Longer Soak or Higher Temperature?

 ‘Is it better to extend the soak or add more firing time when the firing program isn’t quite enough? What are the meanings of “soak,” “hold,” “ramp,” “working temperature” and “top temperature”?’  

Let’s start with some of the terms.

“Soak” and “hold” have the same meaning in scheduling.  Schedules are made up of a series of linked segments.  Each segment contains a rate, temperature, and time.  The time is often called a “hold” in the schedules.  That time can have several effects.  It can allow enough time for a process, such as slumping, to be accomplished.

Although “soak” is entered into the schedules in the same way as a hold, it has a different concept behind it.  The hold when used as a soak allows the set temperature to permeate the whole thickness of the glass.  An example is in annealing. An annealing hold/soak is set.  This is to allow the glass to become the same temperature throughout. 

The ramp is the rate at which the controller is set to increase/decrease the temperature.  This is normally the first element in the segment.

“Top” and “Working” temperature are the same thing.  It is the temperature at which the desired effect is achieved.  They have slightly different nuances.  Top temperature is normally considered as a point where the desired profile will be achieved in a few minutes.  The working temperature is also that, but includes the idea that it will take time for the effect to be achieved.

Which should you alter first – soak time or temperature?

Most important is that you alter only one at a time.  If you alter the two elements at the same time, you do not know which was the cause of the result.

In general, you lengthen the soak if the effect is not achieved at the temperature and in the time set.  There are two reasons for this.  Glass has fewer problems at lower temperatures.  Secondly, the controllers are set up in such a way that it is easy to extend the time. Check your manual for the key sequence to extend the time.  It is more difficult to alter the temperature during a firing. 

To determine if you need more time, you peek into the kiln as the kiln approaches the top temperature.  If the profile has not been achieved by the time set at your working temperature, you enter the combination of keys to keep the kiln at the top temperature until you see the effect you want.  Then enter the combination of keys to skip to the next segment.

Whether you alter time or temperature, depends on what you are doing.  Soak plus temperature equal heat work.  With heat work you can accomplish the same effect at lower temperatures.  It may be that taking more time (usually slower ramp rates) to get to the same or lower temperature, will give the results desired.

For slumping, draping and other low temperature processes extending the hold/soak is appropriate. It reduces the amount of marking that is created by the mould or surface supporting the glass.

When tack, contour, or full fusing, you should be aiming to finish the work in about 10 minutes. Soaking/holding significantly longer increases the risk of devitrification.

For high temperature processes such as pot and screen melts and some flows, increasing the temperature is probably the right thing to do, to avoid the devitrification possibilities of long holds of open face high temperature work.

These can only be guidelines.  Your instincts and experience will help you determine which is the right thing to do in the circumstances.

 

Stainless Steel Stringer Pots

Credit: Paul Gardner httpswww.facebook.com

 It is a consideration in stringer and murrini work that the pot be re-usable. This has led to the development of stainless steel square pots.  The thorough cleaning of these is difficult even with a lot of banging. Containers with removal bases have been developed as a result.

 The importance of a container with an integrated bottom is to ensure the glass is contained within the pot. To be reusable, the pot can be lined with fibre on sides and bottom. However, fibres can be drawn from the lining into the stream of glass.

Credit: Paul Gardner

 If you have a stainless-steel square with a removable bottom, the pot can be cleaned more easily and does not need the fibre lining. It also allows easy switching of bases with different hole sizes and shapes.

 However, some people have had the difficulty of the glass flowing out between the sides and bottom of the pot and onto the floor of the kiln. Glass is heavy and can float the much lighter stainless steel off the base, allowing the glass to flow sideways as well as through the hole in the base.

 This indicates that the stainless steel square should be weighted down. Placing kiln furniture on top of the pot can avoid it being floated off the base piece. These can be dams made from kiln shelves, dense fire brick, a small shelf, ceramic tiles, or other kiln furniture. Putting the furniture on two opposing corners will be enough to counteract the floating of the pot and still allow radiant heat to reach the glass.

Pots can be made from refractory materials too, such as vermiculite.

Liners for pots

Specific Gravity of Unknown Glass

(warning: lots of arithmetic)

Knowing the specific gravity of a glass can be useful in calculating the required amount of glass needed, e.g., for casting, and screen and pot melts, where a specific volume needs to be filled.

