Sharon Wetherby on wed 30 jul 03
Henry Zoch makes Zocart Custom Made Clay Extruders in Texas. His
extruders
have a 5-inch square steel barrel that is 16 inches long and holds
approximately
15 to 17 pounds of clay. He takes cash, checks, money order or Paypal.
You can call Henry at (972) 557-8258 or e-mail him at
claynmetal@juno.com.
Sharon Wetherby
Fort Worth, TX
Gail Barnett on tue 30 mar 04
I want to purchase a clay extruder. The only "hands on" experience has been with a North Star and the clay "squishes" out the sides. Do they all do this? I am not going to extrude "sewer pipes" and I am not muscles galore - I want to use it with white clay and the largest thing I might extrude might be a 2+ inch round cylinder.
Thanks for your help!
GG
Fredrick Paget on wed 31 mar 04
I have a Bailey made of stainless steel and the only thing I don't
like about it is it is hard to clean. I wish they would make them so
the barrel could be taken down and carried to the sink for washing.
I had the clay squishing out at first but I replaced the wing nuts
with regular nuts that I can use a box wrench on and it rarely leaks
now.
For a while I was using a gasket I made of thick gasket paper like
material such as is used between steam pipe flanges and it stopped
the squishing out but was hard to position correctly.
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
Gina Dewar on wed 31 mar 04
I have a North Star extruder and like it very much. The clay does not
squish out the sides. I use the little tool to tighten the bolts well
before extruding. Perhaps the threads were stripped and therefore couldn't
be tightened enough to keep the clay in. The metal box is about 3" square
on mine. I don't have a lot of muscle either and find it is easy to use.
David Hendley on wed 31 mar 04
The small square Northstar extruder is a poor choice, mostly because the
barrel is so short. You will have to re-load more clay quite often if you
are extruding cylinders.
It is also hard to tighten the die holder enough, so clay doesn't come out
around the edges. The Bailey (4" square) extruder uses the same type of
die-holding system and suffers from the same problem. It is also not the
best choice for white clay because it is made of steel, which could cause
some iron contamination.
Of course, long-time Clayart readers know that I heartily recommend
building your own extruder. But, if you want to buy one, your best
choice would probably be the Scott Creek 4" round aluminum extruder.
It has a die-holding cap that slips in place without tools and will not let
clay ooze around the sides.
The aluminum barrel will not contaminate white clay, and, should you
some day want to extrude larger things, you can buy an expansion
box which will allow you to extrude 6" wide forms.
I hope you will make your own dies for your extruder, but if not, I
prefer the Bailey and Scott Creek metal dies over the plastic North
Star dies.
David Hendley
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> I want to purchase a clay extruder. The only "hands on" experience has
been with a North Star and the clay "squishes" out the sides. Do they all
do this? I am not going to extrude "sewer pipes" and I am not muscles
galore - I want to use it with white clay and the largest thing I might
extrude might be a 2+ inch round cylinder.
Craig Dunn Clark on wed 31 mar 04
I also have the small North Star extruder in my shop. It was given to me
by a former student. I would not spend any money on the small one though I
understand the big one with the large crank wheel works quite well. I have
had a problem with the die holder warping even with softish clay. This is
primarily a hassle in that I end up having to "straighten" the hanger every
once in a while.
The problem for me with the smaller North Star is in the basic design.
The pivot point of the lever arm is fixed as opposed to being on a type of
yoke or horizontal pin that slides or ratchets up and down the vertical
post. This results in the force applied being graduall shifted away from a
perpendicular to the plane of the clay to one that is angled. It becoms
increasingly inefficient.
I've used both homemade (probably copied from the basic brent model) and
Brents in the past. They have worked better for me. This does not mean they
are the best. I'm just expressing a personal preference.
While I haven't been following this thread I do know that David Hendely
is one our local experts on clay extruders and extrusions. He makes his own
dies as well as his own extruders. He has written a few articles as well as
given workshops.
