i've set up a melt in the big kiln, and shelf has about 20 coats of BE kw on it. broad pot, not very tall, good-sized hole, filled with variety of scraps. this is my first attempt. thought i had kept a schedule from a thread, but can't find it in my file nor in archive. i am thinking of:
300 dph to 1000
500 dph to 1200
9999 to 1700, set hold for an hour, but watch
9999 to 960
150 dph to 700
off. cool to RT for about 12 hrs.
whaddya think? it's all junk scraps in there, varying thicknesses. maybe i could ramp up faster? i'm going to start the project now, and if someone answers this in the next couple of hours, i can reprogram the ramps. many thanks, friends. kitty.
Pot Melt Firing Schedule
Moderators: Brad Walker, Tony Smith
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Cynthia
I go AFAP to 1700, hold til the pot quits dribbling (depends on how full you charged the pot and how big the pot is), and anneal at 960 for 30 minutes with a ramp of 150 dph to 750 (for BE) then off.
NO need to go slow since you have a bucket full of shards anyway. I have never had any problems screaming up to 1700 to date anyway.
NO need to go slow since you have a bucket full of shards anyway. I have never had any problems screaming up to 1700 to date anyway.
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Kim Bellis
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2003 9:48 pm
- Location: Tampa, Florida
- Contact:
the melt was composed of some clear with black threads in it and a bit of confetti; some black; some salmon; some white; and a handful of light bronze and clear pieces the size of peas. the colors blended to produce mostly black. the top surface is black, and the bottom has a more interesting appearance. the circle is quite perfect.
i see from this that clear isn't a good choice in the quantity i used. it causes too much blending. i learned quite a bit from this first try, and suggest you fire one up yourself and see what the result is.
there are excellent pictures of other people's pot melts in previous threads, much better to look at than this first attempt of mine. i dont know how to post a picture -- need a teacher for that part. maybe one day.
i see from this that clear isn't a good choice in the quantity i used. it causes too much blending. i learned quite a bit from this first try, and suggest you fire one up yourself and see what the result is.
there are excellent pictures of other people's pot melts in previous threads, much better to look at than this first attempt of mine. i dont know how to post a picture -- need a teacher for that part. maybe one day.
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Lynne Chappell
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2003 2:05 am
- Location: Surrey B.C. Canada
- Contact:
So, the flower pot isn't subject to thermal shock, and you can go as fast as possible? My kiln will reach 1700 in a little over an hour - I won't find the pot in pieces at that rate?
I'm not sure I understand about the clear causing too much blending. I'm thinking that opaque colors probably work better than transparents, yes? I can't really visualize how the glass will move other than the stuff at the bottom will form the center base and the stuff on top will end up spreading out to the edges. So maybe opaques at the bottom, and transparents on top? I think I will avoid black entirely on my first try. Going out this weekend to find the suitable pot and support structure. It sounds like fun.
I'm not sure I understand about the clear causing too much blending. I'm thinking that opaque colors probably work better than transparents, yes? I can't really visualize how the glass will move other than the stuff at the bottom will form the center base and the stuff on top will end up spreading out to the edges. So maybe opaques at the bottom, and transparents on top? I think I will avoid black entirely on my first try. Going out this weekend to find the suitable pot and support structure. It sounds like fun.
uh, no lynne, the glass moves the other way. what ends up on the outside edges is the very first part that came through the pot. it's continually pushing out the flow to the edge, same as ripples in a pond expanding outward.
in january, when i got the big kiln and was brand new to making bigger things (after 6 yrs of full-on jewelry, which i still do) several things went wrong, since the kiln gods sometimes like to annoy beginners. i had a warped kiln shelf, and lots of tennis size bubbles on first 2 projects. one was that streaky clear from BE with black threads in clear, with confetti sprinkled around. a lot of this melt was that stuff. when it is melting and passing thru the hole of the pot, it is blending at that point, and the black dominates. plus, i had added some black to the melt, a small amount of white, clear bronze in small dose, and a handful of clear peas, which is a byproduct of the way i make dangle earrings. if you hold the disk up to the light, you can see the concentric bands of the melt, but if you dont have light passing thru the glass, it simply looks black.
you know, it's OK, too. i learned a lot about doing this, and see now that i will have better results with more opaque colors, less plain clear.
