Hello!
I'm having a bit of trouble with stacking my mandrels/beads in my lovely beadcube.
I have the rack and when I put the mandrels in the bottom layer are fine but the next row of mandrels are then on a bit of a slope towards the door and it gets worse the higher I go.
This sometimes results in the mandrels sliding off the rack when I open the door and the beads end up sitting on each other in a bit of a mess in the middle and I worry that this might affect their surface and/or annealing.
I've stopped garaging now and batch anneal instead so I can have a tad more control over putting them in but I could really do with some advice on how to stack better please!?
???
It's usually ok for them to touch each other after they've been in there for a little while (rubino a possible exception!)
You can put new hot ones at one side and then shift them over to a pile on the other after you've made a couple more.
Hiya
First up, it's not a problem if the beads touch each other during annealing. What I do is put each bead in the kiln on the right hand side as I make it (while its still glowing) , then when I pop the next bead in, I move the previous one over to the left and stack it on top of the others. By this time, it's cooled enough not to cause a problem being stacked on top of other others.
What I tend do do when stacking is alternate the holes I use on each row, so you end up with the beads stacked a bit like this:
o o o o
o o o o o
o o o o
That way, each bead on the top row kind of "nestles" in the gap between the two beads on the row beneath.
Hope this helps
That's a good explanation! I put them in to the right and move them along to the left as I put the next one in, but i have had sticking problems and usually nestle after 2 beads rather than one :)
Thank you, very good news about them being ok touching during annealing.
Do you find that the mandrels slide towards the opening, and when I shut the door there is always a little bit of movement going on - sometimes I peep to see what has happened other times I just hope they are ok!
I just have the rack inside and I've never used the little tile and long block - not sure what they are for. Wondering if I should have them in there too?
I'm not usually cackhanded - maybe just not had enough practice? It's a steep learning curve but great fun.
They do slope down towards the door but I've never had one fall out yet... just put the door down and leave em to it!
I have had the odd one just slide out onto the floor before I got the hang of it. I do the same as the others, and every so often will have a reshuffle so the space is optimised, not keeping the door open too long of course.
Lovely thank you!
I've rigged up a little box in front of the kiln so that the ends of the mandrels can rest on it, hopefully it will prevent slippages.
I've also had a word with my slightly OCD side and am not going to stress over this any more!!!
Off to bead now! ;D
I use 9inch mandrels, the 12s are too long!
I use the little block to put behind the rack so the rack can't be nudges back and disturb the thermocouple at the back. I use the little oblong plate shelf thing when I'm bactch anneal kebab-stylee just incase there are any accidents or whatever :)
I couldn't get on with my kiln rack it did my head in.
I gave it away and just place my mandrels directly onto the little fibre mat thingy on the floor of my kiln. never had any problems.