Kiln Set-Up Recommendations Please!

[anneonline]

Okay! So I have my new kiln - but I am woefully uneducated about if how to set it up. My sister does ceramics & porcelain and she has all sorts of recommendations... but she is not sure how much translates to setting up a kiln for glass beads/ pendants...

Also, while I have not been paying that much attention - most of the studios I have been taking classes at do not seem to kiln wash.

Do I need to prevent the perforated steel mandrel rack from touching the firebrick on the sides and back of the kiln?

Do I need to kiln wash or use stilts and shelves or what?

I would appreciate any and all recommendations (I have a bluebirdXL) about how to set up the inside (or if I have missed a FAQ about it somewhere I would love the link).

Thank you!!!

[tasminann]

For glass beads and pendants, I very much doubt you will need any kiln furniture in the normal sense. And even a mandrel rack is an option, not a necessity. If you use one, you won't want it touching the back of the kiln -- your mandrels need some room for the tops to hang over the edge of the rack.

I don't use a kiln wash because I use ceramic blanket (thin layer) for the bottom of my kiln. But if you don't want to go the fiber blanket route then yes, you definitely need to kiln wash the floor of the kiln.

Outside of protecting the floor of your kiln (fiber blanket or kiln wash) I don't think there is anything else you need do. But I do have a few words of advice.

First is run your kiln once without any beads in it. The first time you use it, there will probably be some funny smells; this is normal the first time.

Next is to batch anneal some beads you don't care about -- doesn't matter if they have already been annealed once or not. What you're doing this run is to get a handle on how hot the kiln runs.

I learned the hard way on my first kiln, and my first batch of beads fused together. Yikes! The kiln ran hot.

So by testing with a batch of beads you don't care about, you'll be able to tell if your kiln runs too hot without risking some work you love.

There are other ways of testing the slumping temperature (by suspending a rod of glass between two mandrel racks or such) and run the kiln at several temperatures until it slumps. I'm sure someone will jump in with more detailed instructions at some point.

[Paul Ewing]

You probably should kiln wash just in case you have a problem. To tell the truth, we haven't done it to our Bluebird XL and we have had it over a year now. The reason you use the kiln wash is that if for some reason the controller fails and the kiln gets stuck in high the glass well melt into a puddle at on the firebrick and fuse to it. Then it will be almost impossible to get off without doing major damage to the firebrick.

As Gail said, you want to test the kiln to see if it is really at the heat that is indicated on the controller. It isn't uncommon for them to be off by 20 or even 100 degrees. You can get a quick idea if it is way off by seeing if it reads right setting at room temperature. One of ours reads around 120 when the temp is 80 degrees in the room.

You can check the temperature in a couple ways. One way is with a portable pyrometer. This is most accurate, but they usually run $70 to $100. Another way is to get some ceramic cones for the temperatures that you are most concerned about. Then run the kiln up to the temperature and see if the cone bends properly. You can get more info about cones at http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Supplies/kilns/OrtonCones.htm

Cheers,

[anneonline]

Thank you Gail and Paul!!! You are the best and I really appreciate you taking the time to provide your advice, experience, & knowledge. (My sister was scaring me with talk of kiln stilts and shelves, LOL!)

[ziggys]

SNIP:
You can get a quick idea if it is way off by seeing if it reads right setting at room temperature. One of ours reads around 120 when the temp is 80 degrees in the room.



I can't believe I didn't think of that!