I warned i would be asking noobie questions :)
I have been making beads now for a couple of months and am hooked. I have been cooling slowly in cooling beads with on the whole good results.
Being a good kit a holic i have bought a 'SC2' kiln.
Having read Corina Tettinger's book she admits to just shutting her kiln off after soaking, but elsewhere there are reams of information on ramp times and temperatures etc.
Does anyone else anneal this way?
If your beads are small it usually works just to turn the kiln off and let it cool with the door closed. Large beads may need a slower ramp down.
If you have an SC2 and are patient enough to wait a couple of extra hours before you can remove your beads from the kiln, you can just as well have an additional half hour of annealing and a slower ramp down.
an SC2 is designed to be used to anneal glass 'properly' and although corinas way will work for small beads as Noor says, its still better to do it right, afterall, you have a kiln that is capable of it, and indeed designed for it.it may be that Corina has/had one of the more basic kilns, I can't remember.
annealing schedule for sc2s is on the wiki, http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/wiki/Annealing#ANNEAL_AS-YOU-GO_.E2.80.93_Paragon_SC2
nice n simple
the reams of information regarding specific glass are still valuable when you come to it, but a general schedule will get you off to a good start.
Brick kilns can just be turned off because they hold the heat for ages, but ones like the SC2 should do a controlled ramp down, because they cool down much faster.
Thanks all, I will make time to program the beast.
To be fair i have not taken it out of the box yet, when i go out to my shed the torch calls! ::)
I know another lampworker who switches off after soaking, but then they have far more cracked beads than I do ...
I would certainly include a ramp down, whatever type of kiln.
Brick kilns do hold heat more, but not at the higher temps. If you just turn off the kiln, the temp still drops away very quickly at first, right through that critical stage where you need the heat to ramp down slowly.
Emma