Pot melt crack

Pat from Canvey · July 04, 2012, 05:01:10 PM

I decided to use up some scrap bullseye doing another pot melt. Been a long time since I did one and had to change the shelf position in the kiln. Silly me did not check that it was level so the melt glass flowed to one side of the shelf and dripped. Not much damage to the kiln but the melt cracked as it cooled because that side adhered to the shelf. I like the pattern in the melt and would like to re-fuse to heal the crack if possible. I'm considering putting a say 1cm strip of clear along the crack and re-fusing, hoping that the pattern will not distort too much. Any ideas?
Here's the melt,

I've sanded the two fuzzy pieces at the bottom and they will polish if I re-fuse. The melt is 23.5 cm x 18.5 cm

jeannette · July 04, 2012, 07:09:45 PM

Erm, I can't advise, I would guess clear will join it but may leave a clear gap...in theory it's just going to achieve 6mm, right? So I wouldn't expect the pattern to change too much depending on the thickness where you put the clear. But what do i know!?

But I did want to say it's really cool!

SilverGems89 · July 04, 2012, 07:42:51 PM

I'd be tempted just to bung it in and fire it on a normal full fuse cycle, surely it can't do any more damage?

flame n fuse · July 04, 2012, 10:08:56 PM

Not sure, but might you consider more of a tack fusing temp, than a full fuse temp? It looks great!

Hotglass28 · July 05, 2012, 03:59:15 PM

Humm, I like the colours there. If it was mine I would crack it all up again and pot melt one more time. I don't think you can remelt over and over again though, I'm not 100% sure but I think it causes the glass to go funny.

I think a clear strip would push out the colours from underneath.

The joy of scrap glass

Pat from Canvey · July 06, 2012, 07:15:55 AM

Just got the melt out of the kiln and I am pleased to say that my method worked. The melt is now whole and you can barely see where the cracks were. I'll post a picture later.

Sarah A · July 06, 2012, 07:42:55 AM

Pat I love this. The colours and pattern are lovely. I'd love to try a pot melt but wouldn't know where to start.

Pat from Canvey · July 06, 2012, 01:22:45 PM

Sarah, have a look at the pot melt threads at http://kiloalphatango.com/search/node/pot%20melts
The site belongs to my daughter but she hasn't posted in yonks. Too busy with Facebook.

Pat from Canvey · July 06, 2012, 01:58:08 PM

Here's the mended pot melt

I am a happy bunny.

Sarah A · July 06, 2012, 04:35:08 PM

Thanks Pat I'll have a look.