Now we're cooking!
To work with glass requires a lot of heat, and
the best way to get that heat is with a kiln. Kilns can create
and control very high, stable temperatures, ideal for fusing or
slumping glass. In addition, they can be used to slowly cool hot
glass - such as beads - to room temperature (annealing)
Annealing is a process of slowly cooling
glass to relieve internal stresses after it was formed. Glass which has not
been annealed is liable to crack or shatter when subjected to a
relatively small temperature change or mechanical shock. Annealing
glass is critical to its durability. If glass is not annealed, it
will retain many of the thermal stresses caused by fusing and
significantly decrease the overall strength of the glass object.
Fusion Glassworks carries a full range of general
purpose kilns, annealers for flameworking and fusers for glass fusing
- designed specifically for and by glassworkers. We carry kilns
and supplies from Arrow Springs, Skutt and others.
Arrow Springs AF99 Kiln - Our Most Popular Unit!
 The
Model AF99's heating chamber is 9" wide by 9"
deep by 4.5" tall inside. 120 volts, 14 amps, 1680 watts.
This kiln reaches annealing temperature in about ten minutes and fuses in
about forty minutes.
Our most popular annealer, the AF99 is a combination annealer and
fuser. The quartz encased heating elements are located in the side
walls, near the top. Because of the AF99's height to width ratio,
this gives even heat throughout the chamber and allows access
through the top as well as through the front opening. The heating
chamber can be extended to 9" tall by the addition of the
optional extension ring, XR99,but the time it takes to fuse
increases to a little over one hour.
As an annealer the heating elements are encased in quartz
tubing to make them electrically safe. Placing beads, while still
on their metal mandrel, into an oven with exposed heating elements is
like putting a knife into a toaster! Besides a hinged lid, there
is a 9" wide by 2" tall front opening that comes with a
brick door and also a soft flip door which makes a complete seal
even when the mandrels are long and stick out the opening.
As a fuser the firing chamber uses the 8" X 8", FS88
fusing shelf. Because the front door is located down low at floor
level and the heating elements are safely encased in quartz
tubing, raking is very easy and safe: no chance of electrical
shock and the door design doesn't allow very much heat to escape
and burn your hand.
Features Include:
- Quality Kanthal A-1 heating elements.
- Annealing oven heating elements are encased in quartz
tubing, making them electrically safe when inserting finished
work on steel mandrels into oven while it is on.
- K-25 insulation bricks insure low heat loss, low cost
operation and are more durable industry standard K-23 bricks.
- Average power consumption to maintain temperatures costs
only pennies an hour.
- Fast heat up times.
- Designed for easy one handed operation whether
placing finished beads into the annealer or reaching for a
preheated glass rod. The finished items are placed into the
annealer through a special front opening making for quick and
comfortable operation and the elimination thermal shock.
- All bricks are mortared to insure a long oven life and
prevent "dusting" created by loose bricks.
- All annealers and combination annealer & fusers include
a two-tiered Bead and Mandrel Rack for the inside of the
annealer to prevent beads from touching each other during
annealing.
- Fusers and combination annealer & fusers are also ideal
for silver clay, enameling, jewelry wax burnout and low fire
ceramics.
- All ovens and controllers have a 3 year warranty against
defects in materials and workmanship.
Visit our online
store or contact us to
learn more about the kilns and supplies we offer.
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