Basic kiln and annealing questions

[Richard]

I am thinking about buying a kiln for bead annealing, PMC and enamelling work, I have seen the Paragon SC2 which is a nice price and within my budget (£600 MAX). I want something small and compact that can sit on top of my filing cabinet in the corner of the work shop, however I cannot site it near a mains plug so it will need to be run off an extension (I read somewhere else in the forum this is not a good idea) or be supplied with a long mains cord.

My two main questions concern bead annealing:

Is it best to anneal bead on the mandrel or anneal them loose?

I do not fancy the idea of the kiln being run for long periods, I would prefer to anneal beads in bulk is this practical and how long does the process take?

Can anybody offer any advise and point me in the right direction, the only kilns I have looked at are the Paragon ones listed on the Tuffnell Glass website.

Thanks

[meliom]

Hi Richard

I am new and cant answer your questions but I have just ordered a SC2 - great price with bead door and viewing window.  Here is the address (sorry dont know how to post a link) for you to compare.

http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/sc2kiln.html

Good luck
mel

[Mary]

I love my SC2. I'd recommend the bead door. Even if you are going to batch anneal now, you might wish to anneal from the torch later. Bigger beads, pressed beads or sculptural are less likely to survive vermiculite, and it's expensive to change doors. I've not got a window, I manage fine, but you might like it for enameling.

There are schedules posted already for batch annealing, shout out if you can't find what you need.

[Funky Cow]

I love my SC2 (with bead door) for annealing - but I put my beads in stright from the torch, I've never tried batch annealing. It's not so brilliant for fusing glass, as it's uneven in its heat distribution and I have to avoid the back half nearest the door.

[Richard]

Thanks for the help, I think I am more worried about the drain on the mains supply, we live in a house built in the 30/40's the electrics are not exactly modern and I do not want to blow the place up. Has anyone had problems running a kiln off mains, we have no other appliances with large power consumption. I was going to fit a power breaker as well just for protection.

Has anyone had problems with the mains?

[Sarah]

Hi Richard

I think the SC2 is designed to run from a mains supply so you shouldn't have a problem. Mine's certainly fine in the kitchen & I have had no tripping issues at all. We were recently rewired so my circuit would trip if there was a problem. I'm not sure you need a power breaker but it can't hurt and will give you peace of mind.

I would definitely get a bead door - batch annealing has its limitations.

Rob & Petra at www.silverclay.co.uk import paragon kilns and will be happy to help if you have any problems - I've had great service from them.

[Carol]

My SC2 kiln runs happily from a standard 13 amp socket. Our house was built in 1901 & has rather aged electrics too!  I think the general advice is to plug only the kiln in to an individual socket, don't use any adaptors or what have you & all should be fine.

[Ilona]

Hi,

I am running a SC2 with bead door on a heavy duty extension, and I have not had any problems.

Our electrics are fairly modern and we do have a modern circuit breaker/ trip box.

Ilona

[Mary]

I think the biggest worry would be your beads - if your fuse blows or breaker trips, and your kiln goes off. Maybe make sure you don't run the oven or washing machine at the same time, if you are concerned.

[Redhotsal]

I batch annealled for years in a hobby ceramics kiln, which I ran about once a week when I had collected together enough beads to make it worth while. Entire batch annealling process takes around 8 hours for Effetre glass and I can basically run it overnight.
The kiln is round, on wheels, lives under the kitchen table when not in use and has a door at the top (top loading). It's an Aurora from Pottery Craft. Cost quite a lot of money at the time but it really is the business. Fully electronically controlled, well insulated (fire brick) and really versatile.
I could only use it for batch annealling becuase of the top loading door, but because it is a ceramic kiln had no trouble with big fusing projects. It will easily handle 1000 deg C which is well over the top for any glass project.
I love it and I am really in two minds over whether or not I shall be selling it soon.
I have just bought a Paragon Bluebird PURELY because I want to have the "speed" in supplying beads to customers. I make beads full time and it's a pain having to wait until you've done a kiln run in order to get a custom order finished. So this kiln runs all day (which the miser in me absolutely hates!)
I also don't like the fact that I have to plan my beading time. i.e. I have to ramp up the kiln before a session (tho this only takes 20 mins) but then I have to run the anneal cycle, which means I can't just nip out to the sjops or something. I have to plan my time. The advantage is that the annealling process is a lot quicker as I don't have to ramp up from room temp.

