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I was convinced my glory hole was fine at 1200 degrees, but a piece of clear boro told me otherwise.
I was working on a small goblet and the gather just wouldn't move right, kept chilling too fast. My buddy in Tacoma watched me struggle and said, 'Your orange ain't orange enough, man.' He was right, I bumped it to 1350 and suddenly everything flowed like it should. How do you all judge your heat without just staring at it?
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harper_wells1mo ago
...and honestly I've been there so many times I'm starting to think my eyeballs are just decorative at this point. I once spent three days fighting with a color overlay that kept cracking, convinced it was a compatibility issue, only to realize my garage was 50 degrees and I was basically working in a walk-in freezer. My buddy laughed at me and said my glass looked like I was trying to melt it with a stern look. Now I keep a little infrared thermometer on a lanyard around my neck like some kind of glass nerd, but at least my gathers don't give up on life halfway through anymore.
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hayes.lee3mo ago
Oh man, been there. I spent a whole month blaming my bad punties before I realized my kiln was running a cool 100 degrees low. My color cues were all off, everything looked right until it just... stopped moving. A cheap pyrometer saved my sanity.
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Used to think I could read glass color like a pro, always blamed my own hands when things went wrong. Then I had a piece that just wouldn't soften up, no matter how long I worked it. Bought a basic temp reader on a whim and found my glory hole was way cooler than it showed. Totally messed up my sense of timing, now I double-check the numbers before I even start.
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