Most soda lime glass – the stuff kilnformers normally use – is known to have a specific gravity of approximately 2.5.  That is, one cubic centimetre of glass weighs 2.5 grams. 

If you have glass that is of unknown composition for your casting, you will need to calculate it.

Calculating the specific gravity of unknown glass.

Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the weight of a substance to (in the simple case) the weight of water.  This means first weighing the item in grams.  Then you need to find the volume.

Calculating the specific gravity of regularly shaped items

For regularly shaped item this is a matter of measuring length, width and depth in centimetres and multiplying them together. This gives you the volume in cubic centimetres (cc).

As one cubic centimetre of water weighs one gram, these measurements give you equivalence of measurements creating the opportunity to directly calculate weight from volume.

To calculate the specific gravity, divide the weight in grams by the volume in cubic centimetres.

An example:

To find the specific gravity of a piece of glass 30cm square and 6mm thick, multiply 30 x 30 x 0.6 = 540cc.  Next weigh the piece of glass. Say it is 1355 grams, so divide 1355gm by 540cc = s.g. of 2.509, but 2.5 is close enough.

Calculating specific gravity for irregularly shaped objects.

The unknown glass is not always regular in dimensions, so another method is required to find the volume.  You still need to weigh the object in grams.

Then put enough water in a measuring vessel, that is marked in cubic centimetres, to cover the object.  Record the volume of water before putting the glass in.  Place the object into the water and record the new volume.  The difference between the two measurements is the volume of the suibmerged object.  Proceed to divide the weight by the volume as for regularly shaped objects.

Credit: study.com

Application of specific gravity to casting and melts.

To find the amount of glass needed to fill a regularly shaped area to a pre-determined depth, you reverse the formula.  Instead of volume/weight=specific gravity, you multiply the calculated volume of the space by the specific gravity.

The formulas are:

v/w=sg to determine the specific gravity of the glass;

v*sg=w to determine the weight required to fill a volume with the glass.

Where v = volume; w = weight; sg= specific gravity;

You determine the volume or regular shapes by deciding how thick you want the glass to be (in cm) and multiply that by the volume (in cc). 

For rectangles

volume = thickness * length * depth (all in cm)

For circles

Volume = radius * radius *3.14 (ϖ)* thickness (all in cm)

For ovals

Volume = major radius * minor radius * 3.14 (ϖ)* thickness (all in cm)

Once you have the volume you multiply by the specific gravity to get the weight of glass to be added.

Calculating weight for irregularly shaped moulds.

If the volume to be filled is irregular, you need to find another way to determine the volume.  If your mould will hold water without absorbing it, you can fill the mould using the following method.

Wet fill

Fill the measuring vessel marked in cc to a determined level.  Record that measurement.  Then carefully pour water into the mould until it is full.  Record the resulting amount of water. Subtract the new amount from the starting amount and you have the volume in cubic centimetres which can then be plugged into the formula.

Dry fill

If the mould absorbs water or simply won’t contain it, then you need something that is dry.  Using fine glass frit will give an approximation of the volume.  Fill the mould to the height you want it to be.  Carefully pour, or in some other way move the frit, to a finely graduated measuring vessel that gives cc measurements.  Note the volume and multiply by the specific gravity.  Using the weight of the frit will not give you an accurate measurement of the weight required because of all the air between the particles.

An alternative is to use your powdered kiln wash and proceed in the same way as with frit.  Scrape any excess powder off the mould.  Do not compact the powder.  In this case, you must be careful to avoid compacting the powder as you pour it into the measuring vessel.  If you compact it, it will not have the same volume as when it was in the mould.  It will be less, and so you will underestimate the volume and therefore the weight of glass required.

Irregular mould frames

If you have an irregular mould frame such as those used for pot and screen melts that you do not want to completely fill, you need to do an additional calculation.  First measure the height of the frame and record it.  Fill and level the frame with kiln wash or fine frit.  Do not compact it.  Carefully transfer the material to the measuring vessel and record the volume in cc.

Calculate the weight in grams required to fill the mould to the top using the specific gravity.  Determine what thickness you want the glass to be.  Divide that by the total height of the mould frame (all in cm) to give the proportion of the frame you want to fill.  Multiply that fraction times the weight required to fill the whole frame to the top.

