Beads won't fit through bead door - rather big ones

[Betty the Chook]

I am wondering if anyone has come up with a solution to my little (sorry big) dilemma. I have just become addicted to making rather large blown beads from soft glass. However they wont fit through the bead door of my SC2! This is OK for the first one as I can sort of get it into the kiln via the main door and have the mandrel wiggle a bit to come out the bead door. The subsequent beads are a little more difficult. I've tried burying them in warm vermiculite, but they have a tendency to crack before they get into a batch anneal. I am losing around 30% as they are rather unstable characters prior to annealing- very sad. Do I just have to wear this loss rate or is there a solution that I am missing in my ignorance.

[Margram]

Mebbee do one per session and smaller beads to fill up the kiln? Or try the annealing bubbles...

[julieHB]

I suggest to get a bead rack for your kiln - that way no bead tries to "escape" while you put another one in,

[Betty the Chook]

Hmmmm. Annealing bubbles. Do they work better than vermiculite in a crockpot (ie quite warm vermiculite)? I think I would die if I could only make one per session - made 12 yesterday morning.

And its not a beads escaping problem so much as a bead just won't go in via the bead door as it is too big. The bead, that is. At the moment the beads are 6cm diameter. Not very practical but SO much fun to make. Seeing that glass expand when it is blown is better than ....   , well it is pretty good. Perhaps I will just have to make shards.

[Chameleon]

you could try cooling them gradually in the flame moving further and further to the back and then slowly removing the oxy from the flame, you will build up a layer of soot on the bead, then put it in vermiculite, this slow cooling will (in theory) help to even the temperature through the bead before you put it in the vermiculite so might help with your survival rate so you can batch them

edited to add, i would love to see pictures of them   

[Pat from Canvey]

You could try making the hollows on short lengths of hollow mandrel. What type of mandrel are you using. I've made some hollow ones from brass tubing bought from places like B&Q and drilled side holes in them. Block the end of the hollow with bead release so that when you blow, the breath comes out of the holes you've drilled. the downside of brass is that it heats up far quicker than stainless steel. The SC2 is about 20cm deep so you might get away with a stainless steel blowing mandrel that length without it getting too hot to hold. Just try and see if it works. The commercially made ones are to expensive to cut up I think. If the mandrel was shorter, you should have no problem fitting more than 1 into the kiln. The bead flap itself can remain closed. I've tried a short one in brass and it gets too hot to hold with bare fingers. I put on my kiln gloves.

[Betty the Chook]

I think I might try getting hold of some stainless tubing and make my own mandrels shorter like you suggested. I don't want to cut down the ones I have. I too have tried brass tubing and had toasted fingers. No idea where to get stainless tubing from though. Will have to have a good hunt after Xmas.

And I will try to take a pic today and put up. Thanks for the input people!!

[Pat from Canvey]

Fiona, I found this company in Princess Risborough, Bucks  http://www.aircraftmaterialsuk.com/data/alstst/316tube.html but don't know if they sell retail or wholesale. They do 316L tube though.

[Betty the Chook]

Aaaaaaw,thank you. I have found a similar supplier here in australia and am going to have a go at this again after Xmas. Re the pics I am getting to them, but sort of have to wait for them to come out of Xmas paper - they got wrapped for my Dad before I took pics. He is getting a big pile of giant beads for Xmas. He likes things like that.