Hi,
I've just got my bead cube set up & made & annealed some beads yesterday - only 1 minor crack, Yay!
My question is how do I go out about batch annealing my earlier beads, do I just pop them on the floor of the kiln or do I need to put them back on mandrels or what.....?
Julie
I do both aas I have known to batch anneal 2oo plus beads
I just chuck mine on the kiln shelf, but on the floor is fine too ;D
I put any small ones on the floor or my bead cube and then when I next run it as a garaging session they go through the whole annealing process - I've never had any problems doing this. x
thanks for the advice, I'll run some through later today
:)
I've a small pyrex bowl which I put all my beads into and put in the kiln.
Since you have a completely new kiln I'd say to put the beads in a pottery/pyrex bowl just to be on the safe side. Sometimes the kilns can overshoot a bit, and the last thing you want is for your beads to stick to your kiln floor. You want to run the kiln for a while to get to know how it behaves. It could be that the controller shows a temperature slightly different from the real temperature, which is another reason to be cautious.
Also, if you have beads using silver glass or glass that "sticks" easily (f.ex. rubino oro) it might be an idea to anneal at temps. below 510 deg C. Some people anneal at temps as low as 480 deg C - the only thing to remember is to hold for longer, in particularly with big beads.
I anneal at a controller temp of 510 deg C, and have never had any problems. I think my kiln controller shows a few degrees hotter than it is, though, so in reality I might be annealing at 500 deg. C.
I always kebab my beads - just in case.
I just bung mine, once cleaned, onto the floor of the kiln. No breakages.
I've got a batch in, I just put them on the floor - couldn't find a small enough pyrex bowl. I'l let you know how it goes tomorrow.
:P
You can always put a white household tile on the floor to protect it in case of malfunction. That's if you worry about such things.
All beads survived! thanks for all your help
:D :D