using pug mill for greate effiency?

[clay lover]

This past year, I bought a small pug mill for help with stiff clay and doing re-claim. I really appreciate how much easier it is to throw well mixed clay without having to do much wedging, or not trying to throw too stiff clay.

I have been wondering how I could be using the pugs to work more efficiently. Do any of you have suggestions as to how you use your pugger?

 

As I recall Mark C mentioned cutting small pugs to go straight on the wheel for small bowls and I have tried that with a 2" pug, that works well, but I'm sure there is more that I could be using it for to my advantage. It also makes the extruder run smoother with clearer extrusions. Any suggestions or more ideas?

[Lucille Oka]

Last night I reclaimed about twenty-five pounds of clay by hand. I mixed the slip, wedged, cut and shaped them into 6 throwing cones. My hands tingle from the action. It came to me that I am a 'pugmill'. The differences between me and a Peter Pugger is that I cook, bake, play video games, paint, and sing and dance along with Fred Astaire movies.

 

A mechanical pugger does just that; it pugs, it has one job.

 

But you can use it to extrude if you have the dies.

If I had one I'd try it with a mixture of wet and dry slip clay to make tiles.

[Karen B]

I pug a piece as long as the roller on my slab roller. I just punch down along one long side so it will wedge into the rollers and I am a set to roll a big slab. Also, you can check to see if you can order an extruding plate to attach to the pug mill and mill out coils.