Fighting The Glass

I must have gotten the wrong kind. That, or the kilns are cycling wrong, a periodic but known event. But then again, some of what I'm fighting with turned out perfectly.

I refer to my recent setbacks in making glass wind chimes. All started out well enough, encouraging me to make a big thing of it. I got more glass, cut it, popped it in kilns and hardened it. At least some of the new glass got slightly too hardened. OK, who am I kidding? It got WAY too hardened.

All this last week I've had problems with drilling holes in the pieces. It hasn't mattered which shape of diamond drill bits I used. Many shapes work, though our instructor had a favorite. I got my own set, since tools with high club usage tend to get worn out quickly, not to mention bent, warped, broken, or "disappeared". When I started having issues, I retired the one bit I'd been using, even though it still showed plenty of diamond left. The new bit didn't have much better luck. I tried a different shape, then yet a third shape.

Normally, the bit is set on the glass at a slight angle, held by your hand braced against the pan of ice water you drill in. Withing 3 or 4 seconds, the bit makes itself enough of a dent that the drill (dremel)  can be tilted up to vertical and then bites straight down through. Patience is required, but a hole takes 3 to 5 minutes. Only.

Everything I tried this week became a non event. One kind of glass never set that first hole but kicked my rotating bit scuttling over the glass, leaving nothing more than what looked like a bug trail meandering over the surface. Again, same. And again. OK, other kind of glass from same "bake". The first bite took longer than usual but eventually dug in, then went nowhere. I timed a hole for 20 minutes, could barely see any progress, and when probed the hole only went in a millimeter. In the process the cord coming out the back end of the dremel became too hot. I gave it up. No need to wreck a tool.

I'm hoping I can find a club here which uses laser drills. A fairly inexpensive membership, or a payment to the club, might be an option for getting holes in the glass, one or two per piece, depending on its location in the chimes. I haven't thrown them out yet. It's a lot of glass. Perhaps they can be wire wrapped by somebody, though not for wind chimes as the wire will keep them from clinking against each other. They're too big for jewelry, too irregular to set in decorative paving stones. By now I even doubt they can be used for breaking in a wild tantrum. 

Not that I have any plans for one, of course.

At least not yet.

I'm not completely discouraged, of course. I did find a selection of smaller pieces online, promised to be shipped here by midweek. Each is different, though from the same shipper there is only a single shipping charge, so it pays to get whatever I'm interested in at one time. Each is large enough to give me 5 or 6 pieces, if I can get my plan right and they break where scored. (Translation: if I can score them properly!) It will be simple to run one kiln's worth of samples, a couple pieces from each set so none completely lost if the kiln fritzes, and test drill them next day while the next kiln batch runs, and still get them ready to bring with me before packing so I can put them together over the summer with all the materials needed.

My only question to myself right now is how much stress do I want to pack -get it? pack? - into the next week-plus of time in order to get ready to leave? At least the driving is relaxing.