Hi, any advice on a schedule for drop slumping in a hobby fuser. I fused two 3mm circles together and put them on for half an hour at 677 and just got a small dimple effect. I've put it in again for another 70 mins and this has hardly moved. It seems it may either need a higher temperature or MUCH longer. I'm a bit wary of opening the kiln at slumping temperature for fear of frying my face so I'd appreciated any ball-park figures.
I've never done it, but I wonder whether this bullseye information for creating a steep sided vessel gives some clues https://www.bullseyeglass.com/images/stories/bullseye/PDF/other_technical/mold_tips_deep_form.pdf about temps and duration
and this one, which is a very shallow drop
http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/small-drop-out-ring-mould-8033-18cm-outer-dia-x-8cm-inner-dia-p-420.html
It depends on the diameter of the hole in the drop ring mould. Counterintuitively, a smaller hole needs much longer to slump than a larger one. I got my info and fusing schedules from an ebook:
http://fusedglassbooks.com/
Scroll down to the "Creative Fused Glass Drop Out Vessels" one. I have three of these ebooks and can highly recommend them for their quality. They contain loads of useful information, as well as the instructions on how to make the projects shown on the front.
Hope that helps! =)
Kathy.
thanks for those links Kathy, never seen these books before
Those ebooks look really interesting, thanks for the tip! :)
No problem! =) The fusing with scrap one is great although you need a lotta lot of scrap for some of the projects! (if anyone wants to buy mine, just holler... got over a kg of tekta scrap sitting in a box...)
Kathy, a simple use of your tekta scrap would be a pot melt with a few added colours of the same COE to jazz up the melt. See http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Pot-Melt-Technique-with-Bullseye-Glass for some very useful advice. I used to make quite a few melts to use up my scrap. The melt can then be used as if it was sheet glass for fused glass and slumped pieces. Small leftover pieces can be reworked into cabochons for pendants. The technique works for other COE's too.
=) thanks Pat! I'm not sure my kiln goes hot enough to get the melt to flow though =/ but I imagine if you did what you suggest and then put it through the aforementioned drop ring it would look pretty spectacular! =D