Reichenbach Frit on Bullseye?

[Lorraine Chandler]

Hi Everyone, I am curious as to how many use Bullseye and then use Reichenbach frit belnds on it?


I have not done this yet as I am in the process of switching to Bullseye. If you do use R-frit, do you stick to the 5-20% rule?

D0 you encase and if so with what? Also how long have you been using R-frit on Bullseye?


I am getting conflicting statements about doing this..NOPE! DON"T DO IT!! Beads will crack later, Yep! do it all of time. So what are YOUR experiences?

Maybe it also depends on your annealing schedule. Maybe some people have a more conservative annealing schedule and that helps?

Just wondering....because I want to use R-frit on Bullseye. Thank-you
Lorraine

[tiggybubba]

The higher the lead content then the more success you will have. Furnace frits will probably work as long as you dont encase and dont heavily apply.

[Lorraine Chandler]

Thanks Leslie people seem to be all over the place with this one.

Lorraine

[Three Muses Glass]

I've done it with no problems at all. I make faux boro beads with BE and R-217 light iris gold and encase it with BE clear. I've read for and against too but the COE is much closer to BE than it is to 104 and really you're not using that much of the reichenbach. It does have lead content that (again opinions vary) that seems to make it blend better along with the roundness of form. Nobody really wants to say YES go for it. I mean this is glass. Sh*t happens all the time. What works for some people doesn't work for other people, pressed beads may have a problem that round beads wouldn't.....too many variables. But all I can say is yes I do it and have had no problems. Kept the beads around for a looooooooong time to make sure too. That didn't really help did it? lol

[Kalera]

Some Reichenbach glasses work great with Bullseye, some don't like it. Reichenbach is generally between 91-94 COE, so it's actually just a few points off of Bullseye, so using it sparingly usually works fine, even encased. I would not use it very heavily, and be aware that some colors will always crack, so experiment with some on the surface of the color you want to use it with before committing to a whole bead set.

http://www.glasscolor.com/colors/coefficient_table.aspx

[Lorraine Chandler]

Thanks Rebecca and Kalera. I will do my experimenting.....Mawahahahahah. like a good little lampworker should.

Thanks again
Lorraine

[Kalera]

LOL! One I know for sure doesn't love the BE is thatReichenbach translucent white. Also I have more problems with the odd opaque purples as a base! Such a bummer, they're soooo pretty with some of the brown frits.

[LyndaJ]

Enamel white cracks every time.

I have some beads that I made over 6 months ago that have developed cracks. They had twisties of miscellaneous R/Bullseye. Some have cracked now. Some with the same colors, almost 2 years old, no cracks. The difference was annealing schedule.

My normal schedule is to garage at 970 (minimum of 30 minutes) with a slow ramp to 750, hold 30 min, medium ramp to 400, then kiln off.

The ones that cracked were held for 2 hours at 930, and the same schedule to cool down. I had the kiln set to this temp so it would hold raku and silver glass colors better. The regular beads that I made, either bullseye-only or reichenbach-only are just fine.

I think the mixed beads need a higher temp soak.

[Lorraine Chandler]

Lynda, That was very informative...I garage pretty high so hopefully will be okay. Were your white beads encased?


Thanks again and I will keep your words in mind.
Lorraine

[MaryBeth]

I use furnace glass with BE all of the time. I garage at 980 degrees and have a very slow ramp down schedule - about 50 degrees an hour to around 500 degrees.

I use this schedule with just about everything. I started doing this a long time ago with Lauscha and it works well with BE as well as Czech glass.
I don't use the silver striking glass enough to justify the lower temp schedule. I do use the silver reduction glass however and I never have any problem keeping the reduction.

This schedule is also a must if you use a lot of metals like silver foil in your beads. The COE of metal is different enough that you need to cool everything down slowly so the bead doesn't crack.

Actually, temps up to 1000 degrees work well as long as your kiln pyrometer is accurate. Soft glass shouldn't slump at that temp. Furnace glass or enamels on the surface may be a bit tacky so don't stack them together.

Rasing my kiln temp eliminated 99.9 percent of my cracking problems with Czech, Lauscha, and Bullseye glass.

[LyndaJ]

Originally Posted by 2 TOUCANS

Were your white beads encased?

No, but they were melted in completely.

[Lorraine Chandler]

Thanks Mary Beth..as I suspected. I also have a slow rampdown and use a slow ramp up when I batch anneal. This has worked great for me also.

Lorraine