a hole in one!

[sarahec37]

hi again
just rememberd another thing i need to learn: How do you fuse cabs with a hole for stringing them on a necklace?
thanks
sarah

[lohman]

Are you familiar with ceramic fiber paper?

You can get fiber paper in small, maybe 4" x 6" sheets from your glass supplier.
I like the 1/8" thick paper. Cut it in narrow strips as wide as you want your channel to be. When you are stacking your glass for fusing, include a strip of this paper in your stack. You can let the strip extend a bit on either side of your bead. I like to arrange the stack so that there is as much glass under the paper as there is above the paper. That centers the channel into the thickness of your cabs. As you fire your glass to full fuse, the paper which is ceramic fiber does not burn up. After cooling you can clean out the strip of paper with a toothpick or a piece of wire.

Another advantage of fusing glass larger that you want and then cutting it with a wet saw is that if you fuse larger pieces, you can increase your production rate. (If that is important to you).

[sarahec37]

thank you lohman,
I will give that a try with the paper, but I dont have a cutter only a glastar diamond grinder with a 20mm grinding head.
Q: If i was to cut a 1"x 1/2" piece and 7.5mm thick what size would it be at the end of the fireing?
thanks
sarah

[Steve Immerman]

hi again
just rememberd another thing i need to learn: How do you fuse cabs with a hole for stringing them on a necklace?
thanks
sarah

Here are a couple of ways:

This one can be accomplished in one firing. There are 4 little clear chips in the corners. Fire to full fuse.



This one requires two firings, but will give more squared edges. The slide is first fired and the edges ground square. Then tack fused and firepolished to a 1.5mm layer with the fiber paper in between.




There have been discussions on the board of other methods as well. You might want to search the archives.

Steve

[BillBrach]

There are a couple more methods that might work for you, especially if you don't like the square holes that fiber paper gives you.

1. Toothpicks dipped in a THICK mixture of kiln wash. Place these like you would the fiber paper. Ventilate the kiln ever so slightly to allow the fumes from the toothpicks to escape. They don't catch fire, they just change into ash. I'd like to find small diameter bamboo skewers and try this method with these too. I think the bamboo will "ash out" a little differently than the toothpick. The wood will burn away and leaves a little hollow tube of kiln wash, which keeps the hole open.

2. Short pieces of stainless steel "mandrels" also dipped in thick kiln wash. You have to make these mandrels from stainless steel TIG welding rod, available at any welding supply house. These come in 3 foot lengths, and you will have to cut them down to about 2 1/2" pieces. Use heavy duty electrician's cutters. The 1/16" diameter is the best size. If you use this method, make sure you have equal amounts of SS mandrel sticking out each side, or the imbalance in weight will cause one end of the mandrel to sag lower into the glass, causing the hole to not be level going thru the pendant. This method gives slightly better holes.

Here are BEFORE and AFTER pictures of pendants using the toothpick method. Blenko glass.





Bill

[charlie]

when i tried kiln wash, it didn't support the hole. i've heard that bead release is better at this.

also, if you fire lower/longer, you won't get that pinched look.

[Pam]

I use bead mandrels that are inexpensive and easy to obtain through beadmaking suppliers like Arrow Springs. They come in several different diameters. You just coat them with bead release/kiln wash and lay them in between th top and bottom layers of glass like the other posts have illustrated.

I've had some experience with the top piece shrinking and not covering the mandrel entirely so I now either keep the mandrel at least 1/2 inch from the top of the cab or have the top piece of glass bigger than the bottom (or longer near where the mandrel will be). I use a diamond reamer on a Dremmel (under water) to get the kiln wash or bead release out of the hole, which is the same way I get it out of beads.

[Bob]

If you want really cheap bead mandrels go to your local welding shop and get stainless steel rod used for TIG welding. Same product ... different name...way cheaper.

I get it for about $Can8 per pound... which is a whole lot of 3 foot rods. Thin ones can be cut with pliers. For thicker ones use an abrasive cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool.

Cheers,

Bob

[sarahec37]

"wow" thank you all so much in taking the time to help me on my learning path in glass fusing, & the photos are a good guide im very greatfull.
sarah

[Lynn g]

Arrow Springs also sells copper tubing for beads...1/8" outer diameter, and 1/2", 5/8", 3/4" and 1" lengths (or a mixed package)...you might experiment with something like this.

The toothpick suggestion is interesting...I'll have to try it out, too.

[sarahec37]

now thats an interseting bit of info Lynn, ive got some brass tubbing that I use to make my stained glass jewellery boxes!
thanks for that

sarah

[froggee501]

now thats an interseting bit of info Lynn, ive got some brass tubbing that I use to make my stained glass jewellery boxes!
thanks for that

sarah

realize though, brass is not nearly as compatible with glass as copper is...

[BillBrach]

Lynn,

If you can find the smaller diameter (about 1/16") bamboo skewers, use them instead of toothpicks. The problem with toothpicks is that are not the same diameter, end to end, so placement in the glass is critical.

Take the skewer and cut into pieces 2 to 2 1/2" long. Take a craft knife and sharpen one end, which you probably want to do BEFORE you cut them into little pieces !!

Dip them in thick kiln wash, I use Bullseye, and stick them into a foam block to let them dry. The kiln wash needs to be as thick as it can, and still coat the skewer or toothpick EVENLY. If it is too thick, you won't get an even coat. Another way to do the kiln wash is thinner, and dip on two coats.

Bill

[Cheryl Wade]

I've used steel masonry nails coated with very thick kiln wash succesfully, perfectly round holes. You can get them in different thicknesses and you don't have to cut them. But, do you still use hammers and nails in America? There's a progamme on UK TV about people building their own (one-off, designer) houses; last week the people had imported a New England type timber kit from Boston, with a couple of builders to advise. They were rather amused that British carpenters still use hammers instead of nail guns.

I'll try the bamboo skewers too.

Cheryl

[Susan Robinson]

hi again
just rememberd another thing i need to learn: How do you fuse cabs with a hole for stringing them on a necklace?
thanks
sarah

Hi,
I'm a newbie too, and have spent the last couple weeks experimenting with different methods for making holes.

I tried the 'toothpick method', except with the shafts of q-tips (the cardboard kind, not the plastic). I like the size of the hole, except I couldn't get it consistent (kiln wash too thin?)

I also tried copper welding rod coated with kiln wash, which gave a nice smooth hole, but the edges seemed to pucker around the hole more than with other methods.

I've also tried fiber paper -- it's my understanding that you have to pre-fire it to get the binder out before you use it on glass (is this true? Do those of you with square holes not pre-fire it?)
After burning out the binder, the paper was soft and flexible, and made a very lumpy hole. Then I tried getting it wet and rolling it into a round shape (from a suggestion in Brad Walker's book). This is working very nicely-- when it dries, the paper gets stiffer and it can be rolled into different thicknesses for different sized holes.

-Susan