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I got quite a few needles on my last plate even though I used a very conservative ramp up at 250° f per hour. Its a slingle layer of 3mm glass with about 1 mm frit. The glass stuck to my fiber paper.

Any way, I cant afford to buy any more tools at the moment and I own very little cold working equipment. What I do have is a dremel with silicone carbide bits. Will this be adequate? The needles are very small.

Anyway, this piece has one more full fuse firing and a slump. When I fuse again it will be to add a second layer of glass on top. I was thinking of turning the back side, with the needles to the top and adding the second layer. Ill fuse this on thin fire. Will that help?

Suggestions appreciated!

Suzette A wrote:I got quite a few needles on my last plate even though I used a very conservative ramp up at 250° f per hour. Its a slingle layer of 3mm glass with about 1 mm frit. The glass stuck to my fiber paper.

Any way, I cant afford to buy any more tools at the moment and I own very little cold working equipment. What I do have is a dremel with silicone carbide bits. Will this be adequate? The needles are very small.

Anyway, this piece has one more full fuse firing and a slump. When I fuse again it will be to add a second layer of glass on top. I was thinking of turning the back side, with the needles to the top and adding the second layer. Ill fuse this on thin fire. Will that help?

Suggestions appreciated!

you have a bunch of problems. you need to post the whole schedule in order to get the best help.that said, glass less than 6 mm thick will want to shrink and that causes needles. i suggest that you read the tutorial on this site for starters it will answer why you had this problem and really help you in the future. r.

Your main problem is glass "volume", full fuse- single layer and probably your unposted schedule. Get a book, take some courses.

I fire single layer pieces all the time without needle points but my schedule is 400° an hour to 1400° with a 15 minute hold. And that's in my kiln; yours will be different.

You may also be having a problem with overfiring on fiber paper. Overfiring makes the glass flow too much, so it's more likely to needlepoint, and it'll tend to drag more over the rougher fiberpaper surface than it would over kilnwash.

You don't really have to buy a lot of tools to deal with needles, however. Your dremel can grind off the biggest/worst of the needles. Then just get a wooden block with an old towel wrapped around it, plus some wet-dry sandpaper in grits ranging from about 120 to 400. Start with 120, wrap a piece around your towel-covered block, dip it in a bit of water, and grind away at the edges. If the sandpaper fills up, dip it back in the water to clear. If the grit wears away, rotate the paper to expose fresh. When everything's smooth, swap to 200/220-grit and repeat. Do it again with 400. That will give you a satiny finish that you can firepolish well in the kiln.

If you want to restore a full shine, you'll need to add sandpaper up to about 1000- or 1200-grit, but you can do it. It's easier, of course, to simply adjust your schedule and use kilnwash.

DonMcClennen wrote:Your main problem is glass "volume", full fuse- single layer and probably your unposted schedule. Get a book, take some courses.

Brad's Contemporary Fused Glass http://www.warmglass.com/cfg/ is IMHO the best starter/info/reference book on the market.

Valerie Adams wrote:I fire single layer pieces all the time without needle points but my schedule is 400° an hour to 1400° with a 15 minute hold. And that's in my kiln; yours will be different.

Randy & Carole Wardell's Joy of Fusing actually addresses firing single layers. They have a couple of single-layer projects in this book. This is also a good, basic informational book about fusing without being as comprehensive as Brad's.

Morganica wrote:You don't really have to buy a lot of tools to deal with needles, however. Your dremel can grind off the biggest/worst of the needles. Then just get a wooden block with an old towel wrapped around it, plus some wet-dry sandpaper in grits ranging from about 120 to 400. Start with 120, wrap a piece around your towel-covered block, dip it in a bit of water, and grind away at the edges. If the sandpaper fills up, dip it back in the water to clear. If the grit wears away, rotate the paper to expose fresh. When everything's smooth, swap to 200/220-grit and repeat. Do it again with 400. That will give you a satiny finish that you can firepolish well in the kiln.
If you want to restore a full shine, you'll need to add sandpaper up to about 1000- or 1200-grit, but you can do it. It's easier, of course, to simply adjust your schedule and use kilnwash.

Also see Paul Tarlow's Coldworking Glass without Machines. I'm surprised he doesn't mention using sandpaper as indicated by Morganica, but sandpaper is just grit (discussed by Paul) fastened to a backing.

Another issue is proper annealing for single layer with added decorations; this process may actually introduce risk greater than 'normal' 2-layer projects. The related issues are addressed in Graham Stone's Firing Schedules for Glasshttp://www.warmglass.org/books/books/126-fsg. For now just being aware that you need to use a conservative annealing schedule will probably suffice, but Stone's book is a 'must have' to understand firing schedules in order to avoid some of the oddities being introduced into schedules and to eventually developing your own.

Thank you Cynthia.

Your tips are helpful!

Luckily, I do have wet/dry paper. Ill give that a go. The needles are very small. Just pin prick size. I thought I did rather well over all. My plate is square, no dog boning. Aside from those needles Im quite happy.

As for my firing schedule:

1. 250. 900. 15
2. 500. 1100. 00
3. 100. 1250. 30
4. AFAP 1475. 10
5. AFAP. 960. 30
6. 200 700. 00
7. 400. 100. 00

Any way I do have several books, including Contemporary Fused Glass. Of course I have read it! But there is no instruction like experimentation and asking questions!

Thanks again!

pic of project

[img][URL=http://s44.photobucket.com/user/suzette ... Mobile%20U[/img]

If you go the Dremel route, be sure to immerse the piece or to run water over it while knocking the needles off: it is surprisingly easy to create thermal shock through the friction of grinding tools. Better safe than sorry.