BeadCube query

[Katie]

Hello!
I'm having a bit of trouble with stacking my mandrels/beads in my lovely beadcube.

I have the rack and when I put the mandrels in the bottom layer are fine but the next row of mandrels are then on a bit of a slope towards the door and it gets worse the higher I go.

This sometimes results in the mandrels sliding off the rack when I open the door and the beads end up sitting on each other in a bit of a mess in the middle and I worry that this might affect their surface and/or annealing.

I've stopped garaging now and batch anneal instead so I can have a tad more control over putting them in but I could really do with some advice on how to stack better please!?

[Kalorlo]

It's usually ok for them to touch each other after they've been in there for a little while (rubino a possible exception!)
You can put new hot ones at one side and then shift them over to a pile on the other after you've made a couple more.

[helbels]

Hiya
First up, it's not a problem if the beads touch each other during annealing.  What I do is put each bead in the kiln on the right hand side as I make it (while its still glowing) , then when I pop the next bead in, I move the previous one over to the left and stack it on top of the others.  By this time, it's cooled enough not to cause a problem being stacked on top of other others.

What I tend do do when stacking is alternate the holes I use on each row, so you end up with the beads stacked a bit like this:

 o   o   o  o
o   o   o  o   o
 o   o   o   o

That way, each bead on the top row kind of "nestles" in the gap between the two beads on the row beneath.

Hope this helps

[jammie]

That's a good explanation! I put them in to the right and move them along to the left as I put the next one in, but i have had sticking problems and usually nestle after 2 beads rather than one 

[Katie]

Thank you, very good news about them being ok touching during annealing.

Do you find that the mandrels slide towards the opening, and when I shut the door there is always a little bit of movement going on - sometimes I peep to see what has happened other times I just hope they are ok!

I just have the rack inside and I've never used the little tile and long block - not sure what they are for. Wondering if I should have them in there too?

I'm not usually cackhanded - maybe just not had enough practice? It's a steep learning curve but great fun.

[helbels]

They do slope down towards the door but I've never had one fall out yet... just put the door down and leave em to it!

[tinker]

I have had the odd one just slide out onto the floor before I got the hang of it. I do the same as the others, and every so often will have a reshuffle so the space is optimised, not keeping the door open too long of course.

[Katie]

Lovely thank you!

I've rigged up a little box in front of the kiln so that the ends of the mandrels can rest on it, hopefully it will prevent slippages.

I've also had a word with my slightly OCD side and am not going to stress over this any more!!!

Off to bead now! 

[jammie]

I use 9inch mandrels, the 12s are too long!

[Beansprout]

I use the little block to put behind the rack so the rack can't be nudges back and disturb the thermocouple at the back. I use the little oblong plate shelf thing when I'm bactch anneal kebab-stylee just incase there are any accidents or whatever

[Fruddy]

I couldn't get on with  my kiln rack it did my  head in.

I gave it away and just place my mandrels directly onto the little fibre mat thingy on the floor of my kiln.  never had any problems.