Dichroic disaster!

[pstreet]

Hey everyone, maybe someone can shed some light on this for me. Yesterday, I made 6 beads with some new 104 dichroic strips. Every single one of them cracked, some thermal (cracked right in half), some look to be an incompatibity issue, (fractured, but intact). I used rubino for a base on some, then encased the dichroic in Diamond clear. I also used Effetre blue transparent for a base, and encased the dichro with diamond clear. I garaged at 890, turned up to 940 for two hours, then ramped down, and off.
WHA???? Any advise would be so helpful. I LOVE dichro, but i won't proceed until I understand what happened here. Dichro is expensive! Thanks to all.

[gubnavnania]

Maybe try to garaging and anneal it higher?

[Anne Ricketts]

I garage my beads at 945 and then ramp down slowly.

[Laurie L]

I garage my dichro at 960 and anneal there aswell....I did find that putting my dichro beads into the kiln still glowing has really helped. I anneal twice as long as I normally do a bead without dichro.

HTH

[lenora]

Dichro hates me...I hate it back!

[Hels]

You sure you used 104 dicro with 104 glass and not boro dicro?

[pstreet]

ok. Thanks everyone! I guess I may have been thinking that I needed to stay at a lower temp to keep the dichro. (Like with silver glass) I'll try again, and put the bead in glowing, higher temp, longer annealing. Got it!

[pstreet]

and Helen, no, I know for sure it's 104, not boro.

[pstreet]

Ok. Second try at dichroic beads. I used 104 transparent base, then 104dichro, then 104 diamond clear. Garaged at 940, annealed at 960 for two hours. All beads were intact. Hooray!! BUT, when I reamed the beads to remove the release, every single one cracked in half! WAAA! Any ideas?

[likes to make glass stuff]

thermal cracking. They went in the kiln too cool.

[DesertDreamer]

890 for garaging seems a bit low to me.

[bellavistaglass]

I also vote too low, I garage at 950.Hope it starts getting better for you, I love dichro!
Cheers,
Patricia

[Jayne]

Originally Posted by likes to make glass stuff

thermal cracking. They went in the kiln too cool.

Could very well be. I also find that if my bead gets too cool at any time while making it, there's a higher chance of it cracking later.

I've had them crack while cleaning them, too. I switched my Dremel now to the low speed and clean the beads under slow running water. I take my time and don't get too vigorous either. Do one end, rinse, do the other end, rinse, etc. So the inside of the bead doesn't overheat. It's helped.

I also garage at 950 and hold for 2 hours before starting the ramp down.

[divelement]

I garage 104 at 1000 while working and annel at 960 for an hour then ramp down till 700 before allow kiln to cool.

How big are the beads? Maybe a little extra flame anneling before placing in the kiln proper.

[divelement]

Also, I have dicro for boro(33), bullseye(90), and soft(104). I have mixed mine up before.

[papimom]

I garage mine at 950, hold for at least an hour before ramping down to 750, hold another two hours, ramp down and off.
For beads over one inch, I hold longer at 960 and at 750.
Joan

[susanlambert]

I really think it's not 104. Maybe the person you bought it from mixed it up. do you know how to try a test for compatibility by making twisties?

[Karen Hardy]

If ALL of them are cracking, then I too would have to
go along with the incompatible COE theory. It might
have gotten mixed up on the MFG's end or the distributors
end.

I too garage my beads at around 965, and anneal according to
a VERY slow steady ramp down schedule. You are most definitely
garaging them too low.

[Jinx Garza]

I've been having this problem too with my most recent batch of dichro. It's not annealing cracks, it's incompatibility cracks. I'm going to do a compatibility test tomorrow. I think the COE is slightly off, just enough to do damage.

Is yours CBS dichro from Frantz?

Jinx

[pstreet]

Thanks to all who have contributed.
Jinx, I got my dichro from Arrow Springs.
Susan, I do not know how to do a compatibility test.
Can you help me with that? I will call Arrow Springs.

[AKDesigns]

One other thing no one has mentioned....how fast are you ramping down? If you ramp down too fast then you could be getting thermal cracks from that.

[pstreet]

Thanks! I have been ramping to 700 for one hour then off.
I have considered that theory too. Maybe I should add another ramp down temp.