Annealing Boro

[loulou3012]

Hi ,
I have been using 104coe glass to make my beads for a few years now and was thinking of giving boro a try as the colours look fab but dont know much about it .
Please can somene tell me if it has to be annealed at different temperatures to 104coe as I dont think I can remember how to reset my kiln now ?
Thanks
Lou   

[loulou3012]

Sorry ! Just seen there is a whole thread on this at the top of the forum !!
If I am reading it right I can anneal with my 104coe but it will need annealing again
Lou 

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

No its a completely different glass you need to program a new schedule into your kiln to anneal it properly

[Steampunkglass]

It's a bit tricky, but not too bad especially if you are annealing small object like beads. There is a few sample schedules here; http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=21693.0

[loulou3012]

Thanks for the advice .
At the moment I only make the small silvercore beads for bracelets . I am making an order from Frantz glass and was just thinking of getting some boro at the same time so save on postage .
I am a bit worried about messing with my annealing program though as it took a while to get it right . Does onyone know if you can set 2 programs and then just select whichever one you want each time ?
Thanks
Lou 

[garishglobes]

You can definitely anneal it with your 104COE beads, just don't get the rods mixed up    You will then need to re-anneal the boro, but this does mean you can experiment at the end of a session if you want to.
I have a Paragon kiln and when I used soft glass I had a program for soft and a different one for boro, so you should be ok with that too 

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

What about kiln striking colours Emma, will they strike in the reanneal? Don't some colours need to be held at a certain temp to strike them?

[garishglobes]

You might see some extra striking of amber purples, but it depends on the glass and many colours won't strike extra at all if you just go to 565C and anneal.
You can add a strike into the schedule by taking the temperature up to 605 or even 620C for about 20 mins before annealing, but this isn't to anneal, it is just to strike.

[loulou3012]

Oh Lovely , thanks for all the advice .
If I can anneal both at the same time thats so much easier  . I will dig out my kiln instructions and then try  to set up another program so I can re-anneal them .
There just seems to be loads of lovely different colurs in the Boro glass so I am itching to give it a go 
Is it similar to 104coe to work with or easier/harder ??
Thanks
Lou

[garishglobes]

Boro is stiffer to work with than soft glass, it takes more time to work and melt and you will need more heat. The colours are lovely but they are also quite different to work with - they are atmosphere and heat dependent and can take a while to get to grips with.
I would very strongly recommend, if you don't know much about it, spending some time trawling the boro board on LE (www.lampworketc.com) - it has been going a while, and there is a lot of information on there.  You should also make sure you have good ventilation and look at the possibility of clip-on green shades for your didys - some colours give off a lot of light and you need to make sure you are comfortable with your level of eye protection.

[Billie]

Sorry, can I just take you back a step...  What torch are you working on, and do you have one or two oxycons?  You might have explained your set up somewhere else, so sorry if I'm asking you to repeat yourself 

[julieHB]

I have only tried a tiny bit with boro, and I don't know much about the different colours . I only have one oxycon, and there's no doubt there are some colours that won't work with that setup, as you cannot get the flame hot and oxygen rich enough. If you don't know much about boro colours I recommend buying a couple of tutorials - Pipyr's  "Boro on a concentrator" is very good as it gives advice on which glass that do work on less oxygen http://www.pipyr.com/tutorials.html , and there are several tuts on Etsy as well. Even if they cost a bit it might save you on glass 

[loulou3012]

I use a Nortel Minor with one oxycon at the moment .
I think maybe I do need to do some more research before I buy the glass as I hadnt really thought too much about the other issues , just that the colours were so nice