

Also, can I use kiln furniture to place my mandrels in the kiln or a thick piece of fiber blanket? Also, somewhere I read that you can move mandrels and stack them after ___ amount of time to save space in the kiln? I wouldn't think you'd want the beads to touch each other, but then, I don't even let them touch when batching.

Lastly, (I think!), when you complete a bead do you treat it differently going into the kiln as compared to annealing bubbles in a hot crockpot (that I currently use?)

Thanks for the help!
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Old 2012-06-01, 12:06pm
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I hold my temp at 950 - 970 for 104 coe and at 1050 for boro. I can't give the cool down because mine is pre programmed and came with the kiln.

As far as stacking the beads, I usually make 6 to 8 mandrels worth, then I move the first one to the left corner of the kiln. make another mandrels worth (if I am doing spacers I will have three to six on a mandrel) place it in the spot where the first mandrel was, move the next couple of mandrels to the corner and work my way down. I can do this three or four times and have in excess of 50 beads stacked in a 9 inch kiln. The trick is letting the glass form that skin on it so it doesn't stick to anything. then you can stack to your hearts content.
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Old 2012-06-01, 12:16pm
LarryC LarryC is offline
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I also garage 96 at 960, which is the annealing temp I use, but for boro I garage at lower than annealing temp. I garage my boro at 950 and then anneal at 1050. Some of the boro colors do not like to be garaged for long at 1050.
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Old 2012-06-01, 1:12pm
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Thanks for the explanation about stacking beads and your 104 temps, Sonja. So you hold your beads at annealing temp while working?

Larry, thanks for mentioning 96-I use it as much as 104.
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Old 2012-06-01, 3:44pm
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I garage everything at 930, then when I'm done for the day, I punch up one of the programs to anneal. Even though the programs include a temperature ramp from ambient, it just starts to ramp from 930, so the ramp step is short and then the rest of the steps complete as programmed.
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Old 2012-06-01, 6:02pm
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here's a question for yall. i'm going to have to batch anneal due to my kiln setup (no bead door, unhinged kiln top etc) so garaging isn't going to be feasable for me.

i keep reading about people having trouble batch annealing bigger beads and marbles larger then 3/4" or so....due to things breaking.
is this breakage your getting in the kiln or in the vermiculite/fiberblanket or whatever you use to cool?

i've been making soft glass marbles in the 1.25" to 1.50" range and cooling them in a fiber blanket with no issues.
i guess i'm curious if i'm going to have trouble with breakage or if maybe i'm just getting lucky now?
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Old 2012-06-01, 7:17pm
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I heat my kiln up to 975 for working with 104 glass. When done beading for the day i hit my anneal program buttton. Essentially I anneal at 940 for an hour (for get the downramp schedule from 975 to 940), then another controlled downramp to something like 840 degrees, a stress point for the glass where it is held for 20 minutes - controlled downramp to 700 degrees - at that point I let the program turn off, as it is a skutt firebrick kiln, so it retains heat well.
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  #8  
Old 2012-06-01, 7:19pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by istandalone24/7 View Post
here's a question for yall. i'm going to have to batch anneal due to my kiln setup (no bead door, unhinged kiln top etc) so garaging isn't going to be feasable for me.

i keep reading about people having trouble batch annealing bigger beads and marbles larger then 3/4" or so....due to things breaking.
is this breakage your getting in the kiln or in the vermiculite/fiberblanket or whatever you use to cool?

i've been making soft glass marbles in the 1.25" to 1.50" range and cooling them in a fiber blanket with no issues.
i guess i'm curious if i'm going to have trouble with breakage or if maybe i'm just getting lucky now?
Generally speaking if the marble survived the blanket and the program ramps up slowly enough you should be able to have very high survival rates. There are some colors that are more argumentative about being deep under clear or simply prefer to get right into the kiln such as alabasters and goldstone.

To batch anneal a marble I would use a conservative schedule like this:

take 3 hrs to get to 950 and hold for 1 1/2 hrs
over the next 3.5 hrs come down to 700 and hold 1/2 hr
If it is a brick kiln the elements can turn off here. If it is not you would want to come down to a lower ending temp. Don't open the door to peek before the kiln gets close to room temp. once it has started dropping below 950.

If you are using a Fuji, I can give you the program in it's language.
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  #9  
Old 2012-06-02, 4:14am
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thanks for the info everyone!
it's a sugar creek firefly (came with orton auto cone...yuck! sugar creek is giving me credit to return the auto cone towards a new digital controller/pyro!!!!!!) so it is a thick brick kiln.

also i don't have neat kiln shelf or anything...should i put fiberblanket on the kiln floor, or silica salt?
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  #10  
Old 2012-06-02, 5:15am
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Thanks, Elizabeth.

Brad and Michael, thanks for adding all the program steps. I have a fusing background so I'm use to programming my kilns and this info is just what I need. I do wonder about the fairly high temp you hold at while working. Is it better to hold at a higher than annealing range instead of lower than annealing range? I know sometimes we use what works for us and it may not always work for others.

I'm just getting a good start with silver glass and if I raise the temp above 930 it messes up my beads! I've just bean holding longer at my annealing temp to offset this lower temp.
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  #11  
Old 2012-06-02, 8:52pm
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Deb I do hold at my annealing temp when I am working and rarely have problems with any cracking (unless I'm having an incompatibility issue)
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