E.g. The filled frame would require 2500 gms of glass.  The frame is 2 cm high, but you want the glass to be 0.6 high.  Divide 0.6 by 2 to get 0.3.  Multiply that by 2500 to get 750 grams required.

Regular mould frames

For a regular shaped mould, you can do the whole process by calculations.  Find the volume, multiply by specific gravity to get the weight for a full mould.  Measure the height (in cm) of the mould frame and use that to divide into the desired level of fill (in cm).

E.g. The weight required is volume * specific gravity * final height/ height of the mould.

The maths required is simple once you have the formulae in mind.  All measured in centimetres and cubic centimetres

Essential formulae for calculating the weight of glass required to fill moulds (all measurements in cm.):

Volume of a rectangle = thickness*length*width

Volume of a circle = radius squared (radius*radius) * ϖ (3.14) * thickness

Volume of an oval = long radius * short radius * ϖ (3.14) * thickness

Specific gravity = volume/ weight

Pin holes in melts

Pin holes in screen and pot melts are the result of very small bubbles rising to the surface.  These bubbles are sometimes within the glass melted, but more often come from small amounts of air trapped within the flowing glass.  These are perceived to be unsightly, or make it impractical to make a functional piece from the melt.

There are ways to minimise bubble formation or to deal with the formed bubbles.

Bubble Formation

In pot and screen melts, the glass spirals as it touches down onto the shelf. This spiralling action can trap small amounts of air as each successive spiral forms beside the previous one. Efforts at prevention of tiny bubbles in the final piece need to concentrate on this fact.

Bubble Squeeze

A preliminary element in bubble prevention is to have a long bubble squeeze to allow the glass to settle in the pot or on the screen so that the rest of the process can proceed with a minimum amount of air trapped within the flowing glass.

Two-Stage Drop

In some cases. it is possible to have the glass flow from the pot onto an angled shelf where the spiralling glass has to flow from the initial touch down to the edge and then flow onto the shelf.  This allows any tiny bubbles initially trapped to escape before the final drop onto the shelf.  This provides two mixing processes and means that a lot of clear glass needs to be included to avoid a complete mix of the colours.  It requires careful selection of the original colours to avoid a brown or black result.  It also requires a big kiln with sufficient height for a two stage drop.

This two-stage drop is of course, not suitable for a screen melt where you wish the glass strands to remain.  Nor is it suitable when you wish to have many “pools” of colour mix in the final piece.

Where the two-stage drop is not practical or suitable other methods can be used.  These relate to scheduling, cold working the surface and re-firing the piece.

Schedules

Scheduling relates to using a soak at full fuse temperature before proceeding to the anneal.  The melt will occur at 850°C to 950°C.  You can cool as fast as possible to a full fuse temperature of about 810°C and soak there for an hour or more.  This allows the small bubbles to surface, break and heal.  Schedule the rapid cool to the annealing soak, once the high temperature soak is complete.  This will eliminate lots of the bubbles, but not all.

A sample friring schedule from bubble squeeze upwards and then down to a high temperature bubble reduction soak

Cold Work

Cold working the melt is about abrading the surface to open the bubbles that are just emerging to form a small dome at the surface.  Sand blasting is a common form, as usually kiln wash or fibre needs to be removed from the bottom of the melt, and some devitrification from the surface.  It would be possible to continue to grind the surface of the glass to eliminate the small depression in the glass caused by the now opened bubble, but this is likely to expose more bubbles that were at a slightly deeper level. What next?

Fire Polish

As you will need to do a fire polish firing after blasting or grinding the surface, you can use a full fuse temperature to allow the surface to become plastic enough to fill the bubble holes.  Remember to schedule the firing as though the piece were at least 12mm thick.  You may find that more bubbles are exposed in addition to the ones healed at the conclusion of this second firing.

Flip and Fire

An alternative is to fire upside down.  You will have noted that there are no bubbles on the bottom of the melt.  This is because the bubbles have risen through the heated glass.  This physical fact can be used in the second firing.  Fire with the melt surface to the shelf.  It is best to have a clean and newly kiln washed shelf, or fibre paper (not Thinfire or Papyros) under the glass. Fire the glass to a full fuse or high temperature tack fuse with a significant length of soak to allow the bubbles near the original surface to move toward the interior of the glass.  After firing, the glass will need thorough cleaning before being fire polished. This should leave you with a pin hole free piece.

