Do you batch anneal or garage?
 

I'm trying to decide on the best approach here, what do you do?

I never like the batch anneal. I prefer to put them in the kiln right away...

I used to batch anneal until Dee told me how to program my kiln!!!

A friend set up my kiln for batch annealing and then she moved away and I had no clue how to program the thing...and I was petrified I would lose my "batch programing"....but Dee (here on LE) sent me explicit instructions and now I LOVE garaging them!

Much less breakage!

Always garage, it's soooo much easier

Never batch anneal, always garage - so much safer and easier.

I garage as I go, but then I make marbles and not beads. I do have vermiculite and when I'm making marble blanks, think pulling points only with 15mm solid rod, I cool the blanks in vermiculite and then batch anneal. I find that the blanks survive better than tossing them in the kiln. There can be a large temperature differential on 4 inches of 15mm rod.

I do both depending on what I am making.

I would LOVE to garage, but I batch anneal because I run my kiln off a generator, not house power, and I'm too cheap to run the generator every day. <grin>

I do both. I have a kiln next to where I torch, but it does not have a digital control. I keep it around 930, and turn it off 30 minutes after the last bead. Then, I clean and keep the beads until I have enough to batch anneal in a digital kiln later on.

Neither are bead kilns. They're just small fusing kilns that I've had for several years and I'm making them work for the beads instead of purchasing yet another kiln!

Barbara

My kiln is a smaller bead annealer so I can't fit everything in that I make in a day (really need to upgrade). That said, i use both methods, even with large focals at times. I rarely have an issue with breakage and the rare time is does happen, that's usually more because I am admiring a bead for too long before I put it in the kiln or the fb. I use double-stacks of fiber blanket (4 tall) - keeps them nice and hot for a long time to avoid the too-quick temp drop.

I used to batch anneal, until I started making marbles

Now I just program my kiln to stay at 960-ish for a couple of hours.

I find about 2.5 hours is the perfect time for a torch session anyway, so it also works as a timer to stop me from sitting there all day...

I go into the kiln as I work at home, but we batch anneal when I teach.

I used to batch anneal. I just got a bead annealer, so starting Sunday when the new kiln is set up on its stand, I will garage!

I started out batch annealing, but quickly moved to garaging when I realized it didn't take very long for my kiln to get to temperature. When I first bought it, I had the misconception that somehow it was going to take hours to get up to garaging temps.

I do both.

I batch anneal. I bought a big kiln, but only make eight or so beads a session. I use annealing bubbles and batch anneal when I have enough to fill the kiln. My kiln is also in a separate space from my torch. I really want to try making components and assembling them, maybe soon.

Same here. I prefer to garage but I will batch anneal if the beads are small and without raised decoration.

I prefer to garage but if I ever want to make any beads again I think I'll go back to batch annealing. I don't very often have time to make beads for 3 hours and then wait 5 hours for the kiln to cool down. I don't like leaving the kiln on over night even if it's not inside the house.

Garage only - there is no way my very thick (1.25"+ in diameter) spheres would survive otherwise.

Garage for me too. I have two chili peppers so I can load them both up on heavy production days.

thanks for the feedback everyone, I am planning to get a kiln and trying to decide which type to buy and this was one consideration. Can anyone explain why its better to garage? this seems to be the most popular method.
cheers!

Garaging is ideal - mostly because the glass is dealt with straight away.
Batch annealing's main risk is that the longer unannealed beads are left, the more time strain points have to play and run amok.
That's my take on it anyway. I don't run my big kiln every session because it's expensive when I only make a handful of beads at a time, and I don't generally do large beads.

I love the almost instant gratification of being able to see my stuff not to long after I make it! I think I'd go crazy if I had to wait over night!

Definately garage - I batch annealed a couple of times when I first purchased my kiln, and I am still finding broken beads from those firings - 4 years later!
I have a chili pepper, and it only takes 10 - 15 minutes to heat up to garaging temp of 965, and is really cheap to run.

It depends on the beads. As a general rule I garage as I go along now. However smaller less complex beads like spacers are easy enough to make and then batch anneal later.

I find larger pressed beads and encased beads tend to have a higher failure rate if not garaged and annealed at the time of making.

I garage because I make bigger beads that wouldn't survive cooling in a fiber blanket. I had to batch anneal for about a month or two but after loosing some beads that I spent significant time on I knew the kiln was worth it. I was also positive by then that lampworking wasn't a passing fancy. Even for small beads, I like knowing that when I have a finished bead it is annealed and ready to be used immediately once clean, no worries about accidentally getting an unannealed bead mixed up with an annealed one.

Initially I was afraid my electricity bill would skyrocket but even with a month of using the kiln ~4-5 nights a week (maybe 20-30 hours of torch time each week) I would only add $15-20 to my bill. If you get a higher temp kiln you can do alll sorts of techniques with it depending on the type you get (fusing, metal clay, even enameling) in addition to lampworking. The kilns are pretty dependable, hold their value well and are a good investment in the long run imo. I have several now lol :).

Tina

Aaaah yessss. Having unloaded the kiln of a couple of weeks of goodies, I sure like the feeling of having the latest session of garaged beads ready to go :-D

I batch for my spacer and smaller beads. I garage the larger florals and focals. So, both. :-)

J.

I garage,too.....but I use an SC2 with a small bead door and it can get crowded in there when I try to keep them all separate (I only do focals) recently decided to try stacking beads that have been in there awhile and it works...This should help me fit more in per session !