Dick & Gwen Schenz on fri 27 oct 00
Back with another question!
We have a small "Clay Club" here in Sun City Vistoso near Tucson, AZ. Since
we are all Senior citizens (Old people) we are planning on purchasing a
small pug mill in order to reduce the "Wedging effort". the only potters
that I know use the same clay body all the time and don't have any
experience in going from one clay body to another.
The members use several different clays and it looks like a formidable job
to disassemble the mill and clean it after each use - or each clay body.
One member suggested that we do something like butchers do when they change
meats in their meat grinders. He said that they just run a loaf of bread
through. ??
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and can be sent directly to my
address.
Thanks,
Dick Schenz rschenz@earthlink.net
In Sunny Tucson (it's raining now)
Bruce Girrell on fri 27 oct 00
Dick Schenz wrote:
>The members use several different clays and it looks like a formidable job
>to disassemble the mill and clean it after each use - or each clay body.
We use the Peter Pugger VPM-30, a small deairing mixer/pugmill. It is not
necessary to clean the machine at all as long as the same clay body is used
since the seals of the machine prevent the clay inside from drying.
We use about four different clay bodies. Recently, we ran all of our clay
through the machine. We did this by first starting with a clean machine and
the porcelain clay. We ran all of the porcelain, then did what I call a
"quick clean." The quick clean simply involves removing the two front cones
and scraping the majority of the clay out of the cones and main chamber.
It's not necessary to get it clean. We then moved on to white stoneware and
ran all of it. Then another quick clean. Then grey stoneware and another
quick clean. Finally, the raku clay went in. When it is done and we need to
start the cycle again, we'll do a complete cleanout. The complete teardown
and cleanout takes about 2 1/2 hours and the next time I do it I promise to
take notes and report them to the list. The quick clean takes 20 - 30
minutes.
So one of the keys is planning so that there is enough clay on hand that you
can run good sized batches and run them in a way such that the next clay is
a "dirtier" clay than the previous one. You might also consider limiting the
number of clay bodies in use by the group. I would think that you could
satisfy the needs of a pretty wide range of interests with four or five
different clay bodies.
>One member suggested that we do something like butchers do when they change
>meats in their meat grinders. He said that they just run a loaf of bread
>through. ??
I don't really think that this sort of thing would work with a pugmill. Clay
is way stickier than ground meat. The only thing I can think of is running a
batch of sponges through the machine. On the VPM-30, that might clean out
the cones and auger, but I don't think it would help much in the mixing
chamber (and I'm not sure what it would do in a deairing pugmill with a
shredder screen).
Bruce Girrell
in northern Michigan, hoping to get a little horsehair work done tonight
while the weather is still [somewhat] warm.
michael wendt on fri 27 oct 00
I used to do two different clay bodies, one red, the other white. My pug
mill ran red to pink to white in 75 lbs and was remarkably clean white after
that. If all your clay bodies fire the same cone, that might be a lazy but
acceptable solution to tedious teardowns between bodies.
Just test the idea first and see if everyone is o.k. with marbleized clay
during change over.
Regards,
Michael Wendt
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick & Gwen Schenz
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Date: Friday, October 27, 2000 12:22 PM
Subject: Changing Clay in a Small Pug Mill
>Back with another question!
>
>We have a small "Clay Club" here in Sun City Vistoso near Tucson, AZ. Since
>we are all Senior citizens (Old people) we are planning on purchasing a
>small pug mill in order to reduce the "Wedging effort". the only potters
>that I know use the same clay body all the time and don't have any
>experience in going from one clay body to another.
>
>The members use several different clays and it looks like a formidable job
>to disassemble the mill and clean it after each use - or each clay body.
>
>One member suggested that we do something like butchers do when they change
>meats in their meat grinders. He said that they just run a loaf of bread
>through. ??
>
>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and can be sent directly to my
>address.
>
>Thanks,
>Dick Schenz rschenz@earthlink.net
>In Sunny Tucson (it's raining now)
>
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>
Roger Bourland on sat 28 oct 00
Believe me, Dick...you don't want a small pug mill in a retirement community
unless it is dedicated to one kind of clay, which, if you do raises a whole
new bag of problems!
We older folks tend to take things a bit more seriously than they sometimes
warrent and disputes break out in even the best of senior "clubs." Pug mills
are a devil of a job to clean out when clays are changed. You can do
something like that with slab rollers simply by using different canvases .
Not so with pugmills.
Don't even think about it. Only thing running a loaf of bread through a
pugmill would achieve is to get grog in your teeth.
Roger Bourland
Sun City West (a retirement community)
Dick & Gwen Schenz on mon 30 oct 00
Gang:
Thanks very much for the responses to my query.
I should have added that we all use cone 5 clay, which helps.
We have a chance to experiment in changing colors with a small Bluebird pug
mill this week.
The mill is used by one of my teachers to reclaim Danish white ^10 for her
kids classes. She uses the same clay all the time. The plan is to put about
75 lb of Dark Brown ^10 through and then follow with as much Danish White
as necessary, - just to get a feel for what we're up against.
Several people have mentioned a "purge clay".
Is this something that is purchased or do we have to make it up?
Thanks again for all the responses
Dick Schenz
in Sunny Tucson
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