Conclusion

Achieving a pin hole free pot or screen melt requires several stages of coldworking and firing.  This makes melts inexpensive in materials (it is scrap of course) but expensive in time and firings.

Pot Melt Saucers as Dams for Melts

Preparation

Many ceramic plant pot saucers can be used as circular moulds.  Most are unglazed and will accept kiln wash easily.  Some are unglazed, but polished to such an extent they are no longer porous.  These and glazed flower pot saucers need some preparation before applying kiln wash.

Plant pot with saucer

Polished and glazed saucers require roughing to provide a key for the kiln wash solution to settle into.  This can be done with normal wood working sand papers.  You may want to wear a dust mask during this process, but not a lot of dust is created.  You could also use wet and dry sandpaper or diamond handpads with some water to reduce the dust further.

If the sanding of the surface does not allow the kiln wash to adhere to the saucer, you can heat it.  Soak it at about 125C for 15 minutes before removing it from the kiln to get the heat distributed throughout the ceramic body.  One advantage to the ceramic is that it holds the heat, because of its mass, for longer than steel.  Apply kiln wash with a brush or spray it onto the warm saucer.  As it dries, apply another layer of kiln wash.  Two or three applications should be enough to completely cover the surface.  If not, then you probably will need to heat up again before repeating the process.

Alternatives to plant pot saucers

There are alternatives to the saucer approach to getting thick circles from a pot melt.

 

Fibre paper

You can cut a circle from fibre paper and melt into that.  The advantage of fibre paper is that it requires little preparation other than cutting and fixing.  You may have only 3mm fibre paper and want a 9mm thick disc.  Simply fix the required number of layers together with the circle cut from each square.  The fixing can be as simple as sewing pins, copper wire, or high temperature wire.  Then place some kiln furniture on top of the surrounding fibre paper to keep it in place on the shelf during the melt.  This furniture can often be the supports for the melt.

Fibre board

If you find cutting multiple circles of the same size a nuisance, you can use fibre board.  Simply cut the circle from the board with a craft knife.  You will probably want to line the circle with fibre paper, as the cut edge of fibre board can be rough.  Alternatively, you can lightly sand the edge.  Wear a dust mask and do this outside, if possible, to keep the irritating fibres away from the studio. If you want a thicker melt than one layer of board can give, just add another in the same way as for fibre paper.

In both these cases, you may wish to put down a layer of 1mm fibre paper to ensure the glass does not stick to the shelf and does not require sandblasting.  

The advantage of the fibre paper or board alternative to flower pot saucers is that you do not need to kiln wash anything unless you want to. If you do not harden the fibre paper or board, it will not stick to the glass.

Vermiculite board

Another alternative is vermiculite board.  The advantage of this is that it comes in 25 and 50 mm thicknesses, so you can make the melt as thick as you like without having to add layers.  You can cut the vermiculite board with wood working tools.  Knives will not be strong enough to cut through the vermiculite board. You will need to kiln wash or line the vermiculite with fibre paper, as the board will stick to the glass without a separator.

Damless circles

Of course, if you want a circle without concern over the thickness, you can do the melt without any dams. You need to ensure that the shelf is level.  Any supports for the pot will need to be both kiln washed and far away enough that the moving glass does not touch the supports and distort the circle.  In general, one kilogramme of glass will give a 300mm circle, so your supports need to be further apart than the calculated diameter of the circle.  An undammed circle will vary from 6mm at the edge to as much as 12mm at the centre, depending on temperatures and lengths of soaks.

Pot Melt Temperature Effects

When firing a pot melt, you have to consider how high a temperature you wish to use.

Viscosity is reduced with higher temperatures so increasing the flow and reducing the length of soak, although there are often some undesirable opacifying effects.

The size of the hole is also relevant to the temp chosen. The smaller the hole, the higher the temperature will have to be to empty the pot in the same amount of time. Of course, you can just soak for longer at a lower temperature to achieve the desired object of emptying of the pot without changing the temperature.

