Batch Annealing Help

[penny5658]

Hello
I finally was able to purchase a kiln! WHOO HOO!! It does not get delivered for three more weeks. But I am patient.
My query is I've been making beads for 4 or 5 months and none of my beads have been annealed. They have just been cooled in either a blanket or vermiculite. I know some of my beginner beads are sad looking but they are my first ones and I want to make a couple of charm bracelets with them. I am so sentimentel . Anyways how do you batch anneal. All the beads are off the mandrels. Will some of them break or crack?
Also the kiln I purchased is an Aim 84BD with bead door and a 3 button digital controller. Any opinions or tips for this kiln.
What else do you need to get for a kiln. How do you stop glass from sticking to the kiln or do you use some kind of "kiln furniture"?
Any replies would be appreciated. I am so excited.
Kindest Regards Penny



Make A Great Day!

[Dale M.]

Yes you are going to lose some beads... Its just a matter of fact... Some probably have cracks in them from the stress of slow cooling process.

Anyway place beads on kiln floor or in unglazed ceramic bowl (or Pyrex).. And place in kiln, bring kiln up to annealing temperature over 2 or so hours (very slowly) hold at 960f. for about 1 hour and then cool to room temperature over about 3-5 hours. IF kiln is made of fire brick you can probably shut off power (to elements) when kiln is down about 300-400F and let it cool to room temp on its own... No peeking till cool.

You need to protect kiln floor with either "kiln wash" or fiber blanket in case of melt down... IF you have a melt down, the glass will be a puddle on kiln floor and it is a mess to remove and may damage fire bricks in process.

A method I use is to get a few kiln shelf supports and lay one on each side of kiln chamber and string beads on a mandrel (as many that will fit with out them touching each other) and lay mandrel across the two supports to form a rack... I can place as many as 120 beads in my kiln at a time this way.

Here is some sites with commercially made bead racks... Unforty-unately none seem to be right size for "my" kiln...

http://www.clay-king.com/equiplist.htm
http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Suppl...dTilePlate.htm

I use concept of "small bead rack" from second site.

Dale M.

[Mr. Smiley]

I'll just add that the slower you ramp up, the fewer beads you will lose. Thermal shock is something you can control with patience. Thanks Dale for fielding a lot of these questions. You do a great job on the tech stuff.

[VickiK]

Just a heads-up. This is the kiln I have and unless I am completely stupid (which, BTW is a posibility ), it is a major pain to program! Before I go any further, let me say I am in no way trying to pee in your cornflakes - it works great, just hard to program, for me anyway. I even had Mag's instructions from blackdotdesigns.com, but I think maybe part of the problem (other than possible stupidity on my part) is Mag's instructions are for a Fuji PXV3 and mine is a PXR3. So when I tried to set it, the read out on the screen was a little different and I spent a while trying to figure it out before I called AIM. The guy was really nice and walked me through it step by step. The only problem now is that I too have some beads that I need to batch anneal and I'm too scared to re-program (afraid I won't be able to get it back to the working schedule correctly ). Guess I better just bite the bullet and go for it!

Anyway, my advice - if you have trouble programming, don't waste alot of time on trying to figure it out, just call AIM. The guy was easy to talk to and seemed more than willing to help.

Enjoy your new kiln! I love mine!

[penny5658]

Hi Again

Thanks for the replies. This answers my questions,now I know what to do. The staff at Aim were very helpful on the phone and said they would send me a manual.They also told me to call toll-free if I have any problems. So for now I sit and wait for the kiln to be shipped.But just in case I am going to print out your replies and put them in my studio. Thanks again.
Kindest Regards Penny

[bclogan]

Originally Posted by VickiK

The only problem now is that I too have some beads that I need to batch anneal and I'm too scared to re-program (afraid I won't be able to get it back to the working schedule correctly ). Guess I better just bite the bullet and go for it!

The Fuji PXR3 has the capability of holding 2 programs. So you should be able to program in a batch anneal cycle in the second program "spot" while retaining the original program.

[VickiK]

Originally Posted by bclogan

The Fuji PXR3 has the capability of holding 2 programs. So you should be able to program in a batch anneal cycle in the second program "spot" while retaining the original program.

You're kidding me!! LOL, and for months I've been thinking how nice it would be if I could program both schedules!

Thanks Barbara, mind if I PM you with questions if I can't figure it out on my own?

[Genea]

i got my glass hive kiln just a few days ago and i am having the worst time trying to program the batch annealing schedule!!! can anyone tell me exactly what to press? i mean down to the hit this and then press this and enter this time and this degree??

thanks...

much love,

Genea

[Miner49er]

G -- I used to feel your pain. and the manual is a POS, no help except to confuse.
I figured it out, and I'm working on a "here's what to push" tutorial as we speak, I'll post it as a PDF file for all to use.

