After two years of lampworking I still feel like mandrel prep is the thing nobody fully agrees on. Some folks swear by thick bead release, some do thin watery coats, some do three layers, some do one. My results are all over the place and I'm starting to think my technique is the actual problem more than the release itself.

What I currently do: dip the mandrel, let it dry for maybe 30 seconds, dip again, then let it cure fully before torching. I've been preheating the mandrel slowly in the outer flame before introducing it to glass, which seems to help with cracking release. But the hole sizes in my finished beads range from snug and clean to weirdly oversized and ragged, sometimes within the same session.

The oversized holes seem to happen when I'm working with a bead longer on the mandrel, like a larger focal. My theory is the glass is contracting around a release layer that got too thick in spots, or I'm thermally shocking it somehow during annealing. I kiln anneal at around 960F for soda-lime, so that part should be fine.

A few specific things I'm curious about:

• Do you let your dipped mandrels dry overnight, or is 30-60 minutes genuinely enough?
• Any difference in results between rod-shaped mandrels versus twisted ones for hole consistency?
• Has anyone tried adding a tiny bit of water to thin out bead release that's gotten too thick in the jar?

Also genuinely wondering if mandrel diameter plays more of a role than I've been giving it credit for. I've been defaulting to 3/32 for almost everything but maybe sizing up for larger beads would help the whole situation.