Fusing Glass Discussions

Hi everyone! Have been playing with my new kiln and LOVING it!!! Thinking about pre-emptively buying stock in the electric company to recoup some of my costs in running the thing day and night. But aside from the fact that glass will be making me a pauper in short order, working with warm glass is fascinating!

With that said, I wanted to find out if this is truly the forum for discussion of warm glass (I have SOOOO many questions!) or should a new newsgroup be initiated. 'Cuz time's a-wastin'!!! I need to SHARE and TALK and DISCUSS this new love of my life!!!! Boy, I am such a girl!!! LOL

Look forward to hearing from you all (yep, even you sasspots!!!)

Lori

Reply to
FlameNwind
Loading thread data ...

Glad you're enjying the kiln - there's an awful lot to learn - but the best way I've found is to experiment, and keep notes !

There's lots of expertise over in the warmglass forum - but I personally find it much easier to read this newsgroup, rather than keep checking a web-based offering.

By all means ask away here - what sort of kiln do you have and what are you making with it ? Tried any dichroic glass yet - that's lovely stuff to play with !

Regards Adrian

formatting link
======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

As usual, Brady, in your rush to look important you offer more WRONG information.

Definition: A kilowatt hour (KWH) is 1000 watts of current flowing for one hour. (Kilo=1,000) Eh?

Once the wattage of the kiln (or any electrical device, for that matter) is known, that wattage figure must be DIVIDED BY 1000, "then" multiplied times the hours (or fractional hours) of use and "then" times the KWH price rate to determine cost of operation. It's grade school math, you dummy.

I know you aren't too smart, so read slowly and look at these examples, maybe you'll get a clue:

An 1800 watt hair dryer used for 15 minutes at $0.10/KWH is (1800/1000)x (15/60)x $0.10/KWH =$0.045 cost or less than a nickel to dry your hair.

Running a 150w power supply on a PC left on for 24 hours would be: (150/1000) x 24 x $0.10/KWH = $0.36 per day.

My electric bill came today. We used 1079 KWH in a 31 day billing cycle and the bill was 75.90 plus taxes. That's about $0.07/KWH, so my examples above are off a few pennies.

A 40A/220v kiln is 8800watts, or 8.8KWH if it runs for an entire hour. On a hypothetical cycle of 4 hours, that is 35.2KWH or about $2.46 at my local electric rates.

Once again, the Canadian prairie dog pops out of his hole, barks a bit, and takes a round right between the eyes. When will you ever learn?

Reply to
Moonraker

Not wishing to get all nerdy about it but.....

Moon's calculation would be fine if the heating element in the kiln was 'on' throughout the whole of the firing cycle.

This isn't the case - on my little SC2 kiln you can hear the relay which switches the power to the element clicking in and out as the controller attempts to provide the required temperature rate. The elements will be 'on' for a shorter period of time as the kiln ramps down - and may not even be on at all as the thing cools to room temperature.

Even with a 'manually' controlled kiln, I think that you control it by switching resistance in series with the elements - which reduces the current and so the power consumption.

I guess the only 'simple' way to find out is to actually fire your kiln with some means of measuring power consumed - or run it for a cycle with all the other electrical 'things' switched off - and read the utility meter at the start & end of the cycle.

In the grand scheme of things, it's one of those things that's probably not worth the effort of calculating - as a very rough rule of thumb you could take Moon's figure and divide it by 1/2 or 3/4

- probably wouldn't be that far out....

Life's too short - back to the glass !

Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

Hi again

OK Adrian - back in your hole ! (ducking those bullets )

I see that Dennis has taken the intermittent nature of the power consumption into account - sorry - should have read it all a bit more closely....

FWIW - the webpages over here (UK) claim that the SC2 costs less than

50p to run a 'cycle' - that's just under a Dollar to those of you in the USA.

At those sort of costs, and on a 'commercial' basis, the electricity involved in running the kiln is a tiny amount of the costs involved in producing saleable items - so probably not enought to worry about...

To swiftly paddle my canoe into less controversial waters (I Hope!) - I'm toying with the idea of buyinf another kiln. The Paragon SC2 is great for little pendant pieces - and for smallish dishes / kiln-cast pieces - but I'd like to be able to make larger pieces - say up to 12" diameter.

One UK retailer is offering the Skutt HotStart Pro or the Paragon Fusion 7 - for about UK Pounds 720 - 750 each inc tax. (About $1300)

Any comments for or against these models - or suggestions for an alternative...?

We're moving to Ireland in the near future, where the 'purchase tax' is even higher - which is why I'm thinking about a new kiln 'now'...

Thanks in advance Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

In a 6-8 hour firing cycle, the elements would be "on" the 4 hours used in the illustration. ;

Reply to
Moonraker

Check on availability of 2300 deg insulating firebrick, make a kiln, or insulating ceramic fiber blanket, 8lb. 1"thick.. Build you own kiln, its not tough to do, and then you just buy the elements, not alot. and talk to Jack Bowman about a controller. His controller will work with any kiln, then you are not handcuffed to the size of your kiln for the project you want to do.

