Cracked :(

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Shirley Bishop
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Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:16 pm

Cracked :(

Post by Shirley Bishop »

Newbie here. I just fired a 11 x 8 platter. 6mm of base with deco pieces on top and a bit of frit. Came out beautiful but i was too anxious and took it out at 200 degrees instead of waiting for it to totally cool. Then to make matters worse i stuck it under some warm water to clean off the fired shelf paper and it cracked. Not all the way through. It's still in once piece. Can i save it? Can i fix it? Can i refire on another 3mm base? Any suggestions? Besides not to do that again! Cracked :(
Cheryl
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Re: Cracked :(

Post by Cheryl »

Sure you can re-fire it. It's not clear from your description whether it is textured or not. If you re-fire to a full fuse you will lose that. You may want to put a bit of a dam around it the next time so it doesn't spread out - which sometimes cracked glass likes to do. If you do this you will not need another piece of glass underneath.

It is a bit warm to take glass out (and the middle of the glass is always hotter than the surface) but it could have cracked for any number of reasons. Impossible to know w/out your schedule.
"Every artist was first an amateur."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson
JestersBaubles
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Re: Cracked :(

Post by JestersBaubles »

200 degrees; running water. It cracked from the thermal shock.

Been there; done that (once)! :mrgreen:

Dana W.
Stephen Richard
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Re: Cracked :(

Post by Stephen Richard »

If you re-fire, take the temperature up slowly - it is on the edge of completely fracturing and any rapid change of temperature will break it. Confining it in some way may help.
However you need to figure out why it cracked so easily. Yes it was really too hot, but had it been properly annealed? The annealing soak needs to be much longer for tack fused elements than for 9mm. The cool down needs to be much slower - possibly for 9 or 12 mm.
Steve Richard
You can view my Blog at: http://verrier-glass.blogspot.com/
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