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Setting Up the Weights
Coat your second shelf with shelf primer and place it (primer down) on top of your glass as shown:
Make sure that the shelf is either below the thermocouple (the small metal rod that sticks out of the wall of your kiln) or, if it is above the thermocouple, that there is no chance of it hitting the thermocouple as the glass melts and the shelf moves down.
If you have stacked the glass as described, with there being at least three, equally tall stacks, the shelf should be level.
Now place your weights on top of the shelf. Old pieces of kiln shelf, high density fire bricks and kiln furniture are all suitable. Do not use stones! Stones can contain water that expands when heated, causing the stone to explode.
Here’s our top shelf loaded with weights:
We are ready to go!
Close the kiln and fire as explained on the next page.
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How much weight for the kiln press technique?
I can't wait to try this technique! I see you have quite a bit of kiln furniture on top of the second kiln shelf, how much weight do you need to overcome the surface tension for a piece?
Sandra
weight
Could you place two kiln shelves on top of the glass or would that be too much?
Thanks for sharing this method!
Karen
New person
Hi Karen, I was wondering if you ever got an answer to your question. I noticed there were two questions, but never noticed any answers. This is my first day on site and I would like to try this in my studio. Thanks for any help you can offer.
Helen
answer
Helen,
I did not receive an answer.
Karen
weight - enough? too much?
Karen -
I would say look at the photos carefully and just use common sense - and experiment! It looks like way more than 2 kiln shelves worth of weight in the phots, so 2 shelves might not even be enough.
Piranga
Fused Glass, Wood, Beads, PMC, Ceramics
Usable and Wearable Art
Art for the Sake of Art
Amount of weight
Hi guys,
Just finished the 2nd firing on my first attempt. I used the following (not in this order): a 12" shelf, an 8" shelf, 4 foot long hot damz, 4 6" bricks, 8 kiln posts (4" and 6"). That's all I had. I've posted pictures of my 1st and 2nd firings of the same piece of glass in the gallery. I'd like more "spread" than I got. I suspect a careful combination of weight on top to amount of glass used to thickness of spacers (I used fiber blanket that measured 5m or .20 thickness with calipers) might do it. I also noticed that the lighter transparents tend to flow better than the darker colors under my specific conditions.