Multi Kiln and Batch annealing Q's

[Momliz]

Hi.. I want to purchase a kiln which will fire for the following: Annealing beads, fusing glass and slumping glass.. also to fire ceramics and clay creations from hand building and a wheel. any suggestions?

also, how do you cool your beads to batch anneal them? how do you batch anneal? How long can you wait to batch anneal your beads? Never did it before.


thanks so much, Liz

[GLASSFREEK]

Well the problem is, you need a small kiln for beads and a larger one to do ceramics. you can do it all in one kiln but when your doing beads you will be waisting alot of room and power.
check out ours you can do all you want if you keep the ceramics on a small scale.

Mike

[Jules]

I started off with fusing glass and ACS work, my first kiln was a Paragon Sentry SC2, great little kiln. When I started lampwork I used a Daddy Deep Fryer filled with vermiculite to cool my beads. When done, I'd unplug it and let it cool down on its own. I'd then clean and dry my beads, then onto a fluffly kiln blanket and into my Paragon at the slowest ramp up for several hours for a batch annealing. Never had a bead break unless by accident I mixed glass.
Finally broke down and decided to purchase an annealing kiln. Did tons of research and ended up buying from Mike. I love my kiln, love it, love it. And, it's big enough to do some glass slumping in as well. I wouldn't recommend it for ceramics; don't think its large enough.
Remember that you need the right tools to do the right job. If you're doing a lot of ceramic work then get yourself a kiln dedicated to ceramics and another one for your glass work. Don't spimp on tools.