Hope this helps
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gina Dewar"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: Clay Extruders
> I have a North Star extruder and like it very much. The clay does not
> squish out the sides. I use the little tool to tighten the bolts well
> before extruding. Perhaps the threads were stripped and therefore couldn't
> be tightened enough to keep the clay in. The metal box is about 3" square
> on mine. I don't have a lot of muscle either and find it is easy to use.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> 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.
Susan Giddings on wed 31 mar 04
Gail,
I have used a Bailey for years. Tried several other brands at various
workshops. I was recently looking to buy an extruder for my new studio and
it was a Bailey I got for myself. Here are some of the things I'd tell you
to consider:
The Bailey is easy to use as extruders go. you are much better off using
soft clay. As soft as soft throwing clay - even softer. I always let the
extrusions set up for a bit. If I am in a hurry and I am extruding anyway
(normally I try to avoid being rushed when I extrude!) I'll hit the forms
with a heat gun or torch. A plastic barrel would not permit you to do this.
The Bailey barrel can handle it.
Also, the leverage action on the Bailey makes it easy enough to use. Again,
using too hard clay won't help you - with any brand. You MUST use soft clay.
The length for the lever attached to the plunger is all important. I
remember using a broom stick in a Randall Extruder (with soft clay!) to get
the machine to extrude anything. The angle was all off. I'm a fairly big
person and have good upper body strength and I couldn't extrude out of the
Randall unless I had about 5' on the plunger. With the Bailey, the normal 3'
length is easy to handle. Now it's not effortless - but it is manageable.
Easy. Doesn't require that you bench press 150 pounds.
I find that with almost any extruder, the dies and die holders wear a bit
with time and a lot of use. So sometimes, the seal is a little off and clay
will squish out. Sometimes I will use a damp strip of cloth or foam around
the seal. Face cloths work very well for this. They are the right size to
fit around the die and it's easy to cut the centers out of them. Some
extruder designs it's not such a big deal. (like the Randall I mentioned
before - no leakage at all) But when considering ALL the factors, I figure
it's sort of unavoidable and just work around it. Bailey - little effort to
extrude - Randall - had to HANG off the lever to get it to extrude an inch.
I'll deal with the squish that normally you get with the Bailey design.
Dies: The Bailey only has a few - round and rectangle, hollow and solid. A
few more for coil building and small round or square shapes. Northstar, I
think comes with a whole slew of dies. Even though people will claim that
making dies is easy - OK, can't prove it by me. I don't work with wood, or
plastic, or aluminum. I work with clay. I have never made a die. I don't
have the tools to do it and even if I did, have no idea how to use them. Nor
do I really care to learn. I'd rather put the time into clay. But not having
dies or being able to make them, you make up for it in other ways. You learn
how to make darts in extruded forms. Or take an extrusion, and then throw it
on the wheel, center it, shape it, whatever it. You can do just about
ANYTHING. Extruding soft clay can be a problem with having it hold its form
- but what you can do with soft extrusions is not to be believed!
I have more fun with extrusions than just about anything. I have learned to
work around the shortcomings of dealing with Bailey extruder over any of the
others so that to me, the Bailey is a "got to have". When I am at a new
extruder workshop I dread not seeing a Bailey on the wall. And I always
breath a sigh of relief when I see the instructor carry a Bailey in over the
shoulder! I am the first to offer to help get it set up.
So if you are only doing one or two shapes and they are standard die shapes.
then I really am not sure that it makes a huge difference. If you can try it
out first, do. Be sure you have the strength. The Northstar I think may be
easier and less stressful to manage. Also, I think the dies twist on from
the bottom like in the Randall design. No ooze. It's lighter. I think they
got the angle right. Try one. But, for me, when it came to what I actually
got - I put my money down on a Bailey and would do so again.
Usual disclaimer applies: No I do not get anything from Bailey! I just
really like their equipment.
>I want to purchase a clay extruder. The only "hands on" experience has
>been with a North Star and the clay "squishes" out the sides. Do they all
>do this? I am not going to extrude "sewer pipes" and I am not muscles
>galore - I want to use it with white clay and the largest thing I might
>extrude might be a 2+ inch round cylinder.
