Jan Doyle on mon 19 apr 99
Hi Bonnie,
I think we had dinner one night in Columbus - the old firehouse??
Anyway, I currently use one of the Northstar Extruders and yes, cleaning
the parts and the assembly/disassembly can become tedious but the
equipment works great. I used to spend a great deal of time cleaning it
after each use and one day was in a big rush and left it uncleaned.
When I went to use it the next time I only scraped off the dry clay and
did a little sponging. Alot less work and less time consuming.
Jan Doyle
Mt. Airy, Maryland
B'racha Pickering on tue 20 apr 99
Hi Bonnie,
Ahh, such a familiar quandary. My partner and I spent a few months, last
year, researching the same question after unsuccessfully building one out of
PVC pipe. We had used, in two community studio (read high use and abuse)
settings the:
Brent. We liked the leverage and the ease of die insertion and
removal--pitting and corrosion were a concern.
Northstar Our present community studio bought one to replace the
ancient Brent. Fortunately they didn't get rid of the Brent.
The Northstar, which had to be sent back early on for
repairs, has a ridiculously small barrel,
threaded bolts(? can't remember-we each used it once and went back
to the Brent) that to this day still jam up, and lousy, backbreaking
plunger leverage.
We ruled out the big Bailey--out of our budget and we "only do coils", and
had just about decided to get the Scott Creek extruder, sounded like it
combined all the best of the others of comparable size, when CLAYARTER
Roseanne Cleveland-King (thank you, thank you!!!) offered to sell us her
Bailey System 1 Manual (9 inch barrel). ..."only do coils?" Not on your life,
not any more! Endless possibilities, particularly if you also buy, or make,
die and adapter for small extrusions and create die from your own designs.
This thing is great. We have had no problems with clay oozing out the edges,
C clamps to hold the die in place are easy to use, and, even when doing large
objects using tons of clay, the handle/plunger works smoothly and almost
effortlessly. The only hassle is in supporting and removing larger objects
single-handed and this could be resolved by buying, or making, the "parting
platform"--something we are looking at now. WE LOVE IT! and to think we
didn't even consider it at first. Someone was watching out for us.
BTW, I recently figured out what we had done wrong with our homemade extruder
and it works fine now as a supplement, it could never replace the Bailey.
Well, sorry about the length and the effusiveness, but in our household, the
"big" Bailey ranks up there with the "X-FILES" for fascination and enjoyment.
B'racha
N B Pick@aol.com
B'racha Pickering
Columbus, GA USA
Jonathan Kaplan on wed 21 apr 99
I have had 2 pneumatic Bailey extruders in my studios since 1975.
The first was one of Jim's early production models. We used the expansion
box as well as the 6 x 6 barrel. We used their stand and parting table, and
made many many pots from the extruded pieces we made.
Our current extruder is a 6 x 6 pneumatic Bailey, wall mounted.
In general, these machines have performed very well for us. We have some
procedures that may help others.
1. Even though the pneumatic models come with a regulator attatched to the
air line, we have a larger regulator/filter installed on the air line
before the extruder, with standard Speedair quick disconnects so that the
air tap can be used for other operations, as well as the extruder. Our
current extruder is wall mounted, quite securely into the wall stud with
big lag screws.
2. We have installed an inline moisture filter, as well as an inline oiler
to keep the cylinder lubricated.
3. We have used all types of materials for dies. Our current favorite is
UHMW.(from cutting boards or plastic suppliers) In 1/2" thickness, there is
plenty of room to make the bevel for ease of clay movement. This material
also works quite well with interior die holders as well. Our second
favorite is 1/4" plex, backed up by birch plywood. Both these plastic
materials are easily tooled with basic handtools, files, drills, Dremel
tools, etc, and sand well for a very smooth extrusion.
4. We use WD 40 to lubricate the barrel and plunger. The clean up is a snap
afterwards. There is no detrimental effect on any clay bodies that we have
used with WD 40.
5. One of the ways we have figured to eliminate clay seepage is to really
torque the wing nuts. However, we are making some new dies our of UHMW that
will have a step along the perimeter of the die so that a small section of
the die fits up into the extruder, and thre is enough exposed outside to be
secured completely by the die holder and wing nuts.
We have really nothing detrimental to say about Jim's extruders, other than
as with all equipment, there is a learning curve and one needs to develop
ways that work better or more correctly in each situation.
Jonathan
Jonathan Kaplan, president
Ceramic Design Group LTD/Production Services
PO Box 775112
Steamboat Springs CO 80477
plant location
1280 13th Street Unit 13
Steamboat Springs CO 80487
(970) 879-9139 voice and fax
jonathan@csn.net
http://www.sni.net/ceramicdesign/
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