Kiss marks??

[Dee Dee]

I have an SC2, and use the usual anneal as you go program.  I make a bead, place it at the far right of my kiln on the rack and the bead is not touching anything, when I make another bead, I move the first bead to the left and the new bead replaces the other one, and so on.  By the end, there is a stack of beads on the left, touching each other.

I am getting little kiss marks on my beads - although my temp is around 520 - could my kiln be hotter than the display says - what temperature would I need to be at for the beads to mark each other?

Is there a way I can cheaply establish the approximate temperature?

Thanks,
Stephx

[sublimekate]

I have an SC2 and had exactly the same thing last year. I dropped the annealing temp to 510, after garaging at 500. I got some polorising filters and did some tests with transparent beads to make sure the beads were annealing properly, they were.

But all kilns are different I've been told, and don't always fire at the temp indicated so you'd have to check your kiln out in the same way to be sure this was ok.

The filters were a few quid, I got them from Sal, but I also see beadysam has some for sale on her website too.

Failing that it's a pyrometer I guess, but I don't know about price or anything.

hth Kate xx

[Helen G]

Yes, I had exactly the same problem with my SC2. I have dropped my garaging and annealing temp to 504 which is what the info sheet I got from sal after my lesson. I have checked with filters and no signs of stress although I don't make particularly large beads. I usually allow about at least 15mins before moving from the rack to the floor of the kiln-so far-so good. There are colours that stay soft longer eg rubino that I give even longer befoe moving.

[firedinglass]

I've also  had problems with the displayed temp and the real temp, i now anneal at displayed temp of 537!!!!!