CIM - Annealing

[Dora]

Hi,

I was on LE and noted there's a whole list of diff annealing temperatures for CIM - has anyone any experience to share here, ie to say do you follow the recocmmended temperatures for the different rods mentioned by CIM?

I have the following copied from LE which Kathy of CIM recommended (temp in F)
Gelly's Sty 950
Ginger 1010
Celadon 1030
Butter Pecan 1050
Bordello 940
Leaky Pen 980

Boy, gets to be a pain to have different annealing temp especially if I work a whole day using different glass types. I can't see myself following a strict regime of just using one type of glass. I like to mix and match. Quinton, what's your take/suggestion on this?

Anyone had their CIM beads crack because they didn't follow the am temp? Also, what would be the ramping down like? Anyone with experience, please share. Thanks!

[glassworks]

i will email kathy directly and get her advice..

[Caroline]

what a pain

and how are you suppost to anneal them if you mix the colours or mix with other glass

[Shirley]

Isn't there a thread somewhere with a load of info about this? I'll have a look

[Shirley]

Here it is - http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2031.0

[Billie]

Yep, I remember reading that Shirley.  I thought we could use the same 520C as we do for effetre... Haven't tried my batch yet though 

[Dora]

I just ran a test on the annealing temp with the CIM colors I bought from Quinton. I have a  much higher annealing temp reading than the original I posted. I use the stringer test (1mm stringer) and tested in my FuseBox II  kiln (digitally controlled) and here are the results:

Temp in Fahrenheit (to get Celsius, take the temp minus 32, then mulitply by 0.555, result is Celsius reading)
Celadon 1020
Simply Berry 1070
Halong 1099
Leaky Pen 1015
Ginger 1110
Gelly 1078
Butter Pecan 990
Khaki 1078
Bordello 995
French Blue 1070
Cirrus 1078

My kiln is programmed to anneal at 950°F which is about 510°C and I use this for Moretti, Lauscha, Vetrofond and all beads come out ok. Thing is, I am worried as I am selling at events where I can't afford to have a whole lot of people complaining that the beads cracked when they got home. So I am very careful here. I also know that you could use glass with a max difference of 4 COE units and the beads should hold. But this is not for every case.

In this case it would be alright to use the harder glass as the base bead and the stringer work with the softer glass on top (ie CIM as base bead and Moretti as application). I'm sorry if I am scaring all of you and perhaps making a mountain out of a molehill. I've had experiences before where I spent an entire week making a series of glass beads and they starting cracking up one by one after one week and they were meant for a show! Anyway, I would try out the glass and see what happens. In the meantime, perhaps we can get some feedback from the supplier?

[Billie]

Soooooooo, in reality the annealing temp is different to what the manufacturer recommends anyway?  Batch annealing the different glass types together is a no then 

[Mary]

Mixing glass types isn't always a no-no Billie. I've heard that a longer soak, and maybe the higher end of the annealing range, can help.

[*rowanberry*]

I made a goddess purely out of CIM Cirrus, soaked her for a long while at 520c (like over 2 hours!) and she still cracked :-( The Lentils I made were okay though, and I encased cirrus over ink blue and they came out okay - all at 520c. Just seems that it didnt like something bigger and sculptural.

[Billie]

Mixing glass types isn't always a no-no Billie. I've heard that a longer soak, and maybe the higher end of the annealing range, can help.

I guess new glass = experimenting 

[glassworks]

kathy has made herself availble for all technical help required - and i have hooked her up with dora to sort us out some info on this issue..

i know martin will also be closely involved in future so i will see if i can tag him in too.. kathy had mentioned that she prefers not to get directly involved on the fori (plural of forums!) as it just takes so much of her time.. but she WANTS to dive in to solve technical problems as soon as people raise them.. so i will fire this over to her for comment!!

[Shirley]

fori??? fora, methinks

[glassworks]

ahhhh its all coming back to me now... i was forced through latin at high school - you'd have thought some of it would stick..

anyway, Kathy is away with Dora's work - and will get back to us soon!!

thanks again Dora, it is very useful to us all that you have put so much time into getting facts for us!!

[glassworks]

just had a reply from kathy....

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of thing I need a heads up about.  I'm on it.