Flip and Fire

"Flip and Fire" is a term was devised by Brian Blanthorn to describe a process to achieve crisp details in the final piece.

The process takes advantage of two things - heat and weight. The glass on the shelf side moves less than the top as it is not quite so hot, and the weight of the glass above keeps the lines the way they were cut. The glass on the top of the piece begins to move first and fill the gaps that are left between the pieces.

This piece has been assembled with the final upper surface on the shelf and the base sheet placed on top.

The simplest method to achieve straight lines is to fire the piece with the final surface down to the shelf. After fusing, turn over and clean any surface contamination, usually by sandblasting. Wash and polish dry. Then fire the new surface to a fire polish temperature.

The same piece fire polished after cleaning the fused glass.

This technique works best on pieces that are of one uniform thickness.


There are other factors at play in obtaining crisp lines. 

Fusing straight lines

In addition to the "flip and fire" approach, there are a number of other factors that contribute to sharp, crisp lines in a piece made with strips of glass laid on edge and fused.

Smooth glass will fuse straighter than strips of textured glass. The individual strips fit closer together, leaving less room for lines to wander and create a wavy appearance.

The quality of the cut of the strip is important. Straight strips with right angle edges and no flares make for crisper lines.

The thinner the strips, the less opportunity for movement in the fusing when they are placed on edge. Ideally, the strips should be 6mm wide. This is the thickness that glass tends to take up when full fused. The greater the width beyond 6mm, the less likely the lines will be straight.

The viscosity of the glass affects the crispness of the lines. A glass that is less viscous will tend to be more wavy than a more viscous glass. E.g., black glass, a less viscous glass than white, will tend toward waviness more than the white. This is not a variation between manufacturers; it is a variation within a compatible range of glasses.

The firing surface will have an effect. Firing directly on a kiln washed shelf will give crisper lines than firing on fibre paper of whatever thickness.

Damming the composition before firing will produce straighter lines. The dam holds the strips in place during the heat up and restricts any flow that would be caused by strips thicker than 6mm.

Solder for Zinc

A number of people seem to have difficulty soldering zinc around their projects.  This is because zinc transmits the heat quickly – more quickly than the tin/lead solder – requiring more heat to be put into the process.  There is a solder that can make this process easier as it is designed for soldering zinc.

“Galvanite is a lead-free galvanizing solder formulation designed specifically for high quality repairs to galvanized steel surfaces. Simple, effective and easy to use, in both manufacturing and field applications. It metallurgically bonds to the steel, for a seamless protective barrier.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder#Lead-free_solder

It composition is 50% tin, 49% zinc and 1% copper.  It becomes solid at 200C and liquid at 300C.  This makes it a high temperature solder for stained glass purposes, but will give a firm attachment between the zinc and the solder or lead came it surrounds.  The high temperature aspect means you need to keep the iron on the zinc rather than the more easily soldered metals or the glass.

Single Layer Slumping

Almost all glass can be slumped as a single layer, whether produced for kiln working or not.  A few are extra sensitive at even slumping temperature and change character at around 630C-650°C, but all others can be slumped.  This posts concentrates on slumping of single layers of non-fusing compatible glass, but most of these elements can be applied to fusing compatible glass too.

The things you need to take care about are:

• Temperature
• Soak Times
• Edges
• Devitrification
• Annealing
• Testing

It certainly is possible to slump single layers. The resulting glass will be slightly less robust than two or more layers of glass, but simply because it is thinner.

Temperature

The temperature that you use needs to be high enough to allow the glass to take the shape of the mould, but low enough that the glass does not distort or stretch and thin.  This is a balance that you can achieve through observation of the firing. 

It most often is best to use the lowest practical forming temperature that you can.  Practicality here is about how long you want to wait for the glass to conform to the mould.  It is possible to take the glass to about 580°C and soak for multiple hours, but not very practical.  It does depend on the glass as to the temperature to be used for the slump.  There are two sources here that can help: the slump point test  and this table of glass characteristics. 

Soak times

A practical soak time will be 30 – 90 minutes, which will avoid marking the underside of the glass.  This means that the temperature will need to be lower than the softening (or slump) point of the glass. Your slump point test will tell you the temperature at which the glass begins to deform.  That is the best temperature to use.  If it is taking too long, advance the temperature by about 10°C.  If you used the table of glass characteristics to find a softening point, reduce that temperature by about 30°C as a starting point.

Edges

The temperature that you will choose to use is not high enough to allow the edges to change as they would in a fuse.   This means that you need to have the edges exactly as you want them in the finished project.  This will require cold working by hand or machine.  Neither will take a long time, but require the correct tools. This post gives you the comparison of fused and cold working methods.

Devitrification

While most glass can be slumped you need to be careful with opalescent glass, as it can devitrify easily.  Most wispy glasses are fine, but the more opalescent wisps they have, the more difficult there may be.  Streaky and single colour glasses are usually fine. 

