michael braisher on tue 3 jul 01
Can any Peterpugger users send me information on their experiences and
recommendations on the suitability of this machine for the purposes of:-
1. Softening stiffish clay and extruding ready for throwing.
2. Mixing dry constituents to throwable consistancy.
3. Recycling wet scrap with powdered clay and sand to re-throwable
consistancy.
4. Producing batches with good deaired properties.
5. Is it easy to take down and clean?
6. Can I expect years of trouble free service with moderate use?
7. Is it really value for money?
Many thanks, Mike Braisher.
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Reg Wearley on tue 3 jul 01
Mike- I can give a hearty 'amen' to what
Bruce G. has said in praise of the Peter
Pugger. I couldn't be a whole lot happier
with a machine. --Reg Wearley
--- michael braisher
wrote:
> Can any Peterpugger users send me information
> on their experiences and
> recommendations on the suitability of this
> machine for the purposes of:-
> 1. Softening stiffish clay and extruding ready
> for throwing.
> 2. Mixing dry constituents to throwable
> consistancy.
> 3. Recycling wet scrap with powdered clay and
> sand to re-throwable
> consistancy.
> 4. Producing batches with good deaired
> properties.
> 5. Is it easy to take down and clean?
> 6. Can I expect years of trouble free service
> with moderate use?
> 7. Is it really value for money?
>
> Many thanks, Mike Braisher.
>
>
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________________
> Send a cool gift with your E-Card
> http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/
>
>
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>
> You may look at the archives for the list or
> change your subscription
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>
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> be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
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Bruce Girrell on tue 3 jul 01
Mike Braisher wrote:
> Can any Peterpugger users send me information on their experiences and
> recommendations on the suitability of this machine for the purposes of:-
> 1. Softening stiffish clay and extruding ready for throwing.
> 2. Mixing dry constituents to throwable consistancy.
> 3. Recycling wet scrap with powdered clay and sand to re-throwable
> consistancy.
> 4. Producing batches with good deaired properties.
> 5. Is it easy to take down and clean?
> 6. Can I expect years of trouble free service with moderate use?
> 7. Is it really value for money?
It does 1), 2), and 3) just fine. The hardest thing for it to do is to mix
stiff clay or dried chunks with soft clay. The PP does not have a shredder
and relies on mixing paddles to do the work. When I process recycle with
some hard clay and some soft, I mix it, let it stand overnight, mix it
again, pug it, let it sit for a while, then run it through and pug it again.
Sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. The second pass through the
machine is pretty quick. I don't consider this to be a fault on the
machine's part. I could be a lot more careful about what I threw into the
machine.
4) This is going to be partly up to you. I tend to overload my machine
because it seems to mix and pug better that way. The down side is that I
have to be careful to produce a good vacuum in the mixing chamber. When
there is a lot of clay in the mixing chamber, sometimes the communication
between the mixing chamber and the vacuum chamber gets clogged.
I take care of this by watching the vacuum as the pump runs. If the system
pumps down in ten seconds or less, the vacuum has not reached the mixing
chamber. I run the machine normally for a bit, then stop it. I run it in the
pug direction with my hand over the output nozzle cover, feeling for the
first movement of clay. Usually before I can feel the clay move, I'll see
the pressure rise dramatically and hear the vacuum pump sound change. At
that point I know that I have good communication between the two chambers I
stop the machine and let it pump down. I run it normally for a while, then
stop it and reverse the direction again to be sure I still have good vacuum
in the mixing chamber. I rarely have any problems with air bubbles.
5) Because the entire unit is sealed, there is no need to clean the machine
unless you are changing from a "dirty" clay to a cleaner one, such as mixing
terra cotta, then porcelain. I have two levels of cleaning - a "quick clean"
and a full tear down. The quick clean simply consists of removing clay from
the nozzles and scraping out excess clay from the mixing chamber. It takes
me about 45 minutes to do. You'll retrieve about 30-40 lbs of clay this way.
The complete tear down takes a little over two hours. I remove everything
including the main mixing chamber. I get about 45 lbs of clay out of the
machine in a complete tear down. I have documented both of these procedures,
including the required tools, but I have not published it to the list yet
because I forgot to take one picture as I was doing the documentation and
the picture that I forgot to take will require me to tear the thing
completely apart again.
6) Yes. It is well built. We have had our for three or four years now and
have not had any trouble at all. At one point, I was having some difficulty
establishing vacuum seal. I figured out that the Plexiglas vacuum port cover
was warped and all I had to do was push on the bottom and top of it until
the seal was established, then everything worked fine. Not long after that,
completely unrequested by me, a new aluminum vacuum port cover arrived in
the mail from Peter Pugger. They had encountered the same problem and sent
out new port covers to everyone who had their machines at no cost to the
owners. That is a sign of a good company.
7) It always gets down to the money. Geez, that's an awful lot of cash to
spend for such a specialized machine. Well, it _is_ a lot of cash, but I'm
not paying doctors to fix my wrists, either. Nor am I spending hours wedging
instead of throwing. Nor did I have to buy a mixer as well as a pug mill.
Start counting the savings and you can pay for the machine pretty quickly.
Some people may say that a hybrid mixer/pugger can't do the job as well as
specialized machines to do the jobs separately. Maybe they are right, but
the PP has done a fine job for me. Maybe we'll get large enough that we need
larger batch sizes and the separate machines will make economic sense then.
For now, though, we're quite pleased with our machine.
Bruce "playing with his PP again" Girrell
John Weber on wed 4 jul 01
My wife and I have a Peter Pugger and I would not trade it for any two
machines. It only holds about 30lbs in the barrel but that is perfect for
the two of us. The value of being able to throw some clay in and soften it
up to throw is great for us aging potters. We now recycle all of our scraps
which of course saves money and is very easy to do (I just put them all in a
bucket, when full I dampen the whole bucket, then pour it out on my plaster
slab, sets up overnight if the humidity is low, then I pug it up. All
batches have been completely deaired ( 3 years in use),It is very easy (4
bolts) to break down and clean, we have gone from dark clay to white
stoneware, no problems. Finally, I think we clearly got our value for the
money and would not trade it. The only thing you asked about that we have
not experienced was mixing dry, which we just don't do. I see no reason why
it wouldn't work fairly well but again we have not use it that way. I hope
this helps. John Weber in Manakin-Sabot, VA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
> Behalf Of michael braisher
> Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 2:49 AM
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
> Subject: Peterpugger
>
>
> Can any Peterpugger users send me information on their experiences and
> recommendations on the suitability of this machine for the purposes of:-
> 1. Softening stiffish clay and extruding ready for throwing.
> 2. Mixing dry constituents to throwable consistancy.
> 3. Recycling wet scrap with powdered clay and sand to re-throwable
> consistancy.
> 4. Producing batches with good deaired properties.
> 5. Is it easy to take down and clean?
> 6. Can I expect years of trouble free service with moderate use?
> 7. Is it really value for money?
>
> Many thanks, Mike Braisher.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> Send a cool gift with your E-Card
> http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> ____________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
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