Using the same principle, the larger the hole the lower the temperature required to empty the pot in a given amount of time.

The temperature used to empty the pot will need to be between 840C and 925C. The problem with temperatures in the 900C to 925C range is that the hot colours tend to change, e.g., red opal tends to turn dark and sometimes become brown. Some transparent glasses also opacify. There is also the possibility that some of the glasses will change their compatibility.

So the best results seem to come from temperatures in the 840 to 850C range with longer soaks than would be required at 925C - possibly 4 or more hours.

Also remember to give melts a longer than usual anneal as they will be thicker than 6mm at the centre - somtimes as much as twice the edge thickness.

Pot Melt Schedule

I usually use a schedule like this for either S96 or Bullseye:

100C/hr to 220C for 20 minutes; this is approximately the crystobalite inversion temperature – to be kind to the pot.

220C/hr to 570C for 20 minutes; this is approximately the quartz inversion temperature – again to be kind to the pot.

220C/hr to 677 for 30 minutes; this is a bubble squeeze temperature to allow larger bubbles to escape from the pot before melting begins.

330C/hr to 850C for 120 minutes; this is to ensure there is plenty of time to empty pot.

AFAP to 805C for 30 minutes; this is to allow thickness equalization and also to allow bubbles to pop and seal.

AFAP to 482 for 90 minutes; this is for Bullseye, but is applicable to other glasses too.

55C/hr to 427C no soak (for 6 to 8mm thickness)

99C/hr to 370C no soak.

120C/hr to 150 end.

Allow to cool to room temperature 

Pot Melt Contamination

Pot melting occurs at temperatures above that for which kiln washes are designed. This means the kiln wash most often sticks to the back of the melt.

If you put only fiber paper – Thinfire, Papyros, or standard 1mm or 2mm fibre paper – at the bottom, the dripping glass will tear and move it about.  It also tends to incorporate fibers from the refractory papers into the melt.  It is best to avoid fibre papers of any kind on the base.  Using fibre paper around the edges of dams, if you use them, is better than simple kiln washing of the dams.

From wikihow

If you have a sandblaster, it is easy to take the kiln wash off leaving a matt surface. You can live with this for many purposes, but if you want a more polished surface you can take the melt up to fire polishing temperature to shine up the surface. You will need to flip this over and fire again, if the original top surface is what you want to present.  Or if you like the new shiny surface, use it as is.

If you are going to cut the pot melt up for other uses, there is no need to fire polish as the surface does not matter, only the cleanliness, and removal of contaminants.


There is another thing you can do to avoid kiln wash contamination.

The best solution appears to be to put a disk or rectangle of glass on top of fibre paper. It can be clear or any colour you wish, but needs to fill the area enclosed by the dams. This seems to keep the fiber paper from tearing and being incorporated into the glass, even though the base will have the fibre paper marks.

It also works very well when you are confining the melt to get a thicker disk. Make sure you have kiln washed the sides of the container or dam very well, in addition to 3mm fibre paper arranged so that it is 3mm narrower than the expected final thickness, or any excess glass may stick to the dams. The means of arranging the fibre paper around the dams is given here. You may need to grind the marks off the edge of the disk, but this is much easier than grinding it off the bottom.

Specific Gravity

This is an important concept in calculating the amount of glass needed to fill a pot melt, and in glass casting.  This will also help in the calculation of the amount of glass required to fill a given area to a defined thickness.

Specific gravity is the relative weight of a substance compared to water. For example, a cubic centimetre of water weighs 1 gram. A cubic centimetre of soda lime glass (includes most window and art glass) weighs approximately 2.5 grams. Therefore, the specific gravity of these types of glass is 2.5.  

If you use the imperial system of measurement the calculations are more difficult, so converting to cubic centimetres and grams makes the calculations easier. You can convert the results back to imperial weights at the end of the process if that is easier for you to deal with.

Irregular shapes

Water fill method
Specific gravity is a very useful concept for glass casting to determine how much glass is needed to fill an irregularly shaped mould. If the mould holds 100 grams of water then it will require 100 grams times the specific gravity of glass which equals 250 grams of glass to fill the mould.

