the silver has all gone after annealing.....

[princess pink]

Ok that does sound a bit odd for them to be slumping at 520. I Batch anneal most effetre & cim for 1 hr on 520. For silver glass I use 493 for 2 hours and a much slower ramp down. Can u get the temp checked? Failing that try lowering it by 10 degrees x

[silverleaf]

Do you use the 493C schedule for beads where you have combined silver with effetre or other glass - is that adequate? And how about beads where the silver is encased?

Also you mention a slower ramp down with silver glass - what rate do you use?

Thanks again for your help
Helen

[Ciel]

I got my SC2 just before Christmas and found most of my beads had kiss marks, anyhow, after a few weeks I bit the bullet and bought an infra-red pyrometer, low and behold, my kiln was running 23C higher than the kiln reading was giving.  I now anneal at 504C for 2 hours and this works a treat.  I also checked my beads by producing a clear one and using polarising film was able to check whether they were annealed or not. 

The following place sell 5cm squares of polarising film, which is where I got mine (they're on holiday at the mo and will open up presumably in a couple of weeks).
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Consilium-Designs-Ltd__W0QQ_armrsZ1

The following shows how to use the polarising film:

I have lifted this from another thread for you, it was posted by redhotsal a few years ago, if you look through old posts in newbie questions you'll find loads about annealing problems 

In reply to questions as to how the polarising thing works I thought I'd put this together for people who are not sure about annealling.

You need to get a pair of polarising filters. You can use a pair of polarising sunglasses and break them up, or the fancy filters you can get for cameras (though these can be a bit expensive) or you can use that amzing research facilty - Tinternet - to source your own, which is what I did. I thought I'd get quite a few at the same time I got mine so that I could let other lampworkers have their own. So, if you want a pair, email me and I will sell you a pair for £6 inc P+P.

In answer to a previous question - yes - I do have a website, just click on the pink beads banner at the base of this thread. And yes, I was a scientist in a previous career. Optical Physicist in fact.

They only work with transparent beads so what I normally do is make a plain clear spacer type bead every now and then and pop it in with the batch of beads that I'm annealling. This will give some indication of whether the batch has been successfully annealled or not. It's a good idea to make this spacer quite large as larger beads require more soak time at the annealling temperature. Basically if your largest bead is properly annealed then you can be sure that all your smaller ones will be fine aswell.

When you look at the bead try to sandwich the bead between the two filters. Ideally you want a source of diffuse light behind you. I'm lucky enough to have a little torch type thing which I sit the filters on, but you can hold them up to a window and use daylight. A lightbox or the "white" sky that we seem to get often in the UK - bright with a continuous cloud - is an excellent light.

Rotate the top filter with respect to the bottom one and you'll see that the transmitted light starts to go from  light grey to black and as you carry on rotating it beomes light grey again. If you look at the unannealled bead you'll see that it has a series of stripes radiating out from the bead hole - often in the shape of a Maltese cross. These will rotate as you rotate the filter. These are the stress lines. The more visible they are the more stress you have in the bead. A properly annealled bead will not display these lines at all it will just go from transparent to black as you rotate the filter.]

It really is a startlingly good representation of the stress lines that are in the bead. Polarisers are routinuely used for stress analysis of various objects. I have to say it gives me great peace of mind to know that there is a tangible aspect to annealling. It takes the guess work right out of it and is an excellent and vivid tool to demonstrate to your customers (if they're at all interested!) - especially if you compare your lovely annealled bead to some imported unannealed rubbish that they're raving about.

Just another way to show your customers that properly annealled beads are worth the extra pennies!

I took this advise from Sal and tested transparent beads that I'd annealed on different scedules on my SC" until I found the one that worked and didn't make the beads stick together, because all kilns can fire at different temps you really need to test your own to be sure.

Hope that helps. Kate 

Hope you can sort it out soon as I realise how disappointing it is to start with

[silverleaf]

Thanks for the link Claire-Louise - that's really helpful. I will try using a polariser (I have photographic filters) and try lowering the temperature a little I think, as well as trying some charcoal with silver glass.

BTW, where did you get your IR pyrometer from (just in case I decide to get one)?

Many thanks
Helen

[Nina A]

I put my 'silvered' beads under a small terracotta plant pot in the kiln, (next any other beads that need annealing)  this seems to stop mine from loosing the silver, maybe because they are protected from the direct heat from elements.  Not sure whether right or wrong, but it works for me.

Nina

[princess pink]

Ok my batch anneal schedule for anything with silver glass is as follows and was given to me by hayley on lampwork etc I believe

ramp 1: 149
target temp1: 493
hold: 2 hours
ramp 2: 78
target temp 2:148
hold 000
ramp 3: 000
hold:000
temp:000

total takes about 11 hours and I do it over night. Was told you can anneal lower if you ramp up slowly and hold for longer. Not had any problems with beads cracking etc. I tend to only use it for surface silver glass not encased silver glass. Not used activated charcoal as was worried it would kill my kiln.

hope that helps!

[silverleaf]

Thanks Shahlaa. I will try that next time with my unencased silver beads.

Helen

[princess pink]

definitely try that but also try the activated charcoal. for some reason, my clio doesn't like that schedule at all! it erased all the reduction on one side! so i can only assume it was too hot for clio, but i had a very detailed scroll work bead in aurae which didn't fade at all! how bizarre!