First time at the torch this past week.

OK... something has changed in the last day or so... just about every bead that I have done today has sheared in half when cooled and taken off of the madrel :-(

All week I was using the method of letting the beads cool off in a fiber pad.. but last night I was finally able to get the vermiculite set up (had a tough time finding the stuff for some odd reason no one is carrying it). I created 4 beads last night and placed them in the warmed vermiculite for about 45minutes to an hour.. and then in room temperature vermiculite for about the same amount of time. All the beads last night turned out fine... and yet today.. following the same procedure, most of them are breaking. Matter of fact, the heart shaped one I made for my wife broke in half as it was sitting on the counter in front of us. What is similar between them all is that they are all breaking cleanly in half lenghtwise along the mandrel. Is there something I should be looking out for that I am possibly doing differently today or is it just one of those days and I should attempt to pick it back up tomorrow.

TIA.

-M

I've never made lampworked beads, but I do know for best results you need an annealing kiln.

I know I should have one... and probably will eventually, but I couldn't see potentially throwing a few hundred dollars away if I were to decide that this stuff wasn't for me. I can imagine that there are a number of kilns collecting dust in corners from people doing just that... hehe perhaps I can find one of those ;-)

I'm not expecting the beads that I am making to be durable.. and I certainly don't expect them to be perfect; but it just seemed odd to me that I was having so many problems today since just about every one that I have made since those first few mistakes have been fine.

Dr. Sooz wrote:

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the group, and welcome to the wonderful world of melting glass!!! The beads are cracking along the mandrel due to shock (cooling to fast). Back when I first started making beads I used the crockpot with vermiculite in it for the first few weeks while I was learning. I kept it on high while I made beads, adding them to the pot as I went. When I was finished, I just turned the pot off, and didn't touch them until the pot was completely cool. (Tell your wife "No peeking!"....LOL!) Also, you want to keep your bead small, like maybe 10 - 12mm or so. This is a good method for just starting out while you're learning, but eventually you'll want to get a kiln so you can properly anneal your beads. And once you do, you could even batch anneal the beads that survived the crockpot. Good luck, and happy torching!

Dawn,

Thanks for the tip! I actually tried that very thing on Sunday night with just ONE bead (the rest I put in the fiber pad which has been pretty successful thus far) and it turned out fine.. so I may attempt using the vermiculite again.

I made a handful of them last night and I am now starting to control my glass usage. We were looking at some of my earlier ones and they were MONSTERS! My wife has since then challenged me to make crow beads for her since that is the size she typically uses. Although I do keep telling her that these beads may not be durable enough for her usage.

I also noticed a pattern last night as I was scanning through the container that holds all of my finished beads. Most of the 10 that have broken thus far are all ones that have dichroic glass in them. I think the only ones that have survived are ones where there were only small pieces of the dichroic glass in them. I scored a hit on picking up dichroics from a local woman that was getting out of doing glasswork.. bags and bags of it (about 3 lbs of it) for $30.00.. and that price included the crock pot, lots of fiber pad, rakes and picks and what not, torch mount marver, and a bunch of silver smithing supplies (which my wife is getting into). Anyhow.. I am thinking that since I do not know the exact COE of the dichroics, that this might be the problem. I made the leap that since the prior owner was working with a hot head torch then she would have to be working in softer glass.. so why would she have dichroics that were different!? Perhaps that's a bad assumption on my part... but is there a way to tell COE (I wouldn't think so.. but figured I'd ask).

One other thing my wife and I were talking about last night... since she, in the past, did a lot of ceramics, is there a kiln out there that will do double-duty? Glass and Ceramics?

Thanks again....

- Michael

Dawn >^..^< wrote:

Hi Michael, Yes, the dichro being of an incompatible COE will also cause your bead to crack along the mandrel. As far as soft glass goes, there are several COE's to consider. Bullseye has a COE of 90, Reichenbach, Gaffer, Zimmerman and Uroboros System

96 have a COE of 96, and Moretti / Effetre, Vetrofond / Murano and Lauscha have a COE of 104. All of which are considered soft glass but the COE's are not compatible. Sometimes you can use a very small amount of incompatible glass for a surface decoration, but us lampworkers have this thing called the 5% rule. The incompatible glass should be no more than 5% of the glass in the bead. For instance, if you make a bead with Moretti, and decorate it with Reichenbach raku using small lines or dots or a light roll in the frit, you should be okay. But if you put a large piece of incompatible dichro or a thick layer of incompatible glass over your base bead, it's almost certain to crack. The thing about these cracks is....it can crack right away, or an hour after you clean it, or next week, or six months from now, so it's always good to know exactly what glass you're working with. I'm not sure how you can figure out what COE your dichro is. And I can't answer your kiln question either. I use a Chilipepper Bead Annealing kiln with a digital controller. You definitely want a digital controller on whatever kiln you end up getting so you can program in an annealing cycle and not have to baby-sit it.

Thanks again.. I'll be sure to try and limit myself to just that!

Susan finished taking some pics tonight of them and I threw them into a little presentation...

- M

Mike - you MOVED THEM from one pot to another - ??? that's your problem.

If using Vermiculite in an old crock pot or deep fryer (dry of course) - you need one that will really hold at 400 -- -- put the bead in, burying it completely - put the lid back on - and LEAVE IT THERE without PEEKING until the next day -- letting it cool down over night in the vermiculite. Lid should only be off long enough to put in the next bead. Make sure you are properly flame annealing also -

Taking it out of the warm and putting it in room temp caused shock.

also - you may be work> OK... something has changed in the last day or so... just about every

Nice job! WOW! I can see you've still got bead release in there -- probably hard to clean that out when the beads aren't annealed.

If your wife is mak> Thanks again.. I'll be sure to try and limit myself to just that! >

LOL.. I tried on both!

I was soaking the beads and then using a bead reamer and pipe cleaner to get the release out and my wife told me that she wanted it left in there... not sure why.. but I think some of the ones that I have picked out for myself I'll be doing just that.

As for her using them... she may be reconsidering since one of the ones with dichroic in it started showing cracks inside days after it had been created.. so perhaps she got the idea ;-)

I've been experimenting with different shapes and combos but unfortunately I have the beginnings of ET (Essential Tremor) in my hands so doing precise work takes a lot of concentration on my part. On some of them you can see where I was able to focus enough to stop my hands from shaking for a few seconds... and others where it looks like a seismograph ;-) I'm hoping that once I build my own bench I'll be able to create some arm rests which I think will go a long way in helping.

If it is indeed possible to get a kiln that does both glass and ceramics then we'll probably be getting one sooner rather than later; since I can then justify the cost because it can be used by my wife and daughter as well.

Thanks for the feedback!

- Michael

Dr. Sooz wrote:

I can't remember which book it was that I read that outlined that method... since then though when I have used the vermiculite I've been leaving them in there and just turning the crockpot off.

What you said about temperature has me thinking though... the crockpot that I purchased off of the woman that used to do beads is just a small Rival that does not even have any settings on it.. it's either plugged in or it's not. That could very well be the issue.. which also reminds me that we have a deep fryer stored somewhere that we never use anymore... perhaps I can clean that up and give it a shot.. I believe it has a temperature setting as well.

- Michael

Cheryl wrote:

I assumed it was fine since the woman I bought it off of was using it for her beads. But... now that you have explained some of the differences... there is a bunch that is large pieces.. but then there is just as much that are small pieces and/or strips.

Thanks Cheryl!

- Michael

Cheryl wrote: