I was given a bunch of tempered glass from a friend who was remodeling her bathroom. Yeah! Never really worked with it before, so it's kind of trial and error (more error ). I seem to have the firing schedule figured out, but can't for the life of me get smooth edges. I pile it up about 1/4" or so evenly around the edge with no pieces 'sticking out', but I get lots of little shards sticking out all over the place when I pull it out of the kiln. Some of the small shards are even falling off. I am tack fusing and slumping at the same time in a very shallow square plate, as to avoid devit. Should I dam it and then slump? I imagine that would solve the problem, but would I get devit that way?? Why would the edges get so uneven?
full - 1000 - 20'
700 - 1350 - 25'
full - 1000 - 3 H
250 - 700
500 - 300 off
Thanks, I'll give that a try. Do you think it will make a difference if I overspray it, or am I firing it at too low a temp to matter? I use the borax spray Brad has on the warm tips site.
borax can help but unless you spray lightly and with great controll the borax will drip through the crushed glass and cause kw to stick. which can be sanded off prior to slump but is another step. rosanna
artist, owner of wanchese art studio, marine finisher
rosanna gusler wrote:borax can help but unless you spray lightly and with great controll the borax will drip through the crushed glass and cause kw to stick. which can be sanded off prior to slump but is another step. rosanna
I usually skip the borax and just sandblast before slumping to get a nice matte finish. Or oftentimes the glass looks ok even if it devits or blooms a bit.
I don't have a sandblaster, so I've been trying to do this in one firing (tack/slump). I have carefully sprayed a little borax with a fine mister on the last one I did, but really don't think I used enough. Do I risk much more devit if I fire it twice by tacking and then fusing, or am I better off to do it in one step - like I'm doing now?
). I seem to have the firing schedule figured out, but can't for the life of me get smooth edges. I pile it up about 1/4" or so evenly around the edge with no pieces 'sticking out', but I get lots of little shards sticking out all over the place when I pull it out of the kiln. Some of the small shards are even falling off. I am tack fusing and slumping at the same time in a very shallow square plate, as to avoid devit. Should I dam it and then slump? I imagine that would solve the problem, but would I get devit that way?? Why would the edges get so uneven?