Lampwork Etc.
 
Send a PM to CorriDawn!

LE Live Chat

Enter Live Chat

No users in chat


Donate via PayPal to donate@lampworketc.com

Caber Light


 

Go Back   Lampwork Etc. > Library > Tips, Techniques, and Questions

Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 2015-05-20, 4:36am
Olimpia's Avatar
Olimpia Olimpia is offline
Does my glass look 2 big?
 
Join Date: Jun 21, 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 613
Default I know...not ANOTHER annealing question! :-/

There's tons of annealing questions, I promise I searched. The problem is that there are so many conflicting answers that I am totally confused. So here's mine at the risk of being told...."go search!"

I can only torch maybe a couple times a week and usually can make no more than two or three beads at a time. I make big momma beads! I can't make myself run my usual 12+ hour annealing schedule for two beads.

I'm also a bit worried about leaving the kiln unattended most of the time it's annealing, and the electric bill is worrisome.

What can I do? Can I garage them while I make them? I garage at 930 (Effetre, DH, StrikingColor) and normally go through a ton of ramps and holds -can't remember them all right now. So when I finish the last one, can I turn off and batch anneal later?

Thank you so much!

Reborn newbie
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 2015-05-20, 4:52am
jhamilton117's Avatar
jhamilton117 jhamilton117 is offline
kinda torching....
 
Join Date: Mar 26, 2013
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 301
Default

Yes you can batch anneal a full kiln load at a later time, just make sure your pieces cool slowly enough to not crack or check
__________________
Jeremy
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 2015-05-20, 5:29am
Eileen's Avatar
Eileen Eileen is offline
Loving learning
 
Join Date: Oct 11, 2010
Location: Florida
Posts: 11,649
Default

When you say run your full 12 hour schedule, can you not shorten your work time & go straight to anneal? On my Chili Pepper, I do a skip step once the last bead is in, and go to anneal. Then it is about 3 hours to turn off.

And just how big are the beads, that makes a difference.
__________________
My current "hot" fantasy involves a senior discount on glass & tools!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 2015-05-20, 7:50am
Hayley's Avatar
Hayley Hayley is offline
da General
 
Join Date: Oct 05, 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 13,002
Default

Great to see you, Olimpia! It's been a while!

Since you are already garaging at 930, why not just wait another hour or so (depending on the thickness of your beads) and then ramp down 100F an hour to 700 then turn off your kiln - provided that you have a brick-lined kiln?
__________________
Hayley


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 2015-05-20, 12:55pm
Alaska Alaska is offline
Alaska Boro
 
Join Date: Dec 10, 2009
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Posts: 1,065
Default

For boro beads just cool in a fiber blanket. Yes, some will crack, but then all can be batch annealed at some later date. For larger pieces such as marbles it is important to anneal at the time the object is made.

The best results are achieved when the object is placed hot into the kiln, garaged and then annealed.

The schedule that works for my application is presented in chapter 8 of "Contemporary Lampworking".
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 2015-05-20, 7:36pm
houptdavid's Avatar
houptdavid houptdavid is offline
honorary bead lady
 
Join Date: Jan 14, 2008
Location: Mostly the doghouse
Posts: 5,180
Default

But if you are already running your kiln to garage, why not just go ahead and anneal?
__________________
David
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 2015-05-20, 10:02pm
Speedslug's Avatar
Speedslug Speedslug is offline
Phill
 
Join Date: Mar 21, 2009
Location: Winnebago, MN
Posts: 2,489
Default

I trust my kiln as well as I trust my kitchen stove or my washing machine.

As long as I have the kiln located with lots of air space around it and I don't have volatile liquids in the studio I would be very comfortable letting it run while I am asleep or out working in the yard.

I wouldn't start an annealing cycle and go shopping but I wouldn't leave a turkey in the oven and go shopping either.

It may be the geometric increase in time needed to anneal thicker glass that is going to be your biggest headache.
When you make big glass objects they demand longer annealing and the there just isn't a way around the physics involved.

Maybe it would be possible to find, make or buy some sort of external blanketing to put around you kiln to help slow the heat loss -once you get the glass below the strain point-( which I think is around 750 ) and then you could turn off the kiln and let it cool slow enough to avoid the risk of cracking.

But if you have a sizable thickness of molten glass getting it down to room temp is going to require such a slow cooling rate that you will have already performed tow thirds of a full annealing cycle anyway.

Unless your talking boro in which case a lot of the above can be shortened.

But either way you wont be able to avoid the electrical costs. If you make something molten and somehow get it to room temperature with out it breaking, when you do go to anneal it you are going to bring it back up to temp in order to relieve the stress and then cool it slowly.


I can appreciate wanting to not anneal only two things at a time and with smaller stuff you can slow the cooling enough to not lose it but I don't think you can find a blanket thick enough to allow a sizable hunk to cool slow enough without creating stress fractures.
__________________
The Zombie Apocalypse is Upon Us.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 2015-05-20, 11:19pm
Diane (clarus) Diane (clarus) is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 03, 2006
Location: San Francisco Peninsula, CA
Posts: 1,034
Default

I use "annealing" bubbles to cool my beads and then batch anneal when I have enough. Once I am done with the bead I turn off the oxy, turn up the propane and bathe it in the flame for about 30 seconds. Then into the bubbles. You get to know how long for each size bead. I make everything from small spacers, big hole beads, giant hollows and 30mm pressed beads. I have very little breakage. Just sharing because it isn't not the traditional way to do it, but it works for me.
__________________
-Diane

My Facebook business page:
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

GTT Bobcat or Carlisle Lucio on an Integra 10
(and sometimes I pull out my HotHead!)

