Popping bubbles?

[Paul Bush]

I made the mistake of using several smaller pieces of wrinkled up copper sheet between two layers of BE glass, and trapped some air. Got two good sized bubbles, one about the size of a quarter, one about the size of a nickel (does that add up to 30 cents worth of bubbles?)

My plan is to drill holes in both bubbles, then refuse. The question is what would be the optimal temperature to go to, to allow the collapsed bubbles to heal to the point of being undetectable? Or am I dreaming that this will work? I normally full fuse at 1480, with a 10-15 min. hold.

Thanks,

Paul

[Goldfinger]

Paul; Personally I don't think it will work. What will probably happen is the hole will collapse onto itself and plug up again. You may shrink the bubble just a little bit, every time you drill a hole, but you will never get rid of it entirely. I doubt if too many other members have attempted it either. Try it. If it works- fine. If it doesn't - bubbles are just of part of the craft.

Steve

[Lisa Allen]

You will probably get some scum inthe pocket from the drilling that you can't get out and the drilled hole will leave a scar as well.

The only success I have had drilling a bubble out was to drill it out from the bottom of the piece and re fuse. I had a piece of opaque over clear, so it was easy to locate the bubbles from the back and drill and it did heal with no appearance from the top. Sounds like this is not a possibility with your particular piece though.

Lisa

[Paul Bush]

You will probably get some scum inthe pocket from the drilling that you can't get out and the drilled hole will leave a scar as well.

The only success I have had drilling a bubble out was to drill it out from the bottom of the piece and re fuse. I had a piece of opaque over clear, so it was easy to locate the bubbles from the back and drill and it did heal with no appearance from the top. Sounds like this is not a possibility with your particular piece though.

Lisa

Sounds like a possibility. My base glass is black, so a little tricky. but if I get lucky and drill in the right place, this might work. Thanks for the idea.

Paul

[jim simmons]

What I have done in this case, is to drill out the bubbnle and then CLEAN, CLEAN with an electric toothbrush and alchol /deionized water and then fill the hole with clear frit.
Then go back to a full fuse with slow going (100 deg./hr) from 1100 to 1250.

I have only done this 2 times, but it worked both times.
Jim

[Karen Woblesky]

I tried doing this once, and had reasonable success:

I had a large bubble in a 9" square black fused piece of glass, prox 2" in diameter. I drilled into the bubble and cleared out all of the remnants, so that I had a 2" hole in the glass. I then stuck the glass into a bucket of warm sudsy water and let soak while I cut two black circles that would fit into hole. I cleaned the hole perimeter very carefully with soap and running water and a plastic dish scrubber and let dry. Once the two replacement circles were inserted, I surrounded the edge of the hole with large clear frit and went slowly back to full fuse. I then flipped the glass over and went slowly again back to full fuse.

There is a very slight scar that remains - if you look closely at the piece under lights. I know that its there, but most people who look at the plate can't see it.