Moving a large piece into the kiln

[S.TImmerman]

Hello all, I been working on the large piece (for me) outside of the kiln. I have over 400 pieces of glass standing on edge inside a 16" SS ring. I built this on a 19" piece of plexiglass/kiln paper/inside of the ring - I'm afraid of trying to ease it off onto the shelf of the skutt Clam shell. It took so may hours I knew bending over kiln would not be possible .

Should I just "do it" ? drip super glue and vent until it burns off? Kick myself for not doing it on the shelf in the first place?

Thank you much
Sunny San Diego... 76 today!
Shereen

[Mary Lou]

Place your kiln shelf on your workbench beside your piece, making sure it is level with your piece. Use a piece of stiff paper or plastic thin and wide enough to slide and pull under your work then slide it onto the shelf and holding the ss ring firm pull out this paper.

[Morganica]

If you drip superglue directly onto the shelfpaper, some of the glue will bleed through to the plexiglass below and you'll have a devil of a time getting it off without tearing things apart.

I've used Mary Lou's method successfully. The best is if the kiln paper itself can be the sliding mechanism. If there's an inch or more of paper outside that stainless steel ring, make sure the kilnshelf is level with the UNDERSIDE of the shelfpaper, set them side by side and then carefully grab the edges of the paper, ease it off the plexiglass and onto the shelf. It usually takes a fair amount of elbow room but once you get it sliding, it goes pretty well.

If the shelf paper is secured inside the ring, then you need something to ease under the paper and help move the ring across. I've had good luck with those really thin, lipless cookie sheets.

[S.TImmerman]

As always, this board and you wonderful sharing folks - I can't thank you enough!
In the future what is the best set up? Keeping in mind it took several hours to set this up.
Is it generally better to fuse items that have hundreds of tiny pieces right on the prepared shelf omitting kiln paper? I was wondering if the shelf paper might migrate between the pieces?
Is it always smart and necessary to sandblast the underside for good measure?

Sorry for all the questions !


Thank you VERY much!!

Shereen

[Morganica]

The shelf paper can migrate up if the pieces are moving and flowing a bit, it's always a danger. I agree, setting up on a kilnshelf when you're reaching doooown into the kiln with every piece (and the light usually isn't that great, either).

You can remove the kilnshelf and set it up on your worktable to assemble. The problem is, unless it's a small kilnshelf or one made of fiberboard, it's so heavy it's hard to set it into the kiln without messing things up, too.

I usually dab superglue on the pieces as I assemble, which has the added benefit of preventing them from falling over if you're assembling on-end. If you do that, you control the spread of the glue.

A couple of times where I've had lots of pieces to assemble precisely, I've assembled on kiln paper, on top of a couple of pieces of corrugated cardboard. I literally glued everything down to the cardboard to the point that I probably could have tucked it under one arm and carried it to the kiln (not wanting to tempt fate, I didn't try it). I set the whole thing down intact on a kilnwashed shelf, and fired.

It worked--the cardboard just burned away--but I don't know that I'd do that as a regular thing.

[S.TImmerman]

Thank you VERY much! I really appreciate it! I can't wait to get this piece done- it's been my "reward" working on this between finishing SG windows for a church; makes for LONG days.

Sending sunny days your way`

Shereen