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I am new to warm glass and have a question about draping over a flower mold. I have a problem with the glass closing around the mold instead of staying open like I see in the glass stores. I have tried lowering the hold time at the top end by 50% but still did not work. Any ideas? Thanks

Try dropping your top temp as well. Sometimes you have to play with both to get something that works for your glass, kiln and mold combination.

Thank you. I will try that next. Not sure how low to go since the top temp in the original program is 1280, but will try something like 1225 and see what happens.

And make sure you peek now and then when you're approaching top temp, so you can move on to annealing when your drape looks like you want it to.

I did all the above and especially the peeking. I actually did a quick freeze at the 1225 degree temp and started the cool down almost immediately after the kiln reached the top temp. Skipped the soak time at the top and continued on with the annealing. Came out really good! Thanks for everyone's expertise.

Another thing you can do - depending on your mold - is to put some fiber blanket around the bottom, basically so the glass can't get too close to the mold.

Valerie Adams wrote:And make sure you peek now and then when you're approaching top temp, so you can move on to annealing when your drape looks like you want it to.

This might be a stupid question, but if you have programmed your kiln, how do you move on to the annealing when it looks like you want it to look? Do you quickly have to reprogram? Or is there a way to advance to the next phase in the program?

Many controllers have a button or code that lets you skip to the next segment, or that starts the anneal soak. On the Skutt controller, for example, it's the button in the bottom left box, upper left:

Thanks, I will check mine tonight. I know I don't have that "anneal now" button though, that seems VERY handy.

On the Sentry Xpress 3-key controllers, like is used on some of the Paragon kilns, you press the down arrow. With each press it will cycle through a few options such as adding hold time, changing the target temp, and skipping the remaining time in the segment.

If all else fails, read the manual (says the geek who does some tech writing as part of her day job)

Dana W.

on mine there is a button that says "skip segment"
Jim