Dry fill method
If filling the mould with water isn't practical (many moulds will absorb the water) then any material for which the specific gravity is known can be used. It should not contain a lot of air, meaning fine grains are required. You weigh the result and divide that by the difference of the specific gravity of the material divided by 2.5 (the specific gravity of soda lime glass). 

This means that if the s.g. of the mould filling material is 3.5, you divide that by 2.5 resulting in a relation of 1.4   Use this number to divide the weight of the fill to get the amount of glass required to fill the mould.   If the specific gravity of the filler is less than water, then the same process is applied.  if the specific gravity of the filler is 2, divide that by 2.5 and use the resulting 0.8 to divide the weight of the filler.  This only works in metric measurements.

Alternatively, when using the dry fill method, you can carefully measure the volume of the material.  Be careful to avoid compacting the dry material as that will reduce the volume.  Measure the volume in cubic centimetres.  Multiply the cc by the specific gravity of 2.5 for fusing glasses.  This will give the weight in grams required to fill the mould.  If you compact the measured material, you will underfill the mould. The smaller volume gives a calculation for less weight.

Regular shapes

If you want to determine how much glass is required for a circle or rectangle, use measurements in centimetres.  

Rectangles
An example is a square of 20cm.  Find the area (20*20 =) 400 square cm. If you want the final piece to be 6mm thick, multiply 400 by 0.6cm to get 240 cubic centimetres, which is the same as 240 grams. Multiply this weight by 2.5 to get 600gms required to fill the area to a depth of 6mm.

Circles
For circles you find the area by multiplying the radius times itself, giving you the radius squared.  You multiply this by the constant 3.14 to give you the area.  The depth in centimetres times the area times the specific gravity gives you the weight of glass needed.

The formula is radius squared times 3.14 times depth times specific gravity.   R*R*3.14*Depth*2.5
E.g. 25cm diameter circle:
Radius: 12.5, radius squared = 156.25 
Area: 156.25 * 3.14 = 490.625 square cm.
Volume: 490.625 * 0.6 cm deep =294.375 cubic cm.
Weight: 294.375* 2.5 (s.g.) = 735.9375 gms of glass required.  
You can round this up to 740 gms for ease of weighing the glass.

Pot Melt Formers

There are several suppliers of stainless steel and ceramic formers for pot melts.  They are not always necessary.

If you only want a circle, you do not need a former at all.  The shelf must be kiln washed and level.  The glass will pool in a circular manner ranging in thickness – thickest at the centre and 6-7mm at the edge. The variation in thickness depends on the time the glass is kept at the working temperature after the pot has emptied.

If you are wanting a thicker melt, you do need a dam of some sort.  You can purchase what you want, or you can make some from the materials you have at hand.

You can make a rectangle or square melt from existing straight dams.  You need to make sure the dams are kiln washed and lined with 3mm fibre paper.  You do not need to cut the dams to a predetermined length.  Instead, you can arrange them so that one end of the dam starts at the edge of your rectangle.  The next dam is butted at right angles to the first at the length wanted.  The other pieces are fitted similarly, until the last one passes the end of the first, so that they are butted together.  Then line with the fibre paper.  If you feel the dams are too light, you can back them up with bricks to prevent movement.

Using fibre paper, fibre board, or vermiculite board you can make any shape of melt that you can cut out of these materials.  If you don’t have refractory board, you can make your former out of layers of 3mm fibre paper.  It is possible to make a template for cutting of the multiple layers.  Cut your shape from the required number of layers of fibre to be as thick as your pot melt will become, according to your calculations.  Pin these layers together with stainless steel pins to be sure they do not move or float with the glass.  If you like, you can weight the layers of fibre paper with kiln furniture.

If you have refractory board – fibre or vermiculite – you can cut the required shape from them.  If you do not harden the fibre board, you do not need any further separator.  But you can line the shape with a thin fibre paper to ease the release and refine the edge.  Vermiculite always needs a separator, as it sticks to glass.  You should line the vermiculite board to get an easy release from the glass.

Using refractory materials releases you from the restrictions of commercially available forms and allows your imagination to take over.  It may not be cheaper than the bought ones, but will have the greater feeling of achievement.  In addition, you can develop all sorts of forms and depths not thought of by the commercial suppliers.

