kiln annealing metal for making core lined beads

[kirrakat123]

Hi, I am a total beginner with making my own metal lined beads.
I have bought the Nortel bead liner & some copper & brass tubing.
The tubing has not been annealed. I wanted to use my kiln to
anneal the tubes, but I don't know what tempature to use. Can
anyone tell me what tempature to anneal the metal tubes?
Thank you, Cynthia

[Elizabeth Beads]

I know you can anneal silver at about 1300-1400. I think you'd want to go pretty hot, maybe 1700-1800 for copper and brass.

[Polgarra]

I never annealed the metal I got from Ginko or Ace hardware so it might not be required.

[kirrakat123]

I'm in Australia & I didn't buy the tubes from Ginko. I bought
from a hobby store.

[PittsGlass]

Also be careful about metal in a glass kiln. Copper and bronze (not sure of brass) off gas at high temps and the bricks or fiber will absorb this metal fume. Over time you will change the atmosphere in your kiln and begin getting the dreaded gunmetal haze on the turquoise and dark plum type colors. I used a bronze mandrel rest for awhile and it took forever to get the kiln back to normal atmosphere. I am not even sure it got normal, I think I upgraded kilns.

[houptdavid]

You can anneal copper tube on top of an electric range just heat till it changes color and quench

[lysa]

I have never annealed the metals for coring either. I use metal from various sources.

[Moth]

I do anneal tubing for coring beads. It makes it softer and more malleable. You don't have to do it by any means...but I do.

I anneal each piece after I've cut it to length. I set it on a fire brick and shoot my torch at it moving in small circles with the flame until the piece of tubing glows a dull red all over. Then, pick it up with pliers and drop it in water to quickly cool it. I would think running a kiln cycle to anneal the whole tubes at once is a time suck. It only takes 10 seconds to anneal the tubes as you want to use them.

I usually line up the beads I want to core. Cut the tubing the length I want for each one. Line up those cut pieces of tubing on the fire brick and one at a time hit each one with the flame and drop it into the water. Boom, boom, boom. Done.

Take them out of the water, hit them with some fine steel wool, core the beads then polish. The process of coring and polishing brings back the shine that you lose from annealing (which you would lose whether you annealed with a torch or the kiln).

I like being able to see the metal when I anneal it to make sure the glow is right. I wouldn't like doing it in the kiln I don't think.

~~Mary

[La"Rue]

Hi everyone! I am very new and would like to anneal copper 3/8" tubing 7" long to dead soft. I am not yet used to a torch. Is there any other way do do this, like in the stove, or on top of stove?

[flamingobeth]

Use a small hand held torch, not your glass torch! They are inexpensive, easy to operate, and stay cool enough to use on metal. If you use your glass torch you will have a puddle.