I have to admit that I am not entirely happy with the BlueBird at the moment. I don't like the bead door concept as the kiln is not fully closed ever. If the door is too open on mine I've found that the temperature varies a lot inside the kiln. Which I don't like at all. I check my beads with a polariser to make sure they are annealled but was appalled to find that they weren't annealled on the first run, where I had the doors slightly too open. I've had to jigger around with the kiln to make it take the mandrels properly and have the smallest opening in the door. I'm not overly happy with this - this is a specific bead annealler and I shouldn't have to fart around with it to get it to do what I want. I SUSPECT the SC may be subject to the same sort of potential problems and I would be very interested to hear from anyone else who can check their beads and confirm to me whether or not they get the same issues.
You could say - "oh well, just increase the temperature to compensate" but that's just pants. It shoudl do what it says on the tin.
Anyway - maybe this time next week I will be singing the praises of the Bluebird, who knows? I don't like change so maybe it's just me getting used to it.
The Bluebird probably wouldn't fit on top of a filing cabinet tho'. It is a small kiln but is suprisingly bulky. It does run on mains (as does my other kiln).
You can't fuse with a BlueBird - max temp is not high enough. You can fuse with an SC. You can fuse with my "batch annealling" kiln.
Both of my kilns cause the lights to dim in my house when they fire. It's an old house with dodgy wiring. Everytime my husband catches it doing that he winces and thinks of the electricity bill.
Reckon its horses for courses. But don't let anyone tell you that batch annealling is inferior to hot annealling. In my experience it's superior. You can of course, use a Paragon to batch anneal and hot anneal, which might be the way to go......
But resist the urge to pick up an old kiln with a manual controller. This will just spell misery for you in the future. A progammable controller is extremely disireable whether you hot anneal or batch anneal.

[Redhotsal]

Oh, btw, one of the disadvantages of batch annealling is that you are pretty limited in terms of bead size - huge beads (in my case that's 30mm and over) are very unstable before annealling and if you want to do large sculptural work ideally you do need to hot anneal.

[*rowanberry*]

what i find interesting with the bluebird is how narrow its internal specs are compared to the SC2 (its 3 quarters of the SC2 which is a small kiln as it is) - so if there is temperature difference at the front - that means there is a larger percentage of the bluebird that is running at a lower temp... so if you arent putting your beads right at the back of the kiln means they arent getting to temp...Also with the Bluebird (and SC2) as it is a front loading kiln there are no elements in the front of the kiln which I guess together with the bead door would cause this. Sal, as you say it begs the question that as its a specific bead annealer whats the point if you have to faff a lot to get it to anneal?

I do like my SC2, but I wish I also had a ceramic top-loading kiln as well for fusing and ceramics. I think in an ideal (and rich world) it would be nice to have both.

[beadysam]

I still love my Jen-Ken!  Its pretty big, I batch anneal cos I'm too tight fisted to fire up the kiln daily (although it only costs about 50p a run), but it does have a bead door.  As I batch anneal I don't use the door, but the kiln comes with a snug fitting brick for the hole.  I haven't found any problems with it and all the beads I've tested seem to be fully anealled, however, there are certain spots that are more reducing and I avoid putting turquoise, violet or CG beads in those areas.

[Redhotsal]

Yes, good points.
I've run the Bluebird just as a batch annealler (with both doors tightly closed) and it has annealled without problem, which sort of rules out an inaccurate pyrometer and does point again to the bead door being a potential problem.
I don't want to just use it as a batch annealler though - sort of defeats its point.
I think you're right about the narrow depth being a potential problem. Anyway, I'll stick with it and see if I can get it to do what I want without any hitches. I;m sure there's hundreds of happy Bluebird owners so I'm being anal. I do do a lot oe Terra though so I'm pretty interested in a consistent temperature throughout. I realise I have been terribly spoiled with my ceramics kiln and am seriously considering not getting rid of it.

[littlegiggles]

sal... I'd be really interested to see how yo get on... I've had my bluebird a little while now and not really noticed any problems.... but I havent checked them in the way you have... any tips greatfully recieved