Cooling peices in Vermiculite??

[e-jipt]

I was wondering if I annealed them in a kiln and then took them out and put them in vermiculite to cool, that way I could leave the kiln on and still work when it gets full, or I want some peices to cool. Is this ok, or do you think that it would cool down too fast?? thanks!1

[Chris Juedemann]

No way.

Chris

[marcel]

Don't use cold tweezers and don't do it to anything over 3/16 of an inch thick or with complex seals. A warm glove or just stopped glowing tweezers would be best. Also, make sure the last piece has been in for a good 45 to one hour.

An alternative would be to turn the kiln off (after 1 hour soak) and open the door at around 700 degrees and unload ten minutes later. Don't use cold tweezers! That will rerquire 1.5 to 2 hours without the kiln. During this time you could use the vermiculite to cool the fresh pieces and throw them into the kiln when yoiu unload the finished pieces and fire it up again.

I'm assuming this is simple production. If the pieces ytou put straight into the vermiculite don't survive most all of the time you may need to reassess this strategy; that would indicate to me that you are leaving too much stress in the glass or it is too thick for this type of handling. If you have good luck with the straight vermiculite cooling you can let the pieces in the kiln cool slower.

I know several people who bench cool their pankers until they can stuff the cold kiln from floor to ceiling with COLD pieces and then run a thorough cycle.

I've suggested what I consider the most aggressive handling that could be considered reasonable. Color choices, thoroughness of base down, and technique will all affect the viability of these suggestions. Perhaps one of these techniques will solve the kiln space problem. If your pieces bench/vermiculite cool well i'd suggest the last option, just make sure they see that cycle within 24 hours of the bench cool or you will start to see checking.

-marcel

[e-jipt]

Thanks a lot dude, I guess I mainly want to use this to cool off peices with a punty still on them when I turn off my kiln. But you say anything cooled this way needs to be reannealed. That's cool, thanks again.