>
------------------
Susan Giddings
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are
others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot
into the sun." — Pablo Picasso
_________________________________________________________________
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Maurice Weitman on thu 1 apr 04
At 20:22 -0800 on 3/31/04, Fredrick Paget wrote:
>I have a Bailey made of stainless steel and the only thing I don't
>like about it is it is hard to clean. I wish they would make them so
>the barrel could be taken down and carried to the sink for washing.
Fred, I don't know how the Bailey is mounted, but my Scott Creek
jobbie has a U-channel attached to the wall and the extruder body is
bolted to it.
I, too, wished for a more easily-removed barrel, so I removed the
bolts, replaced them with bolts having a very long, unthreaded
shoulder, cut them to length, drilled holes in the end, and put
spring clips through them.
Clear? I didn't think so... maybe this will help:
Best regards,
Maurice
Bunny Lemak on thu 31 aug 06
I am interested in purchasing a clay extruder, but know nothing about
them. I was just informed that axner pottery supply is going out of
business and is having a huge sale. They do have an extruder on sale:
http://www.pottery-books.com/axner/supplies/sale-blueheron-extruder.php
Is this a good deal? Will some of you with extruders please give me some
feedback on this, thank you in advance.
Bunny Lemak on fri 1 sep 06
On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:51:46 -0400, Bunny Lemak wrote:
>I was just informed that axner pottery supply is going out of
>business
Oops! My mistake! I posted first and read last. I apoligize for the
error, Axner Pottery is just merging with Laguna Clay, NOT going out of
business. That is what I get for listening to someone before checking it
out for myself!
I also posted this then went into "search" and found a gazillion posts on
extruders which now leads me to another question:
I only stand 4'5" tall, weigh 100 lbs and have arthritis (great
combination, huh?!) Maybe an extruder is not for me? From what I have
read some of you have had problems using this machine.
Since I have never used one I would really like to hear the pro's & con's
about an extruder.
Thanks-
Bunny
>__________________________________________________________________________
____
>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.
David Hendley on fri 1 sep 06
Hi Bunny, I suggest you learn a little about extruders
before you buy one. I know I have written about extruders
on Clayart many times in the last 8 years, as have others.
Ask potter friends what they have and if you can try their
extruders. Ask at local collages and craft centers.
The extruder pictured in your link is a very poor choice
for anything except small extrusions.
Notice how short the barrel is - it doesn't hold much clay, so
you will be constantly re-loading if you want to extrude
bigger things.
Notice how long the handle is - the single pivot point means
that it requires more pressure to make the clay come out.
A longer handle is required to give more leverage.
The die holding system is poor - clay will tend to ooze out
around the die. It will be impossible to tighten the die holder
tight enough with the wing nuts, so a wrench or pliers will
need to be used.
The Z-brace dies are also not a good system - the space
between the brace and the die is too short, meaning that the
clay does not have adequate space to heal back together
after going around the brace, and a crack is more likely to
develop. It usually works, but why use a system that is
usually OK when other systems work better?
Because of the short barrel, these dies are required for this
extruder.
This Axner extruder and die system is really just a copy of
the small Northstar extruder and dies, except with a round
rather than square barrel. They didn't bother making the dies
round rather than square. All the drawbacks above also apply
to the Northstar extruder. There are also a companies in Canada
and Australia that copied the Northstar extruder design and are
making, advertising, and selling similar extruders.
I'm signing off Clayart for a long weekend at the Kerrville
Folk Music Festival. The Extrudinaires will be jamming!
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david(at)farmpots(dot)com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bunny Lemak"
Subject: Clay extruders
>I am interested in purchasing a clay extruder, but know nothing about
> them. I was just informed that axner pottery supply is going out of
> business and is having a huge sale. They do have an extruder on sale:
> http://www.pottery-books.com/axner/supplies/sale-blueheron-extruder.php
> Is this a good deal? Will some of you with extruders please give me some
> feedback on this, thank you in advance.
>
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