that black disk is now sitting on a shelf, inside one of matt hoppes's steel rings, waiting to become part of a raking job, which i will assemble this weekend. so, nothing lost on this, and it's given me a nice opportunity to try out some more things and add to my experiences.
by the time i changed the firing program, following Cynthia's suggestion, the kiln was probaby at 600F or so. i reprogrammed it to AFAP 1700, and nothing bad happened. evidently those terra cotta pots can take the heat.
i was looking at my pot today, and wondering why i cannot use it again. it appears to be quite satisfactory in every way. i did not have a tail on my pot melt, by the way. it terminated in a thread slimmer than a pencil lead, and then stopped. there was no connection between the melt and the pot, so no need to break the pot.
i believe that if i put a shim under the edge of the pot, so the bottom was not flat, the molten glass might exude a little differently ... maybe a fatter flow. when the pot is totally flat, you've got that glug-glug problem, perhaps. not sure about that. by the time i looked in the kiln, the melt was 99% done, so i didn't see it in the middle of the session.
what i think i want to do with these melts is this: i think they would be much more interesting if there were multiple pots with different charges of glass. say, 3 pots, different sizes, suspended over the area. the melt could be contained in a stainless steel ring if a circle was desired. i dont know if a free-form melt would be tasty or not. maybe a free-form melt that was later cut, selecting the area of best appearance would work.
in january, when i got the big kiln and was brand new to making bigger things (after 6 yrs of full-on jewelry, which i still do) several things went wrong, since the kiln gods sometimes like to annoy beginners. i had a warped kiln shelf, and lots of tennis size bubbles on first 2 projects. one was that streaky clear from BE with black threads in clear, with confetti sprinkled around. a lot of this melt was that stuff. when it is melting and passing thru the hole of the pot, it is blending at that point, and the black dominates. plus, i had added some black to the melt, a small amount of white, clear bronze in small dose, and a handful of clear peas, which is a byproduct of the way i make dangle earrings. if you hold the disk up to the light, you can see the concentric bands of the melt, but if you dont have light passing thru the glass, it simply looks black.
you know, it's OK, too. i learned a lot about doing this, and see now that i will have better results with more opaque colors, less plain clear.
that black disk is now sitting on a shelf, inside one of matt hoppes's steel rings, waiting to become part of a raking job, which i will assemble this weekend. so, nothing lost on this, and it's given me a nice opportunity to try out some more things and add to my experiences.
by the time i changed the firing program, following Cynthia's suggestion, the kiln was probaby at 600F or so. i reprogrammed it to AFAP 1700, and nothing bad happened. evidently those terra cotta pots can take the heat.
i was looking at my pot today, and wondering why i cannot use it again. it appears to be quite satisfactory in every way. i did not have a tail on my pot melt, by the way. it terminated in a thread slimmer than a pencil lead, and then stopped. there was no connection between the melt and the pot, so no need to break the pot.
i believe that if i put a shim under the edge of the pot, so the bottom was not flat, the molten glass might exude a little differently ... maybe a fatter flow. when the pot is totally flat, you've got that glug-glug problem, perhaps. not sure about that. by the time i looked in the kiln, the melt was 99% done, so i didn't see it in the middle of the session.
what i think i want to do with these melts is this: i think they would be much more interesting if there were multiple pots with different charges of glass. say, 3 pots, different sizes, suspended over the area. the melt could be contained in a stainless steel ring if a circle was desired. i dont know if a free-form melt would be tasty or not. maybe a free-form melt that was later cut, selecting the area of best appearance would work.
PS lynne ... the pot i first got was a trifle too tall for my Paragon GL22. when i had the bricks in the kiln, and the sawed up 16" lengths of kiln shelf on top of them, the pot was too close to the elements, i thought. i bought a different one, slightly decorative, lower and wider. it cost $2.49 as opposed to 89 cents, but i liked the wider bowl, lower depth, to get it away from the elements a little more. it was still t-i-g-h-t.
somebody previously said that 4-1/2 lbs of glass made an 11" diameter disk 1/4" thick. i didn't weigh my glass, i guessed. i ended up with a disk 12" in diameter, and about 1/4" thick. it came out extremely even in every respect.
somebody previously said that 4-1/2 lbs of glass made an 11" diameter disk 1/4" thick. i didn't weigh my glass, i guessed. i ended up with a disk 12" in diameter, and about 1/4" thick. it came out extremely even in every respect.