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I was not aware there’s a compatibility problem with wire inclusions... Many of the wire and glass pieces made in the 1970's are now starting to crack. And I've seen fused wire pieces crack much more quickly than that when the wire is thicker. The COE for most metals is 150 or higher. So it's not m...

What gauge wire? What material wire?

I would be more concerned about long term compatibility than holding up the two layers.

Lots of enamels out there, none are the same. You'll have to check the specifications (firing recommendations) and content (lead or non-lead, COE dependent or not) for each enamel to make comparisons. Since Easy Fire and Fusemaster are marketed by the same people (Fusion Headquarters), I would conta...

Great to hear from you, Bert, and glad you're back 100%. Missed you.

I would cut it out of Ceramaguard, but I'm not sure that's available in Israel.

Second choice would be to use long strips of 3mm fiber paper, which can be wrapped around the dammed area several times, then secured with lots of small kiln posts and strips of cut up kiln shelf.

I was at Spectrum years ago and watched them iridized glass with a spray arm going back and forth as the glass came out of the rollers. I think Oceanside has bitten off more than they can chew. some of the clears are terrible. Spectrum would iridize their stained glass, which burns off in the kiln....

I believe Uroboros did the coatings on Spectrum's irid. I suspect it's not yet a priority for Oceanside.

Surprised acetone didn't do it. And bad language seldom works, but it does make you feel better. About the only other thing I can think of is CLR (Calcium Line Rust), which has multiple solvents but may not be available in Australia. On the other hand, the company that put that sticker on has gone o...

Marty wrote:Check on the cure time- last I used it I left it for a week undisturbed.

Hxtal takes a week to cure. You can speed it up with heat (say, undisturbed under a hot kiln), but that still takes 3 or 4 days.

Thicker will work fine.

Or just cut a hole in something like a piece of Ceramaguard and for a lot less money than stainless you'll have something that will work just as well.

Consider not using stainless. I have these kinds of things made from regular mild steel, as much as 1/4" thick and just cover the steel with thinfire paper before I use the mold. Works perfect, and any spalling is contained by the thinfire. I use a local metal fabricator. They're fairly easy to...

Tony Smith wrote:Are these full-size belts or Covington size? I've never heard of belts coming apart, but I suppose it's possible as the glue hardens over time.

Full-size. I'd never heard of it either until it happened twice this past month.

Funny you mention this, Greg. I had two split on me just a couple of weeks ago. Don't know why. The belts were purchased several years ago, so perhaps there's a shelf life issue. But I've never had the problem before.

Looks to me like it was annealing, not necessarily thermal shock. Annealing cracks are typically S-shaped and don't go all the way through. Pieces with variations in thickness require a longer anneal than pieces that are smoother. But either way, you can fuse it flat to hide the crack with frit, etc...

Yes. I assume by "rainbows" you mean bright white areas of stress, usually around the corners of the pieces that are incompatible. Well, no, they are rainbow-colored. I think you can see them in the photo that I attached if you blow it up. They are just thin bands of rainbow around the ed...

I want to be sure I understood the rainbows. Rainbows showing in a polariscope indicate stress in the glass, so that would be where the glass MIGHT crack in the future. Am I correct about that? Yes. I assume by "rainbows" you mean bright white areas of stress, usually around the corners o...

The tales of exploding glass I've read online really scare me.... would love to know more about when / why that happens. I wouldn't necessarily believe everything you read about online, but basically there are four kinds of cracks: 1. Incompatibility, where the coefficient of expansion between two ...

It's almost certainly incompatibility. It's a good practice to only fuse float with itself, rather than fuse one piece of float with another. In time, the piece will probably crack further.

When we made pottery kiln wash in college, it was 50% EPK and 50% Alumna Hydrate. To make it more like glass kiln wash, you would have to add 20% to 30% Alumna Hydrate... right? I always did the opposite. More alumina hydrate, less EPK kaolin. That's a soft wash, doesn't usually stick, single use. ...

I am in need of a firing schedule for this, and am stumped. This base was a mistake that happened in a class I was taking (taking a few local classes to help me get my feet wet again). I thought it was really cool, though, and decided to use it for something. I can't lift this base layer at all, as...