Reply to
Javahut

Hmmm - never thought of that ! I must admit that the price of kilns is quite staggering for what they are.... but then, the same could be said of a lot of things....

Anybody on here followed the 'diy' route - any experiences ? I could buy a lot of glass for the 750 Uk Pounds !

Thanks Adrian

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

Yes - I apologise - I didn't read Dennis's post closely enough.. but I did post an apology once the penny dropped...

In my defence - it was early, and I was up half the night with a migrane......

....not that I'm expecting any sympathy

Regards Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

Nice website. BTW, in your link above, you have a comma between "co" and "uk". Had to change it to a "dot" to get the link to work.

Did you do the site design yourself?

Reply to
Moonraker

Thanks

Bother ! should have been

formatting link

Yes - thanks for the compliments.

IANL I ran a little web design company - still do the odd little site for friends etc. (Still can't type though !)

Never did get into all the sooper-dooper flash / java / bells & whistles stuff - tend to think that 'simpler = better' in many cases. That's what comes of starting off with 1200 baud modems !

The biggest challenge with the glass site has been getting half-decent photographs - still working on that one .....

A little light tent helps - but I've still got some little stained glass tealight holders with mirrored backs which confuse the hell out of my digital camera.

Somebody suggested covering the mirror with cardboard - must try that when I have an idle moment.....

Regards Adrian

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

I'm building a glass melting furnace at the moment, a bit different as it fires longer and hotter so benefits from even better insulation. I can recommend Wright Refractories as suppliers, all the glass people I know in the UK seem to use them.

Wright Refractories Bridge Street Wordsley Stourbridge DY8 5YU

01384 76493

Adrian Brentnall wrote:

Reply to
David Billington

Try here:

formatting link
I built this one for around $2200 and I think that included $500 for the welding machine.

Reply to
nJb

In another life, I was in the photo biz.

Actually you might want to use the white cardboard as a reflector. Position a light so that it is illuminating the card. Then, position the mirrored object so that it is being illuminated by the white reflector. Move the camera lens and or the object around so that what you see in the camera's viewfinder is the white card on the mirror's surface.

You will be bouncing light from the cardboard to the mirror to the lens. I use foam-core board in about 2x3 foot sheets. I actually buy the foamcore in both white and black. If you cut a hole in the board and put the black side toward your shiny objects and the lens thru the hole, you can eliminate most of the reflection of the camera on the object.

Hairspray on small shiny objects will kill the reflections, too. Several thin coats work best.

Reply to
Moonraker

Phew - that's some kiln ! Though I did see a bigger one on holiday on the Amalfi Coast in Italy

- they were using it to fire enamel onto granite (?) tabletops - which were from 4 ft round up to 4ft x 8 ft......

Anyway - very interesting. - thanks !

Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

OK

I see what you're saying.

Imagine a piece of mirror cut to a quarter of a circle - this is the base of the tealight.

Two more pieces of mirror form the back of the tealight holder - they sit on the two radii.

The stained glass, agate, whatever is foiled up and sits along the curve of the base.

Looks great when illuminated by a tealight - but all the light and reflections produces a very confusing photographic image - maybe I'm getting too close in to the thing (macro lens).

The light tent has a detachable zippered 'front' which can be adjusted so's the camera lens pokes through - similar idea, I guess.

I need to get a bit more scientific with the lighting - currently using a couple of 'proper' daylight compact fluorescents - but they need to have better reflectors and be more 'adjustable'....

Have just packed them in a big cardboard box along with all the other photo stuff - preparatory to our 'big move' - so will have to wait a couple of months to have another 'play'

Didn't know that.... I've found that a bit of highlighting (small halogen desk lamp) can add a bit to small jewellry pieces...

Thanks for the ideas - back to the box-packing !

Regards Adrian

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

Be sure and ask him about the warranty and who pays for the shipping back if it needs warranty work, or who pays for it to be serviced at your place in a warranty situation.

Reply to
Javahut

Keep yappin, I'm reloading.

From rec.crafts.glass FAQ:

Commercial announcements(*) will be permitted as long as they are clearly marked as such in the subject by the use of "FS:" "Ad:" or similar indication. Such announcements must address events, goods, or services specifically useful in one or more of the pursuits listed above.

(*)An announcement is defined as a post regarding a single event, or change. It does not include ongoing advertising.

Reply to
Moonraker

Oh, you might also want to ask for references of other happy customers. That shouldn't be too long of a list. It would be especially entertaining to have a list of those on this news group who have done business with Dennis. Anybody? anybody at all?

Reply to
Moonraker

Many thanks for the offer.... but

- and this is going to sound really ungrateful

- after witnessing your approach and ceaseless self-promotion both here and on warmglass, there's no way I'd consider getting involved in any kind of customer-supplier relationship with you or your company.

There - I've said it. Harsh, I know - but you should be aware of the effect that your on-line behaviour might have on potential customers - all part of what I used to call 'Customer Service' when I used to consult for companies.

Regards Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.