Bringing a twistie back from the dead!

[LittleMoo]

Due to a massive bee invading my studio earlier I had to evacuate midway through a twistie. I'd just finished getting all the different glasses into a 'blob' on the end of a rod but hadn't smoothed it off to start pulling yet.

The twistie contains black, white, Magic and EDP. I managed to get it into the kiln (which I then switched off) before legging it away from ol' buzzy chops. I *think* it should've cooled down slowly enough not to have cracked. If I have, how should I reheat it? Will it be fine if I just start my kiln up again for annealing as I go (e.g. full ramp)? Or should I set up a new program to ramp more slowly?

[Hamilton Taylor]

Just put the kiln on a batch anneal schedule - ramp to around 510 over a couple of hours, let it soak a bit, then introduce the blob gingerly to the flame. I do this a bit when making marbles. If you can wait, set the ramp to go to about 540, that way there'll be less chance of shocking.
The rod will be hot (ask me how I discovered/keep rediscovering this....), so transfer the blob to a cool mandrel, by heating the end to jolly hot and poking it into the end of your blob, then melt the rod off. It's easier to pull twisties and cane off mandrels rather than rods anyway...

hth,

Sean

[LittleMoo]

Thanks Sean. Great tip about transferring it to a mandrel!