Glassmelting over Metal

[la suisse]

Dear all,

as I often work with steel, I wonder if it is possible to melt glass over a steelgrate. The steel I would like to use is quite rosty, the gratebars do have about 1,5 until 2cm (0,59 to 0,79 inches). I think the problem will be the different COE?
I would like to try it - would you think, this could damage the kiln?

Thank you for telling me your thoughts
Jac

[DonMcClennen]

I can't see how it could damage your kiln other than create a bit of a mess from the black ash that will be flaking off the steel. Carbon steel will spall causing a bit of an ash mess that can be vacuumed up.

[Joel Taylor]

I recently fired on a sheet of 22g cold rolled steel. I did a Full fuse schedule on a skutt gm1414 with 1/2" coe90 glass. I put the sheet directly on top of the kiln posts and a layer of thin fiber paper between the steel and glass. I also put a coat of high temp release on the steel. Unfortunately, the sheet was too thin and deflected significantly - causing the glass to follow form and resulting in way too much internal stress after the fire was done. I had anticipated this and was planning on reinforcing the sheet but, ran out of time and plan on running more test fires. However, the surface finish on the face of the glass that was in contact with the fiber paper was similar to when fired on ceramics. I've also fired a number of samples on top of 304 stainless, brass, copper, and other cold rolled. I assume since stainless is used for molds, it should be able to used in other applications. I'm also a noob and have done a total of four fires, so that should also have an effect on my results.

[la suisse]

Thank you both so much for your informatons and suggestions.
I will try it.... I'm curios how it will end so I have to do it

Thanks!

[Havi]

I would recommend to you to do a google search on MESH MELT, which will give you a lot of info. and examples.

You can also check Brad Walker's book "Contemporary Fused Glass" where he deals with high temprature melts,

and in
Steve Immerman's tutorials on his website - www.clearwaterglass.com


Those will give you a lot of info.


Good luck,

Havi