Annealing

[ewschott]

Warning--I am so sorry because this has to be an incredibly repetitive subject!...Annealing, I am such a beginner, that I honestly don't know what it really is or used for.

What happens if you do not use this process? From what I have read, it is to make your beads even harder? Thus far I have dropped mine on the floor a number of times, they have never cracked--so I guess, like a beginner, I didn't realize you need to do this.

I own an Art Center so we mainly concentrate on "fine arts", we have to older ceramic kilns--large and small, and I honestly can't afford a new one.

They are Olympic Kilns and the small one's max heat is 2250. (I don't even know if that is important.) It looks like the down fall is that it does load from the top. I have sent a message to the company to see if this older kiln (it is the stacked kind) can use a current glass addition-- if not, can anyone please give me some options?

I'm sorry to be so novice, and I did do a search--there is just SO much to read here!

[echeveria]

Annealing holds the bead at above its stress point for a long enough time to relieve internal stresses in the object that occur as you are melting, shaping, embellishing and otherwise creating your work, or something like that. Then the temperature is ramped down slowly so as not to thermal shock the bead.

You can skip annealing if you do not care if your work breaks at some undefined moment in the future. It is not recommended that you sell it or use it in jewelry if it is not annealed. It can take moments, or years, to break. Depends on many factors, too numerous to mention. But if you are serious about lampwork, you will ultimately realize you need a glass kiln.

You can batch anneal, meaning make your beads, put them in a fiber blanket, bucket of vermiculite, perlite, or Japanese annealing bubbles in order to keep them from cooling too fast. When you have a bunch of beads made, put them in a kiln, ramp up slow, hold at about 950-980 for soft glass for a while, then ramp down slow.

If you search for "annealing schedule" "batch anneal" or the like, you will find many annealing discussions. I would also recommend trying to buy or borrow Jim Kervin's book Everything You Want to Know about Glass Beadmaking - that may not be the exact title, but it is close.

There is a lot to read here, and your questions have probably been answered many many times, so you really should dive in and read the older threads. I learned so much by doing that. It can be confusing, but no more so than a new thread with the same stuff. I am truly not trying to be a jerk to you by recommending that you do searches and a lot of reading. It is just so eye-opening when you do.

[papimom]

Each range of glass needs a different annealing temperature. The size of the piece determines how long the glass needs to be held at the annealing temperature. The cool down is long and slow to prevent new stresses to build up in the glass.
Check with other lampworkers in your area to see if someone can batch anneal you beads until you can afford a kiln for this. The larger ceramic kilns use cone-setter controls that do not allow for holding and controlled cool down of glass. They can be adapted but their large size results in much higher costs for power to run them through a cycle.
Good luck with this.
Joan

[alpenlutz]

Annealing was described to me as if a man were walking and he was stopped mid step, one foot in the air and one foot on the ground, at some point the man would have to put his foot down. In glass when you are melting the molecules are all jumbled up and not going the direction that they are supposed to be in (foot in the air). At that annealing temperature it gives the molecules time to line up and put both feet on the ground and become stable. If you don't do that, at some point the molecules will try to move to put both feet on the ground and that's when glass breaks.
I hope this is helpful. When I first heard about annealing it was overwhelming and gave me a headache.

[houptdavid]

Watch this about annealing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBlsNNPRseQ

And stress in prince rupert drops...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2eC...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-GOw...eature=related

You can batch anneal in the kiln that you have if you buy a stand alone digital controller ($350 and up)
Depending on the size of the smaller kiln and if the bottom is attached or not, it is possible to add a row of bricks and a bead door.

[ewschott]

Thank you all for your wisdom! I will certainly look at the special reference pointed out!

Kathy, I understand about the new thread, and that's why I apologized up front, with a caution sign! I did do a search, but what I searched for must have been wrong, or it was just to overwhelming. In this forum alone there are 13,246 threads! I knew if I just searched for annealing, I might have to look for a pin in a haystack when it came to the ceramic kilns questions.

Thank you for your patiences! Is there an area on the site where the most repeated questions may be?

Beth

[houptdavid]

Beth
if you search this thread you are looking in as opposed to the whole forum, you may have better luck with most questions, but yes it still takes a lot of work.

If you have any questions about ventilation look in the Saftey thread.

[ewschott]

Oh no David, I did search the whole site! Thanks for the reminder though!