pot melts

I use 1550 to 1800 depending on the effect I want. Most common is 1650.

Okay, I'll bite, what's a pot melt - from your point of view?

The pot melt I'm talking about is melting glass in a terra cotta pot suspended over the kiln shelf. The glass drains out of the hole in the bottom of the pot. I'll be doing one later today.

AKA aperture pour. Melting colored glass and have it flow through an orifice onto the kiln shelf. Probably half of my work uses pot melts right now.

Alternate definition, sprinkling marijuana on a patty melt.

Let us know how it goes.

Ah, yes. Waffle House's new late night feast.

At IHOP it's called a Potty Melt.

Can you describe your procedure, and what you do for controlling where it goes and such? Looks like fun.

It's finished and didn't turn out too bad. I have a fair amount of bubble dimples on the top so apparently I need to hold the ramp down at 1500 for more than 30 min. I wonder if 1550 would be better. I have a few strange marks on the back that I guess came from the terra cotta saucer.

'm looking for something more dramatic looking then these really fine rings. The wire melt looks interesting. I have a roll of wire fencing that might work. While the wire is thinner I don't think it is galvanized. If the holes are too big I guess I could just double it over.http://www.clearwaterglass.com/wire_mesh_melt.htm

This link, posted by Connie, describes it very well.

is pretty much the same.

WOW I really enjoyed that Connie! Now I have something to do the next time business is slow and I'm ready to slit my wrists! Some of your stuff looks like Rondels. I thought Rondels were somehow spun?

Well, it is one of the choices I had in mind. The method is used to feed glass into a mold - essentually a ceramic funnel - although there most of the glass is one color in chunks with modest amounts of accent colors. Looks interesting.

Hi JK, Glad you liked the web sites, though they are not mine. Yes, roundels are usually made by the hot glass workers. My glass turned out looking like a roundel because I had the glass drip down into a kiln washed terra cotta saucer. The kind that goes under the planter to hold the excess water. That way the glass does not wander around on the kiln shelf. I don't want it to stick to the kiln furniture, bricks or end up on the floor of the kiln. The floor of my kiln is covered with a coating of kiln wash but it could probably stand another layer after all these years. If I didn't want a round circle I could use some of those (I can't think of the name) bars to make a square or rectangular shape. Hope you enjoy playing around with it.

One last dumb question. Since it's so much glass mixing together at high temps, do we need to be cautious about compatibility, or can we just throw in a bunch of mixed scrap into the soup?

We have to be cautious about compatibility because it is not mixing nearly enough to become one COE. In fact, compatible glass (some of the colors) can shift due to the high temps.

Yup.... my first attempt has a million hairline cracks in it. I used a stainless steel plate and the kiln wash is all brown and stuck to the bottom. Is there anything that won't stick to the bottom?

Drop onto a washed shelf or better yet use 1/32" fiber.

Thanks for posting the links, particularly the one about the wiremelt!! Hadn't thought of that method of directing the glass yet. Also like the idea of using a terra kiln-washed flower pot as the mold. Tired of buying or making "special" molds. I've been doing smaller Potmelts (2+ inch diameters finished) for about 2 weeks now, with some very nice successes. One trick is varying the size of the drain hole. Best so far is with

1/4" hole. I've been getting best results with a moderately fast ramp (hour) to 1400F, holding it 10 minutes, and then going to 1700F and holding it there for 10 minutes. I usually check at that point briefly to see if all the glass has drained, or if there's been a problem. One caution : be careful using the same pot more than 5 or so times. Repeated used causes fatigue, and the pot will break, spilling molten glass where you don't expect it. Also, if you live in the SW states, be careful using the small pots from Mexico - much of the clay used doesn't stand up to higher temperatures. I'm going to try some Potmelts with mutiple holes, perhaps a triangular arrangement, blending different colors at each corner. Has anyone else tried this? Any other multiple-hole Potmelt arrangements?

-RBClark

I'm glad your having good results. Unfortunately, I'm having kiln problems. My largest kiln is an old ceramics kiln. It took over 8 hours for a 4 hour schedule with the controller erroring out once. I can't afford a new kiln right now but I may look into new elements.

The wire melt was very interesting. I should stay away from dark colors like purple and add more white.