How to Bubble Squeeze Pendants

(See Below)

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Small Glass Fusing and Fusing Schedules (Part 2)

What the heck is a Bubble Squeeze?

Trapped air is a fact of life when fusing two pieces of glass together. The object of a bubble squeeze is to minimize the air that is trapped between the glass during the fusing process. The bubble squeeze has nothing to do with tack fuse, contour fuse or full fuse. It is an intermediary process (a step in the schedule) to limit the amount of bubbles.

Our bubble squeeze schedule for small glass fusing is as follows:
1) Raise the temperature as fast as possible to 1050�F and hold for 20 minutes. This hold is to stabilize the temperature throughout the glass.
2) Raise temperature by 90�F per hour until the glass is at 1250�F. What is happening here is that the top glass settles onto the bottom glass. In doing so, it allows the air to escape. If you heat the glass too fast, the outside of the glass heats up too fast and settles first, trapping the air. This is why I dislike the schedules that just tell you to have a long hold at 1250�F as a bubble squeeze. By the time you hit 1250�F you have already trapped bubbles.
3) Next, hold at 1250� for 20 minutes. This is to complete the settling process (hopefully) with most of the air gone.

Other factors in Bubble Squeeze

There are two other factors affecting a bubble squeeze.
Top vs. Side Elements: Top elements tend to give better results than side elements. However, this is not as true with smaller pieces as with larger ones. We use our side element (8x8) all the time with good results. The theory behind the top element doing a better job is that it heats the glass evenly across the top. While this is true, it does not have a profound effect on smaller pieces.

The second factor is the texture of the glass itself. When I bubble squeeze, I try to have the rougher side of the glass between the two pieces. This is really kind of counter-intuitive. Most people would think that to avoid bubbles, you would put the smoother sides together. What you are doing with the rough sides together is to give the air an escape route. By experiment and experience, I have found that putting two very smooth pieces together in the middle during a bubble squeeze, you are assuring yourself of bubbles.

Only do it once

You only need to bubble squeeze once. In fact a second bubble squeeze will do no good. If you have bubbles after the first firing, any trapped air has no way of escaping. However, one trick we have used quite effectively is that if we have an obnoxious bubble near the edge, it may be possible to use our grinder to remove the bubble. We shape the piece using the grinder such that the ground edge of the piece impinges on the bubble. It is not necessary to grind away the entire bubble. Once the air has an escape route, you can fuse the piece again (using a bubble squeeze) and often rid yourself of that entire bubble.