Last edited by Diane (clarus); 2015-05-20 at 11:22pm.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 2015-05-21, 6:23am
flameonglass's Avatar
flameonglass flameonglass is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 13, 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 572
Default

I usually make beads over a two or three day period before running an anneal schedule . I just turn off the kiln when I am done working, leave the beads in & turn it back on when I am ready to torch again. It's been 15 years now, never lost a bead doing this & I make a lot of beads.

Oh, I make some big beads too. Lots of 1&1/4" Lentils etc.
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Back in my day, we had nine planets.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 2015-05-21, 10:37am
Olimpia's Avatar
Olimpia Olimpia is offline
Does my glass look 2 big?
 
Join Date: Jun 21, 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 613
Default

Thank you so very much! Lots to process and give a go! Before anything I would like to say I am so thankful and impressed as to how generous you all are with your knowledge and how you share it with a stranger... no questions asked, you guys rock!

Yes, Haylay.. I am back! Missed you! I am using your annealing schedule that you generously provided, so I think I like your idea, seems like once I'm done it would take a couple of hours to turn off, right?

My beads are about 3/4" to 1 1/4" sometimes a little chunkier. I don't make sets because I am simply incapable of making two beads alike. I have a brick kiln Jen-Ken Af3P with a bead door and a Paragon Bluebird XL, which I have run 3 times tops...(what was I thinking?!)

Truth be told, I am recently remarried and DH is worried about the electric bill and risk. I can torch just two days a week for a couple of hours since I am working a full-time office job. (I know, kill me now). Anywhoo, It would have to run it always at night while sleeping; this has never bothered me but my DH is a bit of a worry wart and I can see him lying in bed wondering all night if the shop is going to burn down. I think it's funny, he doesn't!

Flameonglass, that is exactly what I would like to do, make beads, garage, and then turn off to anneal on the weekend!

I should post my schedule and see what you guys think I can do and where I can adjust.

Thank you all again!
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 2015-05-21, 11:13am
Hayley's Avatar
Hayley Hayley is offline
da General
 
Join Date: Oct 05, 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 13,002
Default

Congrats on being remarried, Olimpia!

I used to worry about leaving the kiln on all night when I first started too. We installed a smoke detector right above the kiln and never gave it another thought. Just make sure the kiln is sitting on non-flammable surface and not near anything flammable.

I agree that thick beads may not survive fiber blankets/annealing bubbles/turning kiln off especially when they are on big mandrels and/or pressed. This type of beads also require ramping up slowly instead of just turning on the kiln and ramp full speed.

Having said that, if you are willing to lose a few beads, you can always do a test run and make a decision based on the casualty rate!
__________________
Hayley


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 2015-05-21, 11:40am
Speedslug's Avatar
Speedslug Speedslug is offline
Phill
 
Join Date: Mar 21, 2009
Location: Winnebago, MN
Posts: 2,489
Default

And broken beads, once you get the bead release out of them, can still be used as frit.


As to the costs of running a kiln, I think if you look up the details you will find that you might spend 6 dollars a month if you are making beads all day every day.

Maybe someone who has done the numbers can chime in here. I know that it is ridiculously less than most people would guess but the numbers escape my feeble mind at the moment.
__________________
The Zombie Apocalypse is Upon Us.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 2015-05-21, 1:29pm
lotusbunny2009's Avatar
lotusbunny2009 lotusbunny2009 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 22, 2010
Location: North
Posts: 255
Default

Olimpia,
Your stained glass windows are stunning! Your domes are unbelievable!!
I LOVE your four nouveau lady windows. In awe, Karen
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 2015-05-21, 4:37pm
Olimpia's Avatar
Olimpia Olimpia is offline
Does my glass look 2 big?
 
Join Date: Jun 21, 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 613
Default

Thank you so much Karen! Stained glass had been my bread winner for many years; also my first love with glass. My back can no longer do it as often but I still get to do a few commissions a year.
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 2015-05-21, 4:38pm
Olimpia's Avatar
Olimpia Olimpia is offline
Does my glass look 2 big?
 
Join Date: Jun 21, 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 613
Default

I'll give it a go! I'll test all your suggestions and see what happens!

Thank you Hayley! I'm very happy!
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 2015-05-21, 4:45pm
Olimpia's Avatar
Olimpia Olimpia is offline
Does my glass look 2 big?
 
Join Date: Jun 21, 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 613
Default

I just discovered a smoke detector that connects to your Wifi! It's from Nest. It will send you messages to your phone! That would help my DH sleep better....it's pricey though...$99 at HomeDepot. Anyone use this?
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 2015-05-22, 1:02pm
28676bhe 28676bhe is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 08, 2011
Location: NC
Posts: 1,687
Default

It costs almost nothing to run a bead kiln through a full cycle.......maybe $3 or $4 ? My huge coffin kiln that I use for fused glass costs a little over $5.00 per load. Minimal! You throw away much more than that in leftovers every week!
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Barbara
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 2015-05-22, 2:08pm
Hayley's Avatar
Hayley Hayley is offline
da General
 
Join Date: Oct 05, 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 13,002
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Olimpia View Post
I just discovered a smoke detector that connects to your Wifi! It's from Nest. It will send you messages to your phone! That would help my DH sleep better....it's pricey though...$99 at HomeDepot. Anyone use this?
We have the Nest in the house and love it. It also monitors carbon monoxide as well as lights up in the dark like a night light!

We haven't programmed it to talk to the phone tho...
__________________
Hayley


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump




All times are GMT -7. The time now is 3:23am.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Your IP: 54.224.52.210