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Round the corners of a base which will be capped with a piece of glass with larger dimensions (an overhanging edge). This will help prevent shattering  at the edges where the cap slumps over the corners.

Close the microwave door very carefully so your stacked project won't move!

You can safely affix small pieces of glass to be fused together as a stack of three pieces using a small portion of Elmer's glue. When the glue dries the glass will not slide or topple over. I never did four pieces.  (Contributed by Jack B. Ludwig)

A stacked project generally should total 1/8" high. I find more control when I fire the bottom two layers and then add whatever else needs to be added and then refire.

A 1"x1" stack of 2 thin layers will eventually turn into a round, domed button if overfired. As you fire a 1"x1" square and then add another layer and fire, the corners of your project will "round" and a third firing will round it even more.

If you roll a small piece of Bullseye  Thin Fire shelf paper into a small roll (tube) and put it between two pieces of glass with the edges sticking out on both sides, it will make a channel  that you can string chain through.

When making a multi-level piece, fill empty spaces in with clear glass to prevent bubbles. (Sharon Griffin's tip).

Dichroic glass requires hotter temperatures to melt than regular fusible glass.

CERAMIC GOLD PENS

Gold ceramic pens fire successfully in my MicroKiln. I fire for three minutes, let cool, then apply and fire a cap. Do this in two steps to allow any gasses to escape before adding the cap. There is a distinctive smell when firing  and the shelf paper will look "charred". My observation is that neither MicroKiln nor microwave oven is harmed. Do not fire more than three minutes!

Dichroic "Scrap Packs" are sold by weight. I have been disappointed because I purchased them with the intent of making pendants. The pieces seemed fairly big, but the pieces were so irregular when I cut a square, the majority of the piece of glass was left as even tinier useless scraps. I have grouped some of these scraps on top of a black fusible square and make some pretty pendants, but the point is if you need to make rectangular or square pendants, don't rely on scrap packs. Count on scrap packs for making decorations. (And I WILL have scrap packs!)

An S shaped crack is caused by two different thicknesses of glass fired too fast.  The thin part gets hotter than the thicker part and causes thermal shock.  I got this when I put a tack fused piece back in the microkiln to fire it a little longer to make the design a bit less sharply defined.

Cracking into several pieces is from firing way too fast.  A 1200 watt microwave might be heating the glass too rapidly.  Try 50%  power for a longer time.  (It will take a lot longer that way.)

It is very unlikely that you can successfully fuse the pieces back together in the microkiln, but it's worth a try.  I have not had any luck with it, especially when the pieces are not of uniform thickness.  If they are uniform thickness, you MIGHT be able to fuse them together on 50% power, but I am doubtful it would work.  Better to just accept it as a lesson not to fire so rapidly again.

I have not had a lot of success with putting pieces back in the Microkiln while they are still warm.  I let them cool off first.  I think the reason is that since they are already warm, they get to firing temperature faster, which is usually too fast.

I would salvage what I could of the ruined projects and use them any way I was able to in future work.  Small pieces can make attractive decorative accents.

If you need to use a torch for glass work, you can buy a regular plumber's torch at the hardware store and ordered a pinpoint tip for it.  Saves lots of money over ordering a jewelers torch!

I have found that black dichroic fire really fast. Clear glass (dichroic or otherwise) takes a lot longer.

Different colors of glass fuse at different temperatures.

A good way to test how different glass will fuse is to put several 1/4" squares of different colored glass in the MicroKiln together.  The pieces must not touch each other. Test fire them and see which ones turn into perfect little balls, which ones are starting to draw up, and which ones are unchanged.  It's interesting to see the difference