Help please with fire polishing schedule

[Trudi]

Hi

I need some help with fire polishing please clever fusing peeps! I'm looking to FP strips of dichro glass so that I can apply to a bead when lampworking. Sean from Off-Mandrel very kindly sent me a schedule – which I have tried and it worked on some glass – but me being me, I have different thickness's!

I have an SC2 kiln – and this is the schedule Sean gave me

300>600>0
500>750>10mins
Full>516>15mins
80>300>10mins

My scrap piece of 2mm effetre worked great, I also had some bullseye (just a smidgen shy of 2mm) this seems to have very slightly tried to curl up and not round down. I also have some 3-4mm ripple bullseye that is the real monkey and didn't seem to do anything.

Can anyone advise in simple Trudi-can-understand terms, which bit of the schedule I need to adjust pretty please.

Also – I've used kiln wash on my shelf (for the first time) – I put on 5 coats – will this last for more than 1 firing, or do I need to clean off?

Thanks in advance!

Trudi x

[julieHB]

Hi Trudi,

When I have fire polished thicker bullseye pendants, and want them quite rounded, I just bring it up to 810 deg C after your second segment above, and leave it there for 0 to 10 minutes until desired roundness have been achieved, then proceed to cool to 516 at full rate (even crash cooling by opening the kiln door a bit).

The fire polishing happens during your first two steps above. After that you are "free" to melt more or less before cooling down.

HTH - and good luck!!

(eek, I am packing to go back to the UK, leaving in a couple of hours, so must go!!!  )

[dinah46]

I think you will get as many different answers as there are kilns Trudi   I fire polish bullseye at 745 for 18 minutes but that is for 6mm thickness.

I think if the bullseye is starting to curl then it must be too hot so try it at a lower temp.

[Zeldazog]

Your 2mm strips will curl up at those temperatures, because even at 750 the glass is soft (it softens under 700 degrees) - the glass is trying to be 6mm thick.

I am same as Di, I would fire polish between 730 to 745 (I think my kiln fires a few degrees hot) but that's on 6mm too.

Even at 810 the ripple keeps it's texture.

As for the kiln shelf, Warm Glass recommend you re-coat after each firing if the wash is still intact - personally, I don't re-do until is starting to come off (and even then, with pendants I sometimes work around the gaps for a bit!)- at the lower temperatures, your shelf should be good for a firing or several....


Can you explain in easy, Dawn-to-understand-cos-it's-bead terms, why you want to do it?

[Trudi]

LOL Dawn - you're a star!!

So I just need to lower the second temp - would I need to hold it a little longer  - esp for the thicker ripple to get it to curl under?

And thanks for the tip re the shelf - it really doesn't look like it's been used!!

When you use dichroic glass in lampworking, you really need to keep the coating out of the flame, if exposed too much it will scumm and look just powdery white - no sparkle. If the edges of the glass are fire polished and rounded down, you get a much better contact when applying to the bead in the flame and it's much less likely to scum.

It's quite difficult to get hold off in the UK - you can buy from overseas but it's expensive. As I have a kiln and some dichroic glass I wanted to give it a go! I bought some dotty fused glass from Off-Mandrel at Flame Off and it's a lot of fun in the bead, and not what you normally see. There's lots of bullseye dichro available too on Ebay!

Thanks for the advice everyone!

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

This has made for interesting reading, when I first started fusing with windowglass I had oddly pointy corners that were slightly upturned now I realise that they were curling up!!

When I asked at the time no one had any ideas, but now I can sleep at night

[Trudi]

Tan - I now have visions of you with curlers and a hair net     

[Zeldazog]

Trudi, if I recall right, the Ripple is quite thick glass?  You probably don't need to go any cooler with that, if it looks like it hasn't been touched by the heat - I've never tried to fire the ripple thin, just done it on top of another layer, so it's still be 6mm ish - to be honest, I would possibly go higher.

As for the thinner glass, yes drop your temperature a little bit, but no, I wouldn't try holding it for any longer.

Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is to round the top edge a bit by grinding, then fire polishing... no idea of that would work though.

Incidentally, I can't see the purpose of the hold at the end either - working with bullseye, the annealing zone is 516 (where you need a hold) down to 371 - I don't even hold down at 371 - I control the cool down rate between these points, then once it hits 371 it's cool as fast as possible.  Not that you'd be doing any harm with that hold down at 300, just it seems utterly pointless, as for certainly Bullseye and float, its well below the lower strain point.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Tan - I now have visions of you with curlers and a hair net     

Baggy tights and saggy grey knickers...........

[Trudi]

Tan you paint a lovely picture!!!! If I have nightmares I'm blaming you!!!

And thanks Dawn, I'll have a play! I managed to use some of the polished glass, will see how it comes out. Think the ripple will need more umph!!

[Trudi]

300>600>0
500>735>10mins
900>516>15mins
80>371>0


Hi - so if I change the schedule to this - the last ramp - showing as 80, can this be increased?

Ta

[Zeldazog]

Personally I wouldn't cool through the annealing zone any faster than 83 degrees per hour - 3 degrees isn't going to make a difference really.  But once you get to 371, its all over and done with, so you can cool down naturally.