Incompatible glass?? Please HELP!

[Wheezyanna]

Can anyone help?I've been 'lamping' for 5 years now and after the initial problems of getting used to a new skill my beads have been fine but just lately some of them come out of the kiln looking like I've used incompatable glasses.  It's very frustrating, spending hours making beads only to find that some of them look like crackle glass!!   I have the kiln at around 550 degrees and I flame anneal before putting them in the kiln. Has anyone else had problems like this lately?  I get my glass from Tuffnells and its always been its usual good quality I think and I've have never had problems like this before...HELP!!

[sarah t]

can you tell us what glass and or combinations is causing the problem ...need a bit more info

[Trudi]

There are some CIM colours that don't like to be encased .....

[amareargentum]

I had that problem recently when encasing Reichenbach 104 White.

[Kaz]

Having the kiln at 550 degrees sounds very hot and I am not sure of the need for flame annealing before garaging. All you really need to do is make sure the beads are evenly heated and that the glow has gone off them. Encasing CIM can be a problem or excessive amounts of frit encased. Lauscha clear can also be a problem.
Kazx

[Fruddy]

Ditto Kaz re: kiln temp....

I garage at 490 and anneal at 510..

[Wheezyanna]

Wow lots to think of here!  Thank you ladies!!  Ok I've taken on board about the garaging and annealing temperatures.  Great.  This weekend I was using a lot of frit on each wrap and using Vetrofond clear so it sounds like that's a no no then. It's a shame because I was using a cherry red frit and it looked beautiful, seems like it doesn't like to be encased so just use on the outer bead.  Another combo was encasing Eff white with CIM cranberry and peacock green.  Maybe CIM doesn't like encasing either.  I think I got confused because I've always been doing what I've always done until recently.  A real learning curve!  Will check out the list of CIM's that don't like to be encased. Thank you all again, my confidence is returning.....x

[MadelineBunyan]

isnt it annoying?!

cranberry has definitely been one to have issues, type it in the search box here and you'll find it.

if you like the look of your frit encased beads, you could aways get a little white and clear in 96 or 93 COE (see donna's thread about british glass) and use it just for frit beads

[Lush!]

I believe CIM Peacock Green is a fussy one, it needs a different annealing temp to most other 104 glass, so I tend to avoid it.

If you're using loads of frit then there is likely to be a compatability issue as its probably not 104 frit.  The general rule is to keep the amount of frit down to below 10% of the whole bead, so a single coating is sufficient.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

I had a horrible problem last year with pink, it was the effetre rubino, it wasn't encased but every bead cracked, sounds like the pink may be your problem?

[helbels]

Helen G was recently having massive problems with incompatibility cracks when using CIM cranberry (I think) over white. Might be worth checking with her, as I know that was confirmed as a dodgy batch by Tuffnells.