Funny that this just got bumped, because I've been thinking about it.
Before we bought our kiln, we batch annealed everything by taking it to our local glass shop and paying for kiln time. Most things worked well, and we quickly learned what things didn't survive - large encased anything, things with wings or anything protruding, anything over 2", thin pressed tabs, hollows and vessels...
Since we bought our kiln, I've been a strict garage girl. I'll pull stringers and cane and make simple murrini to prep for torch time without turning on the kiln, but everything else goes in a 960 kiln as it is made...
It has been brutishly hot in Houston - over 100 with heat indexes of 112 or so. I torch with a window open for make-up air (must find a better way!), so an open window, a torch, a kiln close to 1000 degrees, and after a couple of beads I have to take a break because I am so sweaty it is imparing my ability to see. So - kiln running about an hour for every half hour of active torch time - not efficient.
I have been doing some fusing runs at night, and while it pushed the AC a little, the outside temp is cooler and the windows can remain closed - and that's ok I'm thinking of torching mostly small stuff and spacers and returning to batching 'em at night so I don't have to work next to a roaring kiln, and I don't have to run the kiln as many times.
Anyone else doing this? Or do you have a better way of managing the heat?
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Rita
Glass Witch: n; a sandwich to which heat and pressure have been applied
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