Bullseye annealing

[kizzy1]

as a glass fuser I had always known bullseye 90COE annealing temp to be 516c However I've just found out that Bullseye have not used that as their annealing temp for the past 3years! Their new annealing temp is 482c
I shall be changing all my programmes accordingly!

Kizzy1

[Zeldazog]

When they announced the change, they also said that any glass annealed at the higher temperature is fine, it's just when they started testing on thicker, casting pieces especially, it was more efficient to do so at the lower temperature and still get the glass annealed properly.

[kizzy1]

Saves me changing my programes then!
I got the info from warm glass uk, I called to get their bead annealing programe and the use the lower temp....I do hope the hearts I've made today don't get any cracks!
I'm holding my breath till I look in kiln in the morning!

[Zeldazog]

http://www.bullseyeglass.com/methods-ideas/recommended-annealing-cycle-for-bullseye-glass.html

Bullseye explain it here, reassured that you can anneal at a different temperature (within reason) - more importantly is that you are evening out the stresses and temperature differential.

[kizzy1]

thanks for the link, i should be ok then for my fusing programes then....but will keep the bullseye bead annealing programe given to me by warm glass

seg 1) DPH 700 TO TEMP 482c HOLD 8hrs
seg 2) DPH full  TO TEMP 482c HOLD 2hrs
seg 3) DPH 60 TO TEMP 371c HOLD 0.00
seg 4) DPH 31 TO TEMP 24c END

[Pat from Canvey]

I anneal my bullseye beads with the same program as the 104 COE and have had no problems. One hour after finishing beading, skip to the next section of the program. I.e. the cooling section. Holding for 8 hours is way too long as is the next hold for 2 hours. That's in an SC2 but I did the same when I was using my old ceramic, firebrick kiln and again no problems. Pieces bigger than beads will of course take longer to anneal and maybe Warm Glass thought you were enquiring about annealing larger fused pieces. Anyone else with any thoughts?

[MeadMoon]

Seg 2 looks redundant since it is going to the same temp as seg 1.

As Pat says, you should not need to hold as long as that.  I would normally hold at 482 for 30 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the thickness of the piece and how many layers.  This is, of course, for fairly small pieces since I have an SC2.

Larger and thicker pieces can vary considerably, and you also have to take the variations of your particular kiln into account. Note that I do not make beads, so perhaps someone more familiar with annealing beads can comment.

[Pat from Canvey]

Also have a read of this thread, http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3714.0

[Zeldazog]

Seg 2 looks redundant since it is going to the same temp as seg 1.

I am assuming that the purpose of creating both segments, is for the purposes of garaging whilst bead making and then enabling a skip to the annealing stage?  If you just had the one segment, and you finished torching after an hour of torch time, to ensure the last bead in was fully annealed before cool down, you'd have to wait for (however long you anneal beads for) before you could skip segment to the cool down.  This way, you can run it on segment one whilst torching, and then skip to segment 2 as soon as you've finished, safe in the knowledge that you have still left an anneal soak before it moves on to cool down.  Not sure on how long you'd normally anneal soak beads for though, and from memory, a lot of people's garage hold stage is a bit higher than annealing?

Don't know, not a beader

[kizzy1]

Yes the 8 hours is my working time, if I only work a couple of hours and not the full 8 hours then I indeed skip to the next segment.
Warm glass use this for their bullseye beads, but must admit I did wonder why the anneal soak didn't go a bit higher. They said hold it at the anneal soak for at least 1.30hrs possibly 2hrs if big beads.
I was quite please to see that the large heart I had in the kiln on this new programe  came out fine.

I have to point outrage reason for the bullseye programe was because I had already lost 2 large hearts made with bullseye glass on my usual 104COE programe.
I Wouldn't bother with the B/eye glass at all if there was a really yummy 104 transparent pink out there...or is there?

Kizzy1