pent19 Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 I am thinking about buying an extruder and am overwhelmed with options. My current plan is to use it to create handles and some small slabs for a series of works. My issue is this, my studio is on the upper floor of my house and is a 3/4 story so I can't mount it to the wall upstairs. My kiln and glazes are in the unfinished basement and I could probably install a few 4x4's and make a wall for this. I have never used a wall mounted extruder, but this time saving tool intrigues me! they seem (in videos) to require alot of tugging and i wonder what the best solution would be with my wall-less situation. I am afraid it just may rip off the wall during an extrusion! eek! If i could get some feedback on brands, barrell widths, and mounting ideas for my situation i would greatly appreciate it! thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Username Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 What is a 3/4 story? Does that mean the ceiling height is only 6 feet? Why can't it be mounted to the wall anyway? A good option might be a table top "mount", and is available from Bailey : http://www.baileypottery.com/extruders/stdextruders.htm As you have said, there are many options,but the Bailey can be table mounted, and they will sell you dies one at a time, some other manufacturers make you buy a kit of dies, and you may not need/want all of them. There is alot more to discuss, this is just a "quick and dirty" answer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 I had a North Star extruder mounted to a counter top at MSU while a larger homemade one was mounted on an 8 x 8 column. I have a very early Bailey extruder mounted on the wall in my studio. SInce I am working in a variety of clay bodies, I wish I had a stainless interior.. The plunger has worn down over the past 35 years. I am thinking of installing a stainless lining of flashing for porcelain. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 I am thinking about buying an extruder and am overwhelmed with options. My current plan is to use it to create handles and some small slabs for a series of works. My issue is this, my studio is on the upper floor of my house and is a 3/4 story so I can't mount it to the wall upstairs. My kiln and glazes are in the unfinished basement and I could probably install a few 4x4's and make a wall for this. I have never used a wall mounted extruder, but this time saving tool intrigues me! they seem (in videos) to require alot of tugging and i wonder what the best solution would be with my wall-less situation. I am afraid it just may rip off the wall during an extrusion! eek! If i could get some feedback on brands, barrell widths, and mounting ideas for my situation i would greatly appreciate it! thanks I have had a NorthStar standard extruder for almost fifteen years and am still very pleased with it. You do need a very firm mount, but having said that, mine is mounted on a floor-to-ceiling 4x4 which is fixed onto the (wooden) wall at the back and braced to the (again, wooden) doorframe at the side. The barrel is about waist-height for maximum leverage. The extruder came with sturdy pre-cut dies, some of which I've modified and I have also made a few myself. As far as free-standing equipment goes, I looked at the Murry Gans home-made extruder in a recent best DIY kit competition in Ceramic Arts Daily - a really interesting and informative video - http://ceramicartsdaily.org/clay-tools/making-clay-tools/diy-clay-tools-video-contest-finalist-2/ Hope this is helpful and whatever you decide, I wish you as much creative fun with your extruder as I've had with mine! Christine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 I had a North Star extruder mounted to a counter top at MSU while a larger homemade one was mounted on an 8 x 8 column. I have a very early Bailey extruder mounted on the wall in my studio. SInce I am working in a variety of clay bodies, I wish I had a stainless interior.. The plunger has worn down over the past 35 years. I am thinking of installing a stainless lining of flashing for porcelain. Marcia This mounting on a counting top was very solid. The counter top was a good inch thick. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasoned Warrior Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 I used to have a North Star and it required quite a bit of effort to operate. North Star now has one with a rack and pinion operator which I think would have worked better for me since the mechanical advantage is so much greater with the rack and pinion system. The extruder I have currently happens to be stainless but it was a scrap of 6 inch stainless pipe I had left over from another project and mine is operated hydraulically because I found it hard to both operate the extruder and to catch the extrusion at the same time. Now I just step on a pedal and it extrudes. I designed my own and I made it sturdier than it has to be but it could also operate with an air cylinder instead of the hydraulics but I had the hydraulics laying around. The hydraulics are air over hydraulic so it does operate on my air system. I mostly use a fairly stiff, highly grogged sculpture mix so that it takes a lot of effort to stuff it through the extruder, especially through the smaller dies. I'm sure that B-mix would just slip through it as