Thermal Shocking Ceramics

When firing glass in ceramic moulds, and especially ceramic pots for pot melts, you should be aware of the temperatures at which the ceramic material quickly expands and contracts.

There are refractory ceramics which are not as sensitive as the kind of ceramics we are using in most kiln work.  The ceramics we use are not refractory materials and contain, among other things, quartz and crystobalite. These two elements are important, as they have considerable effect on the survival of the pot or mould during the firing.

The effects are called inversions.  This is because the rapid expansion experienced upon the heating is reversed as rapid contraction on the cooling of the ceramic.

The first element to be affected by the heat up is crystobalite.  This element has a sudden expansion of 2.5% at 226°C.  This does not seem to be much, but compare it to the expansion of glass at this temperature - .0085% - almost 300 times that of glass at the same temperature.  And of course, the ceramic contracts by that amount when it reaches 226°C on the cooling.

The second element affecting the heat up is quartz.  There is quite a bit of this in clay.  The critical temperature for this is in the 570°C to 580°C range.  The expansion and contraction is not so great here – only 1% - but it is still more than 100% that of the glass, and in a critical range for the glass on the cooling.   

More information on the quartz and crystobalite inversions are given here.

The importance of these inversions for us are to remind us to be careful at these temperatures of about 225°C and 570°C - 580°C to prolong the life of the ceramic pots and moulds that we use.  

It is probable that 150°C per hour is as quickly as we should increase the temperature when using ceramic moulds or pots.  Some thought should be given to the cooling of the moulds too.  They should not be taken from the kiln while hot nor subjected to draughts of relatively cold air.

Designing a Pattern Bar

Assuming that you are not going to just dump your scrap glass in a random pattern to form a pattern bar, you need to spend some time designing it.

The simplest kind of bar is composed of strips of glass which are stacked or assembled in the kiln, but there are many other more elaborate configurations.

Because of the additional annealing time required for larger and thicker items, most pattern bars range from 1" by 1" to no larger than 2" by 2". The length of the pattern bar can be any length, up to the maximum that will fit in your kiln.

The design process begins by thinking about the cross section of the bar. This is what will appear when cut and assembled. As a simple exercise, assume you are making a diamond pattern in the bar. You can draw this out using 3mm as the thickness (or 1.5mm if you are using thin glass). Rough out the pattern and then begin using 3mm as the grid. Remember that you will need to cut your strips 4mm or wider to obtain a clean break. As you plan it out you will see that you need one length at the base one half of the space remaining after you have laid down the first, central piece for the diamond. The next layer will have two strips for the diamond, giving a requirement for one strip to fill the space between the two for the diamond shape and two strips each one half the remaining space. This process goes on until the area is filled.

Pattern Bars

A pattern bar is a thick bundle of glass that has been fused together. These can be in the shape of a rectangle, or can be a thick pot melt – whether a disc or a rectangle. The length of the individual bars can be as long as your kiln allows, but needs to be practical to handle when cutting.


The basic steps involved in making a pattern bar include deciding on a design –whether controlled or random, cutting glass for the bar, assembling the cut glass into the desired bar shape, then firing to a full fuse. Once fired, pattern bars can be cut into slices with a saw - tile, glass, lapidary, or stone – which uses water for cooling and lubrication. The individual slices are then assembled and re-fused to make bowls, platters, and similar shapes. They can also be used as accents in any number of applications.

There is a caution about using pattern bar pieces. As the glass in the bars has been fired to a relatively high temperature, some of the characteristics may have changed. So you need to do a compatibility test before doing the main piece.

Designing Pattern Bars
Boxes for Pattern Bars
Dams for Pattern Bars

Lining Dams

Dams should normally be lined with Thinfire and fibre paper to get the best release. If you are using fibre board that has not been hardened, you do not have to line, but you will get smoother edges if you do.

As described by Helios

The lining papers should be about 3mm shorter than the expected final thickness of the finished panel. I find that 3mm paper against the dam provides the required standoff between the dam material and the glass. The lining of the fibre paper with Thinfire provides a smoother surface than just the fibre paper. Both of these liners should be the same height – 3mm less than the final height of the finished piece.