Once you get the basics on what to do, it all clicks in your head.... you'll be doing fine in no time.

PM me if you don't find the post by saturday
(sorry for the wait... my real job hase kept me swamped recently)

Miner

Originally Posted by Genea

i got my glass hive kiln just a few days ago and i am having the worst time trying to program the batch annealing schedule!!! can anyone tell me exactly what to press? i mean down to the hit this and then press this and enter this time and this degree??

thanks...

much love,

Genea

[Hayley]

Penny - don't forget to do a test run with beads you don't care about when you receive your new kiln, or just short glass rods. . . just to make sure that the kiln is running properly!

Genea, I also have the Glass Hive kiln and LOVE it. Mike Crowley is the best - very helpful and responsive. He has the Fuji PXR3 instruction on his website but it's all run-on and in all capital letters . . .very hard to follow.

I have re-typed the instruction for my annealing schedule for Moretti/Effetre glass. It's long but perhaps it will help? Again, everyone's annealing schedule is a bit different, depending on the size and shape of beads one does. So take mine as just an example.

Here goes, pm me if you need any clarification.

Hayley

-------------------

Kiln Instruction

When you turn on your kiln, make sure the SET POINT is set according to what you want to do.

For batch annealing, the SET POINT should be zero, then you run PROGRAM #2 after you load the kiln with your beads.

For garage annealing (as in you are making the beads with the kiln on and putting the hot beads directly in the kiln with the mandrels) - the SET POINT should be set at 920 (for Moretti/Effetre). You then work however many hours you want, then run PROGRAM #1 after you add in the last bead.

Set SET POINT
Press SEL
Press up or down arrows to change temperature
Press SEL to set temperature

RUN PROGRAM
Press and hold SEL until STAT shows on display
Press down arrow once – PTN
Press SEL to select 1 or 2
Press SEL to set program selection
Wait 20 seconds until kiln temperature appears
Press and hold SEL until PROG
Press SEL once – OFF
Press up arrow once – RUN blinks
Press SEL twice to set RUN (it will stop blinking)

PROGRAM 1st Program – for garage annealing (Segments # 1 to 4)
1) Press and hold SEL until STAT shows on display
2) Press down arrow twice to SV1
3) Press SEL
4) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 950 (this is for Moretti/Effetre glass)
5) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N1R (this is your ramp time)
6) Press up/down arrow to enter time 0.05 (5 minutes)
7) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N1S (this is your soak time)
8 Press up/down arrow to enter time 1.30 (or 1.00 hour depending on the size of beads)
9) Press SEL, then down arrow to SV2
10) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 700
11) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N2R (this is the time ramping down to 700F)
12) Press up/down arrow to enter time 3.00 (or 2.00 hours to 700F)
13) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N2S (soak time)
14) Press up/down arrow to enter 0.00 (you don't need to soak at 700F)
15) Press SEL, then down arrow to SV3
16) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 0
17) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N3R, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
18 Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N3S, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
19) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N4R, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
20) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N4S, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
21) Wait 20 seconds until kiln temperature appears, program is set

PROGRAM 2nd Program – for batch annealing (Segments #5 to 8
1) Press and hold SEL until STAT shows on display
2) Press down arrow twice to SV5
3) Press SEL
4) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 425 (this is for Moretti/Effetre glass)
5) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N5R (this is your ramp time to 425F)
6) Press up/down arrow to enter time 1.00 (1 hour to ramp up to 425F)
7) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N5S
8 Press up/down arrow to enter time 0.00
9) Press SEL, then down arrow to SV6
10) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 950 (this is for Moretti/Effetre glass)
11) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N6R
12) Press up/down arrow to enter time 1.00 (another hour to ramp up to 950)
13) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N6S (soak time)
14) Press up/down arrow to enter 1.30 (or 1.00 hour depending on the size of beads)
15) Press SEL, then down arrow to SV7
16) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 700
17) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N7R (this is the time ramping down to 700F)
18 Press up/down arrow to enter time 3.00 (or 2.00 hours to 700F)
19) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N7S (soak time)
20) Press up/down arrow to enter 0.00 (you don't need to soak at 700F)
21) Press SEL, then down arrow to SV8
22) Press up/down arrow to enter temperature to 0
23) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N8R, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
24) Press SEL, then down arrow to 7N8S, then up/down arrow to enter 0.00 time
21) Wait 20 seconds until kiln temperature appears, program is set

[tgslampwork]

Call Mike and he'll walk you through it - he's a dream and will go step-by-step with what buttons to press

[lldesigns]

Whay Hayley said about testing I can't stress enough!!!

I have a Paragon Caldera kiln and the first batch of beads I attempted to anneal ended up flat on one side because it runs very hot. I now bring mine up to only 930 degrees for soaking.

The moral of this story is that each kiln runs differently heat-wise and you need to test yours before you ruin a batch of beads.