Glue Chipping inside a kiln

[DAVE SMITH]

Firstly I would like to say Happy New Year ! to everyone on this forum from all of us over here in the UK.

Been playing with my kiln again....

I have just finished these two chipped glass panels for an indian Restaurant The glass is half inch thick laminated ,they are pretty heavy pieces the size is 4ft3''x 3ft6''. Since buying the kiln I was wondering if it could chip glass as you can control the heat with a computer exactly.Using the computer to control the heat. I warmed up the kiln with the glass inside then made up the glue and poured it on . The glue leveled out nice,then after about 1 hour it had gelled up- I trimmed around the removable vinyl as usual, peeled it off and closed the lid . The temp was set at 35 degrees so as not to make the glue remelt then after 3 hours the kiln was programmed to go to 55 degrees my humidity was at 20% constant inside through-out The mix was 2g-1w per sq ft . I opened it up after 13 hours with a really nice consistant fern chip. Both the lightbox and kiln works very well, the main thing is to keep the glass warm with the glue drying throughout to achieve a nice fern chip .I have had really good success with snail chipping also by preventing the glue from drying, the longer the better . On wet days it takes for ever to dry which is good for snail chips.The cost to fire up the kiln and have it running for 13 hours worked out at only $6.00 probably about the same for the lightbox........attached some photos showing the chipping from the kiln.

Dave

[/img][/img]
[/img]

[/img]

[Patrick Mackle]

Dave,
I don't remember how the elements are designed or mounted in your kiln. If they are able to retain any of the chipped glue or glass fragments you should vacuum out any residual scraps or the glass chips may fuse to your elements at higher temperature which could shorten the life of them. Also, if glass melts onto the elements, it could cool and crack off periodically, and stick to a future work piece in the form of little shards.
Other than bending and fuseing glass, I've only used my kilns to bake on exhaust header paint and re-heat left over pizzas before I finished my kitchen.
Cheers,
Pat

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Pat, That was something I was concerned about when I was putting the glass in but nothing was stuck to any of the elements or the sides it actually worked very well. I also phoned the kiln manufacturers and they said I would'nt get a problem because it being such a low temprature. I even went out and bought a hoover so I would'nt P--- my wife off using hers.

Thanks anyway for your advice Pat
Happy New Year mate
Dave

[Wayne Osborne]

Dave- Those are Stunning mate- Must be great to have some greater degree of control over the chipping.
Real smart modern fixings too-Nice job.

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Wayne it was fun to experiment on, I opened the kiln in the morning not knowing what to expect . worth trying it out if you have kiln.

Dave

[Doug Bernhardt]

a Beautiful chip Dave. Is this actually better in the kiln than on your light table, or just easier to control. Me thinks there's alot of skill and experiments at work here too. Also...was talking to a friend today and he said you're going to be up this way...(or better down) this spring doing a workshop. Is it so? If so, you should make a formal announcment so we can make plans. Spring is coming quick and one last reminder...the last time there was a British invasion your collective buns were kicked outta here ya know!

[DAVE SMITH]

The kiln worked great and would be great for control but I have found by keeping the glass warm in a room with the freshly poured glue sitting on top and letting it gel for a couple of hours and then placing it on a lightbox- (possibly enclosed lightbox) Only if you can't keep the room warm enough it chips very nicely also.
GoldWorkshop..........
Sure is going to be a British Invasion Doug, and a big one at that! My brushes are pointing right at your shop , so look out it's payback time........I've held back on a formal annoucement due to a number of things happening here , but now I am getting together information on costs of materials and a plan how we can do this etc.
I have had alot of workshops here in England but with only 5 -8 in a class ,they all went very smoothly but when it comes to 23 people per workshop it will take a bit more work as you know.
Larry has sent me back prices for his costs, he has a great set up for this kind of work ,and so as Gary Godby sent all prices back. Noel is putting his together now and Danny Baronian is pricing all the stands which he will make and send out to the 3 locations. Once I have this artwork finished John Studden will be sorting the screens out and our flights between the venues, should be a great few weeks sharing each others skills and friendship. We will be teaching this as a team effort,.John Studden and myself will be teaching at Larry's, then in Boise we will be at Classic Signs with Noel also teaching with us , then John and me again will fly over to Gary's in Virginia . I think Noel has a buisy schedual coming up to the end of April so we may not see him in Virginia. If people are interested They can email me at chapman_and_smith@btinternet.com this way I can put the first 20 emails in a line on who will be attending each meet. There are a number of people that sent me emails before christmas that said they would be coming ,but due to my computer crashing these emails were lost, so if they could make them selves known again that would be helpful, I am sorry about that, this time it will be printed and also stored on 2 new external hard drives, no more crashes here! Prices for the workshop will be ready in about one week . The starting Dates in April will be confirmed next week.

One more thing you will need to have attended a gilding class before and have some experience on how to lay loose leaf, This class is an advanced gilding workshop which will be focusing on other treatments along with blended gilding ,acid etching ,mother-of-pearl and various paint techniques.

Sorry I can't tell you anymore at the stage,but I will confirm things next week.

Thanks for now
Dave UK

[Larry White]

Dave, or Mike, or Danny...

Dave's workshop announcement deserves to be in an exclusively titled post, rather than as a thread of this topic.

-Larry

[DAVE SMITH]

Sorry about that Larry my fault (makes sense), I 'll post it again under a new topic.
Some people may miss this .
Thanks mate
Dave