To calculate the expected final height you need to do a few calculations in the metric system.  Weigh the glass in grams.  Divide by specific gravity (2.5) to get the number of cubic centimeters.  Divide the cc by the area enclosed by the dams in square centimeters. This will give the fraction or multiple of centimeters thick the glass is predicted to be.  

Example:
The weight of glass = 500 gms
The specific gravity = 2.5
The area is 10cm by 10 cm = 100 square cm.

Divide 500gms (the weight) by 2.5 (the specific gravity) = 200 cubic centimeters.  Divide 200 (the volume in cc) by 100 (the area) = 2 cm thick final piece for the amount of glass put into the pot.

This indicates the fibre paper should be 1.7cm high to allow enough space for the bullnose edge to form.

Charging the Pot for a Melt

The way you charge (load the glass into) the pot makes a difference to the resulting piece.

A good way to get strong colour separation is to put two colours on opposite sides and a third colour or clear between them. The two side colours will have best separation if they are not more than 1/3 each. As the glass begins to flow out of the pot, all three colours will come out at once and form concentric circles (assuming a circular hole in the pot).

Vertical stacking of multiple colours

You can manipulate and alter the results with a fair amount of predictability by changing the diameter and shape of the hole, charging the pot with more than three colours or less, rearranging the orientation into a sunburst orientation or whatever comes to mind. Be sure to keep notes on what you did and what the results were in case you want to reproduce the effect.

Think about how the glass will flow out of the pot when you charge it with glass. If you layer colours horizontally from C (on top) to A (on bottom), it will initially flow out in colour A, then B, then C. After that initial flow, which will be on the outside of the finished piece, the main flow will be from the top (C), then the middle (B) and finally the bottom (A). This is because after the initial flow, the rest of the glass comes out in a funnel shape pulling the top and small portions of the underlying glass.

This means that layering is the best way of mixing colours. You need to think about colour combinations too. For example yellow and red become brown; yellow and blue a dark green, etc.

The proportion of dark colours is important, for example, as little as 2% of black can make the whole piece very dark. If you have dark colours, you need to add a large proportion of clear or very light opalescent glass.

If you use frit, large pieces are better than smaller ones. Even so, you need to be careful about the colours you use so the whole does not become muddy.

Aperture Pours

The most commonly used aperture pours are Pot melts and wire melts. Pot melts use containers, and wire mesh for wire melts. In both cases they control the way the glass melts into a container or directly on the shelf below.

Emptied pot melt

The materials are stainless steel wire grids, and unglazed terracotta pots. The spacing of the steel grid will determine the number of trails of glass falling. So a finer grid will give more points of expansion in the resulting melt. But will mix the colours much more thoroughly than a coarser mesh will.

Finished screen melt

Doing a pot melt usually provides a simpler pattern of flow. A single round hole gives one circular point from which the glass expands. A single rectangular hole gives a single ribbon shape as the expansion point. You can, of course, have multiple holes in the bottom of the pot to provide a more complex interaction of the flowing glass. The wider the rim of the pot in relation to its depth, the more flexible it will be. You can put more glass in the pot and you can have it higher in the kiln.

The arrangement of glass in the pot will produce different results. There are two basic arrangements: colours layered one above each other as in a layer cake; and colours arranged on end around the sides of the pot. When loading the pot you need to remember that although the glass immediately above the hole will be the first to come out – and therefore be at the edge of the melt – the remainder of the glass comes out in a funnel-like order, with the glass at the bottom corner of the pot being the last to flow out – and become the centre of the melt.

There is a relationship between the hole size and distance to surface that affects the final appearance. The larger the hole the less likely the glass is to spiral as it falls, so you need a greater distance between the bottom of the pot and the shelf. The smaller the hole, the less distance you need. Only experience will tell you what distance and size you need or can use.

You can calculate the amount of glass for different sizes by using this table. If you have a rectangular space you are dropping into, you can calculate the volume of glass by multiplying the width, length and desired thickness – all in centimetres. This will give the volume in cubic centimetres and to convert that into weight, you multiply the volume by the specific gravity of glass - 2.5 is near enough – to get the number of grams of glass required. To convert into kilograms, divide by 1000.

By dropping directly onto kiln washed shelf, ring or circular container you will get some contamination.  There are some ways to avoid this given here.

You can also use this method to act as a crucible to pour glass into closed moulds.