it's about to get real pretty soon. Dragged the spare stuff outta the shop in Florida. She was a little stinky on its first fire, but she verks good! The glass cast is in shipping from R&R and waiting on the slow boat from China for pid parts. I guess this means I gotta get a grip on this shelf I call a workbench.
Plenty of workspace next where you have the bottle, IFR gun and knife setting. Besides, you've got lots of working area on top of the kiln. Why is it empty? Doesn't look like it's on.
Translation of the translation: pile it on top until the angle of repose is discovered or the top collapses; whichever comes first.
This bench is 12 feet long. That translates into a 9foot shelf. Flat surfaces suck. I've got to get on this tonight, it's totally out of control now.
Without a Pid, I took a wild run at casting some of that mystery glass. I believe my fuse temp was a little low or the time was a bit short. Working against me, I noticed the mystery glass pieces have variations in the color. I went for it anyway and halfassed a schedule. It worked! The investment is a winner and the material did not stick to the glass. Next go will be with the proper known glass and hopefully half a clue.
Getting some work done on the branches. I'm only using three to support the shade. Here's a sneak peek.
Thanks guys, I cant wait to see that shade loaded with colorful glass pieces glowing. Lots of pieces to this puzzle.
Ughh... Surface finish strikes again. I am amazed at how little info there is on the net for casting glass. I feel like the last Mohican out here. Ran a piece last night and after some mild issues with the PID, that I've got pretty much sorted out thanks to you guys, I made this. The blue is AMAZING and it only has a 4-5 tiny bubbles that I can live with. What I cannot live with is the shit surface finish on the glass. A phone call to the tech at R&R and he thinks it could be my water and suggested distilled water only for ALL INVESTMENTS to control the alkalinity. That includes solid investment metal guys too. Also, he thinks I might be fcking up the mold with my dewax/burnout process and wants me to go a little more gentle on it. (that might actually hold some merit) Looking at the broken off investment, I can't really see any difference between areas that did smooth over and the rough parts. So that leads me to believe, maybe I've got the fuse temps or times wrong. I'm hitting up the glass weenies now and maybe they will know the answer. Until then, it's back to the drawing board. Here's some photos for your viewing pleasure. I guessed at how much glass to add, I came up short. I need to take a measurement of the weight of the wax and come up with a conversion for the glass. I'm adding a base to suspend it in the bronze seen here in the wax version of the blue chunk. Looking through the bottom. I couldn't care about the couple of bubbles. I can extend the bubble soak and probably fix that. Look through the top. Darker sections is the thicker parts. Look at the corner. Nice and clear. WTF is happening to the rest of this bastard???????????
You're doing great. Tiffany mastered it some time back, without electronics. Makes me appreciate them.
Thanks Andy, Yeah no kidding. I've got another one in investment now and I was smart enough to weigh the wax prior. I'm going to toss the kiln outside and let it smoke the neighborhood out. R&R seems to think I might be hitting it with too much heat and damaging the investment. Time to cut up some more glass... Let's do Green this time.
Probably not, but lets try for now. I think there is also some kinda powdered crap you can apply to glass and refire. I think it's like a clearcoat..?