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Brad, thanks for your response. I was wondering if you might have a piece of the material on a shelf somewhere. :) I'm going to drill holes in the small disc I have first, and see how it performs. That's a lot fewer holes than will be needed for the large disc. :) If scrubbing it with a Scotch pad w...

Jerry, thanks for your input. As far as I could tell, and from what others said at the time this product was available, the product out-gassed continuously. There was a build-up of gas under the glass AFTER the glass melted and the glass sealed itself to the FS surface. I don't believe that using po...

Kevin, thanks for the link. I didn't remember that someone had tried a long, hot, firing to try to eliminate the out-gassing. Maybe I'll try doing that myself, now that the pieces have been sitting for 10 years. Maybe I'll get lucky! :D I wish I knew what, exactly, the stuff was, because even with t...

A few years ago (could be longer, the way my memory is) there was a new product called Fusion Shield that was sold for a short time, before problems with out-gassing blew it out of the water. Did anyone ever come up with a way to make it work? I purchased a 18" diameter piece, and a 9" dia...

Most (all that I'm aware of) clear neon tubing is COE 92. Colored neon tubing was also lead glass(They used to make a couple of ruby shades, cobalt blue, emerald green, Novial gold -a bright yellow, and an opaque gray glass -actually a fired-on coating- that was used between letters/words to block o...

Tony, I used the term "bundt pan" as a somewhat descriptive term, but the piece I have is similar only in that it has the center elevated "cone" shape. My pan/bowl is from a piece of restaurant equipment, a meat chopper. I saw the bowl on a chopper at an auction, then was able to...

Thanks for the input. I'm going to try the SS "bundt pan" with some scrap glass first. I'm not sure what I'll end up making with it, but it was too interesting to not get it. I'll take some pics when I get a result worth sharing.

I've got some new "molds" to play with, and I'm not sure how many holes I should put in them to allow air to escape during a slump. The first is a 20" SS bowl with a flat bottom. I would guess just a couple of holes in the very bottom would be sufficient. The other is a little tricky,...

I thought I'd report on the results of my "experiment": I decided to try fire-polishing during my slump of 1/2" float. The piece was made from 3 pieces of 3/16" float, 16" diameter. I slumped into a BE bowl mold at 1250, using the side elements of the kiln, as they are the o...

I've got a considerable amount of 3/16" float, clear and gray, that I purchased 15 years ago at an auction for next to nothing. It was so cheap that I wasn't careful storing it, and it got rained on, and now has mineral stains on a lot of it. I'm wondering whether it's worth sandblasting the de...

Thanks, Tony.

I recently purchased a set of the diamond hand pads from BE, and I'm pleased with them. However, I'd like to get to a finer finish than what the pads BE sells can accomplich. Does anyone know a source for finer grit pads? I've investigated getting them from a 3M distributor, and prices would be abou...

After fusing two pieces of float, I decided to sandblast the top surface to eliminate an irregular devit area. To fire polish the surface do I need to bring it to full fuse again, while flat, or can I fire polish during the slump? The sandblast was done with 100 grit, which normally results in a mat...

I know most advise firing with the tin side down, but what about in the case of fusing two/three pieces together? With two pieces, tin sides both down? Or both tin sides in the middle? With three pieces, I guess all bets are off, unless the desired method is one tin against one un-tinned. Any consid...

From a previous life, I have a couple of large spools of thin copper wire used in windings for electric motors. The wire has a lacquer coating that color-codes various wires based on temperature resistance. I'm wondering about using the wire between two sheets of glass: do you think the coating burn...

Tony's detailed comments pretty much covered it all. One more thing, relating to longevity and noise: you should check into "industrial" compressor sources if you are in this for the long haul. Cost will probably be a little higher, but you will have more choices. Compressors commonly avai...

Cheryl, you need to figure out how much air you need: what pressure you want to blast at (are you frosting, carving, removing irid coatings, etc.), what size nozzle you are going to use(how big are the areas you plan to be blasting), and what type of sandblast system you plan to purchase: suction or...

Jackie, I've just begun making some bowls that I've sand-carved prior to slumping. Some of the blanks are carved from a larger flat piece, using the sandblaster to cut through. (If someone has a waterjet apparatus they'd like to donate or sell CHEAP, I'm interested! :D ) I slump at 1250, and by hold...

I'm currently slumping some carved bowls in 1/2" float, 16" diameter. Once I get past 700 on the down cycle, the kiln loses temperature "naturally" very slowly, about 30 deg/hr, rather than the suggested 200/hr rate. The first time I did this I decided to crack the top and see ho...

I just finished my first slumps using 1/2" float in some 16" diameter bowl molds. They came out well, BUT, around the perimeter 2" or so there is a "texture" that I'm guessing is created by the stretching of the glass and it's dragging on the mold. Kind of looks like devit, ...