Help my bits keep falling off??

[madpup]

When i make critters or simular i put the finshed item in the
bark chips that keep it warm (vermite i think its called)
when i take them out the nose might have popped of or a eye is missing
sometimes i can hear the bits pinging off, sometimes it even happens while
in the flame,  its really frustrating  any tips please, (i use soft glass coe104)
thanks for looking,

Mark

[sparrow]

Hi Mark, my guess would be that you let one side cool too much while you work on the other bits. Sculptural beads cool down very unevenly, because there are 'sticky out' bits which are more exposed and therefore cool more quickly - if I forget to keep the whole rose warm while I work on it, I immediately get punished by petals pinging left, right and center, Make sure that your piece is nicely warm all the way through when you put it away.......depending on the size of the critter, you might continue to experience problems until you get a kiln 

HTH

[madpup]

Thanks Sparrow that does make sense, the good news is that i do have a kiln
it just that its not on all the time.

[Mand]

I had this problem with most beads I made in winter, and now I always start beading with my kiln switched on and and just anneal as I go.  I've had one "cracker" since I started doing that. (It was a smallish lentil, I just can't get in with them  )

[turnedlight]

If you are making larger or sculptural beads, I would recommend annealing as you go..

[madpup]

It does not matter what size the critters are the bits still pop off,
the trouble with putting the kiln on when im having a play is that
its early in the morning when i come home from work so i dont want
to go to bed with the kiln unattended, while on the subject of kilns
how long do you anneal for?
i use a program i found on here for the paragon, it has a warm up of 6 hours
and what i think is the annealing time of 1 hour, is this right?

thanks for all the help

Mark

[Zeldazog]

Mark, if you're annealing as you go, you can ramp the kiln up to target temperature very quickly (Just slow it down towards target, or it will overshoot and may start beeping at you).

You only need to slowly ramp up if you are batch annealing from cold.