More foolishness from WetCanvas…

sigh…but it is to be expected I guess…

Hay kids, let’s save money and be good to yo mama Earth! Environmental issues in glass should be at the forefront imo. I’m hoping people will use this thread to collect and post good environmental ideas for all modes of working. I’ll start out with one.

If you are ramping up a kiln, you can go afap from 750-1025f. The range can be broadened depending on your application, but that range will generally hold true for any process.

Cut the ‘fat’ out of your firing schedules! Almost all firing schedules I’ve seen are far too cautious. It ends up wasting LOTS of energy.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying to save money and being nice to the environment, BUT…

Every fusing program I’ve ever seen has a “as fast as possible” ramp when increasing temps, so where this comes from I have no idea.

“Cut the fat from your firing schedules”…uh huh…and where, he asks, should the fuser do this? There is “fat” in the schedule to allow for different thicknesses, different sizes, etc. If you do the exact same piece with the exact same glass over and over and over again, I can certainly see the writers point of fine tuning your fusing/annealing program, but this is hardly ever the case.

If you are using those disposable mapp canisters, please recycle them.
Not everyone will take them but call around- find a place that will. 

This is highly unlikely. Fuel cannisters are considered by most localities to be “hazardous waste” and for good reason. Left over fuel inside the cannister can ignite and explode if the cannister is crushed or broken. The amount of steel involved in these cannisters is so small that it really doesn’t pay to try to recycle them. Dispose of them properly — per the guidelines of your community.

Also, waste heat capture is a good idea for beadmakers. if you can safely preheat your lines with waste heat economically by using an overhead heat-sink, that would be good too. SAFELY!

Please don’t try this!! Pre-heating your fuel gas and oxygen lines is not worth the amount of time and energy that you would put into attempting this. The theory is that by warming your fuel gas to warmer than room temperature reduces the amount of energy required to ignite the gas. But this only pays off with continuous large scale combustion. The technology to do this safely and cost effectively is not available to the average beadmaker, and please don’t attempt to build some sort of “device” — your personal safety is just not worth the danger!