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Old 2016-04-04, 1:44pm
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artsyuno artsyuno is offline
I'm meeeeelting
 
Join Date: May 27, 2007
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 2,236
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SGA, you can pile up beads, even soft glass, as long as they're cool enough when you stack them that they won't be sticky. I don't batch anneal, but I often have beads stacked and touching. I start them on a rack, not touching, and then move them to the other side of my kiln and pile them up when I finish a set. I also sometimes work at a local non-profit art school where there are two bead kilns shared by up to 10 people. The kilns get piled up with beads on busy days and other than an occasional issue of a newbie putting beads in red hot and sticking them to other beads in the kiln, it's fine. They have a system - there's a rack on one side and you put your bead on the rack. When you put your next bead in, you move the prior bead to the pile on the other side of the kiln.

TortoiseAvenger, I know people that have various brands of kilns and I think most are happy with what they have as long as the size and functions work for them. I switched from an Aim kiln to a Glass Hive kiln several years ago, because I found the that the longer, shallower kiln worked better for me, but they both work fine otherwise and have the same annoying to figure out controller. I think the real question is how sure are you that you will only want to batch anneal, that you will only work with Boro and that you will only make beads. Those questions will dictate the kiln size, shape and door type that'll work for you. I think folks are questioning whether you'll outgrow a tiny kiln. Working with Boro breeds a tendency to want to go from small things, like beads, to larger things. Then again, you've worked with glass before so maybe you know that all you'll ever want to make is beads.
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