Rapid Cooling?

[Richard]

I am a newbie to glass fusing and have recentley bought a paragon kiln. I understand after the kiln has reached working temperature you should rapid cool the glass piece by opening and shuting the kiln till you reach maintenance cooling. Can someone tell me if I open the kiln lid till the temperature reduces to maintenance temperature?

[glasskanvas]

Firstly what is working temperature?....It depends what you want to do fuse,slump or tac.
I would also never rapidly cool glass also. I can't see why you'd really want to. All you're likely to get it cracks in your glass and if you're not anealling it properly (holding the temp usually at around 600 degrees) you'll also end up with glass pieces that are very fragile.
I've got a paragon too and the ceramic lid thingy doesn't really do much in terms of cooling things down. I'd set it up to do a 20-30 min aneal and wait till the temp get to about 500 and then open the door.

[annnoble]

Hi,
I compleatly agree with glasskanvas, rapid/crash cooling is asking for trouble..thermal shock, big cracks also your piece may not crack now but if not probably annealed it could crack 1-4 months down the line.

Have you got Brad Walkers book about Warm Glass? If not check out www.warmglass.com it has loads of tutorials and an intresting message board.

I hope this helps.

I actually have a skutt pro thing with a full programer its great as I just in put the progamme and off it goes.

Ann