George Sampson on mon 29 mar 04
Hi folks, my name is George Sampson and i am new to Clayart.
I got started with clay almost a year ago now. I don't have a
wheel yet or a kiln. I make things by hand and an uncle is kind
enough to fire them for me.
I was at a clay store today and saw a pug mill. Pretty big
and pretty expensive. Looked like an overgrown meat grinder
that my mom used to have. Got me to wondering, would a meat
grinder work as a pug mill? I mean the small ones you clamp
onto a table and hand crank. Would it help me rework my clay?
Thanks. George.
Snail Scott on tue 30 mar 04
At 08:38 PM 3/29/04 -0800, you wrote:
>Got me to wondering, would a meat
>grinder work as a pug mill?
Probably not too well. Meat grinders use little
sharp blades to chop solid chunks of things into
separate bits. Pug mills sort of do the opposite,
turning separate bits into a homogeneous mass.
So, they have fairly dull blades that mainly act
as 'pushers' and 'squishers'. Clay would dull
the blades of the meat ginder pretty quickly,
too, though it may not matter. I suspect that
reprocessing your clay by hand would actually
be easier than using the grinder. The capacity
of a standard tabletop grinder is pretty small.
Still, I've never actually tried it. If you
happen to have a large cheapo meat grinder and
decide to give it a go, let us know.
Don't let anyone convince you that you've got
to have a pug mill to be a 'real' ceramist.
They start to become practical for production
potters who have large quantities of scrap,
but for smaller amounts, just letting it dry,
crushing the bits, and re-wetting it in a
bucket works pretty well. You don't need a
wheel to be 'real', either, unless wheelwork
is your own personal preference. If you like
what you're doing with handbuilding, there's
no reason to to consider it an inferior method
to wheel throwing. It's just different, and
does different things. Save your shekels for a
secondhand kiln, first.
-Snail
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on tue 30 mar 04
Hi George,
I have wondered about this too...of course, the 'de-airing'
aspect would be absent...
But..should you wish to locate nice old Table-mount Meat
choppers-grinders, they are abundant and go begging on the
'e-bay'...
See 'collectables'...'housewares'...'kitchen' or something
like that as far as the sequence of nested sub-catagories.
"UNIVERSAL" ( ...my favorite Brand of most general
housewares) being "Landers Frary and Clark" of New Britain,
Conneticut, made several versions, some fairly large...
Too, one could readily adapt a pully to the axel end, where
the crank otherwise is...and run it from an Electric Motor
with a vee-belt, and, at a low speed I would hope...
Anyway...
Have fun!
And let us know what you end up doing?
Yours,
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Sampson"
> Hi folks, my name is George Sampson and i am new to
Clayart.
> I got started with clay almost a year ago now. I don't
have a
> wheel yet or a kiln. I make things by hand and an uncle
is kind
> enough to fire them for me.
>
> I was at a clay store today and saw a pug mill. Pretty
big
> and pretty expensive. Looked like an overgrown meat
grinder
> that my mom used to have. Got me to wondering, would a
meat
> grinder work as a pug mill? I mean the small ones you
clamp
> onto a table and hand crank. Would it help me rework my
clay?
>
> Thanks. George.
>
>
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Helen Bates on tue 30 mar 04
I wonder if the blade part could just be left out? I had one of these
years ago, but it was the type to attach using a suction device. Not
good enough for stiff clay, I'm pretty sure. The old clamp on type might
do. The funnel part would only hold about a cup (8 fl. oz) or so of
material at a time. I think I'd rather use the broken clay, slaked with
water, in a bucket method. Lots of ways to semi-dry it, even between
newspapers on boards.
Helen
Milla Miller on tue 30 mar 04
I use one of these for foods stuff and it is enough of a task to do just
that.I prefer the fololowing..
I mixed tons of clay by hand, from dry ingredients in years past, and
took a clean Rubbermaid [32 gallon ,lined with the 5 mil plastic waste bags] in
the trashcan and measured the water then added the dry ingredients and used a
hoe[the ones with a hole used in concrete works best] to combine the
ingredients in a slightly too wet state.I let the mix stand to get the moisture evenly
dispersed in the clay.
I turned it onto a plaster wedging board in 4''fat coils set in an upside
down ''u'' to air stiffen,then hand wedge,covering with drycleaner
plastic,until I get them all finished.
Smaller amounts might be drymixed in a heavyduty plastic bag then add water
and allow to sit until ready to wedge[wait a day or more].Unless your situation
requires mixing this way, you might be better off buying wet bagged clay
and spend your time creating your work.
Good luck,
Margaret in SC where we finally got a little rain after 5'' deficit this
year,making gardening an ''iffy'' stuation this spring but the flowers are
gorgeous now..
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