How do you fill your kiln? (pictures please)
 

Do you stack beads? Do you use a rack of some sort?

Please post pics of your kiln with a typical days' worth of beads!

eta: the reason shy I asked for pictures is for the peeps who need a visual rather than a verbal ;)

Tell us:
which kiln you have
what coe is in the picture
if you're using an awesome homemade rack, how'd you do it?
garaging or batch annealing?

paragon Bluebird.
coe 104
Bought racks.
I batch anneal usually.
Placing new beads in annealing bubbles in a hot crock pot.
Annealing when the kiln is full.

no pics but I have an aim84d which I put beads into right away.
I work in 104 but do play around with boro a bit.
I use kiln furniture....2 leg (triangle things) and I lay my mandrel on top like you have in the picture. I do stack some things like my little beach glass chips, spacers but not bigger stuff.
I work till my kiln is full usually 2.5 hours or until my timer runs out. Like last night I had 3 beads in it LOL

Annie, I love those open racks in the back of your kiln!

Bottom of the page :)
http://www.devardiglass.com/supplies.htm

Beads are batch annealed. First cleaned and then placed side by side on the bottom of the kiln. i.e. the bottom is covered with a ceramic fiber blanket.

I put them in the annealing bubbles then batch anneal on a ceramic cloth, i used to place them so they didn't touch, now I just pile them in 100's at a time for Effetre and just do the careful placing for Lauscha which I fire a bit higher.

Thank you :)

No pictures ... but I have a JenKen beadbox (6") with a bead door and after one too many "kiln kissing" accidents that left me beyond frustrated, I went ahead and ordered this guy. It was the only thing I found that was small enough to fit my little 6" kiln.

http://www.mountainglass.com/Kiln-Mandrel-Rack.html

Best. Purchase. Ever.

No more kiln accidents and I can fit 3 times as many beads in during a single beadmaking session.

I have one like Leslie but I'm starting to think I like my old method better. Before I would load the kiln and when it was full of beads I would move the ones that had been in the kiln for a time to the left and put each new bead on the right.

For me, beads only kiss when you first put it in the kiln, it is hotter then and can kiss one of the beads that is already in the kiln. So when you add a new bead, make sure it doesn't touch any of the other beads in the kiln. When it has been in the kiln for a time, say at least ten minutes, you can stack it on top of other beads.

This is what my kiln looked like this morning.

Typically I load beads from the right side of the rack and work my way over to the left side. When I get there I take the bead on the right side of the rack and move it all the way to the right of the kiln, making space on the rack for the next bead.

I have some ceramic tiles on the right side at the back on which I rest the tip of the mandrel so the bead doesn't touch the floor of the kiln.

As I move down the rack to the left again I move the beads over to the right and when I have one layer down I start stacking. I hope that makes sense.

(The rack would usually be full at the end but I made some bellflowers and needed the space to pop them in.)

I batch anneal, but days I run the kiln I also torch, so I can make the large focals that won't survive batch annealing. I load the batch beads into a home made rack that DH fabricated for me out of stainless steel - here's a picture of it loaded for firing[ the large notch clears the pyrometer, the small notches indicate where the element is so I don't put a mandrel through those holes.



I leave the bottom open, with just a couple of empty mandrels across so that I can use them as racks for beads I make while the kiln is running.

Eregel, I like that creative rack solution for batching and garaging at the same time. Very nice.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...35716543_o.jpgThis isn't full. I usually stack them staggered. I work from right to left also, but once I get all the way over to the left I start taking the ones on the right and piling them on top of each other on the far left. I can get at least 75 beads into this baby if I do a lot spacers.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater
Short guy Glass Hive Kiln
104 coe
I garage my beads as I make them
I got my rack from Devardi glass.

Regarding moving the mandrels over after they've been in the kiln a while, I try that but the heat coming out of the kiln is usually too hot for my hand to be so near the open kiln door. I've felt like I've singed the hair off my fingers!

Aimee, get a 9 or 10 inch section of stained glass channel ...scoop the end of the mandrel into the channel several inches. then you can lift the whole mandrel up to move it. like using a sleeve over the hot mandrel or one of those pot holders that slips over the end of a skillet handle.
della

Aimee,
I like using kevlar gloves. They will get warm ,but will protect you from burns.
Joan

I've learned to just do it quickly. And I use 12 inch mandrels for that reason only. Otherwise I'd prefer to use shorter mandrels.

Paragon Bluebird, COE 104...I have the same rack as Leslie...got mine at Frantz. Sorry I didn't get a pic with the door open, but this is an older picture. The rack is on the right and my torch is to the right of the kiln. I move the beads to the left too when the rack gets full. They go right from torch to kiln.

I wear kevlar sleeves with thumb holes. I use 9" mandrels. Before getting the sleeves, it felt like my wrist area was being
cooked every time I opened the kiln. The kevlar helps.

This is what I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Mechanix-Wear-...kevlar+sleeves

Welding gloves from Harbor Freight, for 12.00 you get the gloves and the apron.

I have a large brick kiln for porcelain. No pics of how I load it, but it's pretty simple, really.

I have shelves stacked on little pylons, so i have three tiers to place mandrels on. I've placed rows of spacer rods (to go between plates on a demountable kiln rack) on the shelves, so that beads don't touch the shelves. On the top (most accessible) shelf I have the plate rack base, which has holes in it for the spacer rods. For big beads, I poke the ends of the mandrels in them to keep the bead off the shelf.

For my batch-annealing, I load the beads on plain china saucers, in the centre of the lower levels of the kiln.

It's a big door which opens horizontally, so a lot of heat escapes, however I haven't lost anything to it. I use a leather rigger's glove for putting in new beads, and can get it done pretty quickly after a few months of practice :-D

I have that rack...

...and also use that method. I have a Caldera kiln and can fit about 30 mandrels, probably more, I've just never had enough time to make more beads. I also use the holes in the bottom front of the rack to support mandrels. I use 12" mandrels and my hands don't get hot. My rack is centered in the kiln, not at the back, so the mandrels stick out a few inches and it's easy to rearrange beads.

These look great. They will come in handy. Thanks!