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Full fuse 2 mm dichroic stringers

Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 1:37 pm
by sheila
My kiln full fuses at 1480 and tacs at 1350 F. 1 MM dichroic stringer, at 1350, doesn't always adhere (some pieces do, some don't) on a base of 6.0 BE transparent, and at 1480 flattens more than I want.
Question: what will 2 mm stringer do at 1480? I'm guessing that it will not fully flatten, but will solidly fuse to the base.
I may need to add the 2 mm in a 2nd fusing to retain it's 3 dimensional affect, but not sure.
Thanks!

Re: Full fuse 2 mm dichroic stringers

Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 1:59 pm
by Morganica
First of all, the schedule you use is more important than the top temperature, so "fuses at 1480 and tacs at 1350" is kinda meaningless. Glass responds to the amount of heat applied over time; if you change your schedule so it reaches 1350 faster or slower, you'll get different restuls. So...without your full schedule it's hard to say.

Are you using black or clear dichro stringer? Black will adhere faster than clear because it's a softer glass. More than likely, you need to slow down a bit, put in an extra hold until the "hardest" glasses are fully tacked, and accept that there will be a difference in dimension with black and clear tack-fuses. If that won't work for your design, then you're right, you'll need to tack in two stages; do the hardest glasses in the first tack-fuse and get them to just barely adhere, then do a second tack-fuse for the softer glasses.

The 2mm may just tack faster than the 1mm--more mass to help the glass flow. Hard to tell unless I know more about your design, but the sure way to know is to test.