glass memory?
Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 11:12 am
I had posted the item on a potentially failing thermocouple on my Evenheat GT-18. I have replaced it and I *think* things are ok now. I need to do some more testing to be sure, but I wanted to ask about some oddities I saw with my test piece.
This was 2 layers of System 96 clear with lots of shards on top. I kept firing this piece as I tried to debug my problems, so it got taken up to (I think) about 1400-1450 four times. It also failed to anneal properly in each of these firings (and had serious cracks in it).
In the firing with the new thermocouple, it appears that I got a full fuse, but I noticed that previous cracks are still visible inside the glass, and some of the surface, where the shards did not cover, devitrified (unusual for S96). With this method I usually find the shards flow over the full surface of the piece.
So, my question is - does the glass remember its past mis-treatment as far as recovering from not being annealed? I note that the piece still exhibits one crack on the surface after its full fuse - all the other cracks seem to be trapped in the body.
Also, I know one only has a few high temperature firings before devit sets in (so there is some memory) - does devit inhibit the flow of glass, so when I finally did get a full fuse, the shards would not flow over the devitrified surfaces?
I'm trying a slump with this piece now through a Ceramguard drop ring to practice cutting off rims from bowls.
This was 2 layers of System 96 clear with lots of shards on top. I kept firing this piece as I tried to debug my problems, so it got taken up to (I think) about 1400-1450 four times. It also failed to anneal properly in each of these firings (and had serious cracks in it).
In the firing with the new thermocouple, it appears that I got a full fuse, but I noticed that previous cracks are still visible inside the glass, and some of the surface, where the shards did not cover, devitrified (unusual for S96). With this method I usually find the shards flow over the full surface of the piece.
So, my question is - does the glass remember its past mis-treatment as far as recovering from not being annealed? I note that the piece still exhibits one crack on the surface after its full fuse - all the other cracks seem to be trapped in the body.
Also, I know one only has a few high temperature firings before devit sets in (so there is some memory) - does devit inhibit the flow of glass, so when I finally did get a full fuse, the shards would not flow over the devitrified surfaces?
I'm trying a slump with this piece now through a Ceramguard drop ring to practice cutting off rims from bowls.