Kiln Shelf Woes

Primer Stuck on Glass
Shelf Primer Stuck on Glass

A couple of months ago I bought a kiln shelf from Bullseye. I just recently got around to using it and it’s great but….

The first time I used it I had primer stuck to the bottom of my glass. I put on at least 8 coats of Primo shelf primer which is usually more than enough. The second time I primed and used it, it worked great. Then I decided to flip the shelf over and use the other side. Again! I had primer stuck to the bottom of my glass. I am not sure what happened here.

Do Bullseye shelves need a break in period? Anyone else have this experience? Maybe it didn’t like the primo primer? In any case, I am going to try a small sample using some inexpensive glass on the shelf next. I may try using Primo primer on half of the shelf and Hotfire on the other half.

All is not lost though! Every mistake is a learning opportunity. This did give me a design idea for my Christmas plates. Looks like I’ll be buying some fine white frit in the future.

2 thoughts on “Kiln Shelf Woes

  1. joi says:

    super dumb question – did you scrape your shelf between the good firing and the bad one? I think that can affect how well the primer sticks to the shelf…

    this (besides being lazy and, in numbers of firing, a relative fusing newbie even though i’ve been doing it for a few years) is why I stick to thinfire…

    • Margot says:

      Not dumb – a valid question. But, yes, I always clean the shelf well before applying new kiln wash. I am too cheap er.. frugal to use thinfire for all of my firings. I use it only on my jewelry firings. I am wondering now if the Bullseye primer would work better on their shelves. The Bullseye shelf looks like it is made of a different material than the standard kiln shelf that I originally got from my supplier.

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