Annealing

Another element in slumping glass not formulated for kiln working is the annealing of the glass after the slumping.  The annealing temperature can be estimated as 40C below a low temperature slump of a 280mm span of glass. The slump point test mentioned earlier will help determine the annealing point. You need to soak for a time - maybe 30 minutes - at the estimated annealing temperature and then cool slowly in case you have miscalculated on the annealing temperature.  In any case, a long slow anneal cool will pay dividends in a more robust glass.

Testing

You will find some manufacturers’ glasses are less adaptable to kiln forming than others.  So, it is best to run tests on the glass before committing to larger projects.

Remember TADSET - temperature, annealing, devitrification, soak, edges, test.

Vinegar for Cleaning

Cleaning glass with acids causes corrosion of the surface of the glass.

So many people mention using vinegar to help clean the ground edges. I can't resist commenting. Vinegar is acidic. Glass is alkaline. Leave the glass in the vinegar too long and it will affect the surface of the glass.

Sometimes it dulls. Sometimes it corrodes to give a mild iridised appearance. The acid removes the alkaline materials – potash, lime, etc. – leaving a pitted surface at the microscopic level.  Left long enough – hours rather than days – the surface will begin to appear dull due to the pittiing. It is at this stage that it is easy to introduce contaminants which may later form nucleation sites for devitrification.

If you must use vinegar, rinse with it. Do not soak your glass in a vinegar solution.

Alkaline cleaners

Two alkaline substances that are used to clean glass are baking soda and ammonia.  Both are effective cleaners and do not have a reaction with the glass as they both are alkaline. The glass can be left to soak for a brief time in a solution of these chemicals, although I would not be happy with an open bath of ammonia.

But the effective part of what people are doing to clean the edges is the scrubbing. Scrubbing the glass powder out of the pits left by the grinder is what really works.  When leaving the glass in a bath of even plain water, you are giving the powdered glass the opportunity to settle into these pits.  Once settled into the pits, the powdered glass can become like cement to remove.

There is a much better cleaner, especially for removing kiln wash and investment mould material.  It is a neutralised acid - tri-sodium citrate.  It is often sold in the dihydrate form.  It is used in the food industry and so is widely available. Glass can be left in the 6% solution for days without being etched.  The unwanted material is chelated from the surface during this soak.  Occasional agitation may speed the effect by removing the loose material on top.

Mechanical cleaning

You could have a much better effect if you scrubbed under clean water before placing in a bath of water with grinder lubricant.  This material promotes a gel like glass residue. This gel prevents the glass becoming caked like cement.

A final scrub to thoroughly clean before assembly is a good idea. Each piece should be polished dry with lint free cloths or uncoloured absorbent paper.  If any particles cloth or paper are left behind, they will burn away long before devitrification can begin to form.

Of course, the best solution is to grind with 400 or 600 grit.  This is fine enough that there is not enough powder left to promote devitrification.

Devitrification on Ground Edges

The first element in preventing devitrification is cleaning.  Making sure all the edges of the glass are clean will help.  OK, you have cleaned the edges well after grinding. You still get detrification, so you want to know

Why do ground edges get devitrification? 

To answer this question, you need to think about how glass behaves in the kiln. As it heats up the glass expands, pushing the cut edges into the separator on the shelf. The pits caused by the grinding have not yet become fire polished.

When the glass retreats on cooling the pits in the edges of the glass, although very small, pick up some of the separator. These small particles act as the nucleation points for the crystallisation of the glass which is generally called devitrification.

The glass of a single 3mm layer retreats further on a single piece than on a 6mm piece. This rolls the devitrified glass upward onto the upper edge of the piece.

Prevention of devitrification of the ground edge is to have the pits in the glass edge finer than the particles of the separator. This is more than just washing the glass immediately after grinding to remove the glass powder from the grinding scratches.  Yes, this will reduce the chance for devitrification, but not totally prevent it.  As noted above, the pits in the glass will pick up particles of separator on expansion, giving nucleation points for the devitrification.

Further coldworking beyond the initial grinding is required to reduce the devitrification possibilities.  This involves using finer grinding bits or smoothing by hand with finer grits.  This does not have to take long, as the shape has been achieved by the grinder.

The logic of prevention is to have the glass edge smoother than the particle size of the separator, so the finer and smoother the separator, the smoother the surface of the glass edge must be.  

But my devitrified edge was on top of other glass

The follow-on question is about why devitrification occurs on ground edges that are not near the kiln shelf.  There are two elements to consider.

It is claimed that the fumes of the binder burning off can settle in the pits of the ground glass, providing those nucleation points for the glass crystalisation. The suggested solution is to vent the kiln to about 400C to allow the combustion fumes out of the kiln rather than keeping them inside the kiln.

The second and more certain element is that the grinding creates microscopic pits and fractures in the glass where the powder from grinding settles.  Almost no amount of cleaning will completely remove this residue from the tiny pits and fractures resulting from grinding. 

There are at least two solutions to this cleaning problem. Don't grind unless absolutely necessary - groze instead.  The second is to lightly cover any ground edges with clear powder frit.  You could of course consider ultrasonic cleaning or power washing, either with a dishwasher, or outdoor power washer.  Both these seem to be so completely out of proportion to the problem, that I have never used them.