Do you batch anneal or garage?

[Mountain Snail]

Originally Posted by Kayo222

I garage,too.....but I use an SC2 with a small bead door and it can get crowded in there when I try to keep them all separate (I only do focals) recently decided to try stacking beads that have been in there awhile and it works...This should help me fit more in per session !

THat is the kiln I have, with the bead door. Please tell me about this stacking. Are you using a rack, or just letting them cool enough that they can touch? I find even with the rack, things are getting tight on long days.

[StellaBlue]

Funny that this just got bumped, because I've been thinking about it.

Before we bought our kiln, we batch annealed everything by taking it to our local glass shop and paying for kiln time. Most things worked well, and we quickly learned what things didn't survive - large encased anything, things with wings or anything protruding, anything over 2", thin pressed tabs, hollows and vessels...

Since we bought our kiln, I've been a strict garage girl. I'll pull stringers and cane and make simple murrini to prep for torch time without turning on the kiln, but everything else goes in a 960 kiln as it is made...

It has been brutishly hot in Houston - over 100 with heat indexes of 112 or so. I torch with a window open for make-up air (must find a better way!), so an open window, a torch, a kiln close to 1000 degrees, and after a couple of beads I have to take a break because I am so sweaty it is imparing my ability to see. So - kiln running about an hour for every half hour of active torch time - not efficient.

I have been doing some fusing runs at night, and while it pushed the AC a little, the outside temp is cooler and the windows can remain closed - and that's ok I'm thinking of torching mostly small stuff and spacers and returning to batching 'em at night so I don't have to work next to a roaring kiln, and I don't have to run the kiln as many times.

Anyone else doing this? Or do you have a better way of managing the heat?

[Rareripes]

I have a Chili Pepper Kiln and garage my beads which are usually honkers.When I make small ones I think I would like to batch anneal but even tho I have my CP instructions..I can't find the batch annealed setup.How different is it from the garage program?Any advice?
Thanks!

[allicat]

Its a bit different Diana; slower trip to annealing temp when batch annealing so as not to shock the beads. I'd give you my links with all the info, but they are on my desktop comp, which died yesterday *sigh*

I got my kiln 2 weeks ago, and initially was batch annealing. I had so many previously made beads that I would just batch anneal once a day, and put the beads I made that day (which were kept in a fiber blanket) in as well. Now that I'm done, I have been garaging. But I think I'm going to go back to batch unless I have plans for larger beads. I feel like I am wasting a lot of electricity keeping the kiln hot while I garage.

Alli

[Rareripes]

Thanks,Alli..thats how I feel about kiln going for soo long when I get in the mood to just do a batch of small beads.I'll check with another friend who has the same kiln and think she batch anneals..just saw this thread and thought I'd ask