well as porcelain so effort is also a function of the clay body used. Baily I believe, has a mounting arm that hangs off the back of a slab roller if you couldn't mount it to a wall or other structural element. Regards, Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pent19 Posted September 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2010 What is a 3/4 story? Does that mean the ceiling height is only 6 feet? Why can't it be mounted to the wall anyway? A good option might be a table top "mount", and is available from Bailey : http://www.baileypot...tdextruders.htm As you have said, there are many options,but the Bailey can be table mounted, and they will sell you dies one at a time, some other manufacturers make you buy a kit of dies, and you may not need/want all of them. There is alot more to discuss, this is just a "quick and dirty" answer! The ceiling is just over 6 feet at its peak and slopes where it reachees the wall about 3 and half feet. So there is a slanted ceiling that i am pretty sure would interfere with the range of motion needed for the extruder, and the height of my walls wouldn't be tall enough either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Evans Posted September 13, 2010 Report Share Posted September 13, 2010 hi pent19 I've used variouse extruders since the 80's. it's fun to mqke your own dies and "play" with multiples. Personal opinions include: love sq tubes ( much easier to clean), hate round ones, hate the size restriction of most extruders. Have had a north star that was in my basement = low ceiling , so I just would load it, lay it on the floor and step on it to stabilize and extrude..... worked fine. For large pieces - find a pugmill ( just need it for a while) - design and weld together some steel dies, c-clamp to pugger and wahoo! I love the idea of air compresson esp for large extrusions > great idea, just don't have a lot of room. If you want handles - handbuild or pull. Real easy technique is attatch clay stubs ( perfect timing is to do 1-2 dozen at a time, by the time you finish attaching last stub, 1st one is ready to pull)and pull each stub untill it's thin and fluid and right length for the handle, attach end. The handle is made on and for the pot. Less waste and hanle "fits" the piece. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasoned Warrior Posted September 13, 2010 Report Share Posted September 13, 2010 Air or hydraulically actuated actually takes up a lot less space than one with a handle. Regards, Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted September 15, 2010 Report Share Posted September 15, 2010 I am thinking about buying an extruder and am overwhelmed with options. My current plan is to use it to create handles and some small slabs for a series of works. My issue is this, my studio is on the upper floor of my house and is a 3/4 story so I can't mount it to the wall upstairs. My kiln and glazes are in the unfinished basement and I could probably install a few 4x4's and make a wall for this. I have never used a wall mounted extruder, but this time saving tool intrigues me! they seem (in videos) to require alot of tugging and i wonder what the best solution would be with my wall-less situation. I am afraid it just may rip off the wall during an extrusion! eek! If i could get some feedback on brands, barrell widths, and mounting ideas for my situation i would greatly appreciate it! thanks I had a Bailey at my HS studio. We got it back in '74. When I retired it was still going strong with heavy use, and we had added a second one. They are built like trucks, and hold up well. Table mount or wall mount is good, the first one we had was on a portable stand, but I found out later that is not recommended=it worked well for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Posted September 16, 2010 Report Share Posted September 16, 2010 I am thinking about buying an extruder and am overwhelmed with options. My current plan is to use it to create handles and some small slabs for a series of works. My issue is this, my studio is on the upper floor of my house and is a 3/4 story so I can't mount it to the wall upstairs. My kiln and glazes are in the unfinished basement and I could probably install a few 4x4's and make a wall for this. I have never used a wall mounted extruder, but this time saving tool intrigues me! they seem (in videos) to require alot of tugging and i wonder what the best solution would be with my wall-less situation. I am afraid it just may rip off the wall during an extrusion! eek! If i could get some feedback on brands, barrell widths, and mounting ideas for my situation i would greatly appreciate it! thanks I have a Big Blue and a much smaller one I got on ebay from a fellow in Canada that has a long arm on it that barely clears the ceiling. ( my studio is in a single car garage and low clearance ceiling) When I have tried to extrude very firm clay in it, I have put almost all of my weight on it only to break the arm at the attachment. After having it welded/repaired, I am much more careful to use moister clay now. It could easily wear away at the wall mounting, so I have it firmly mounted onto the 2x6 wall studs, by way of 2 2x12s joined together then mounted on the wall spanning at least 2 of the wall studs. It makes a nice 24 inch square mounting area, with lots of room for hooks holding cut off wires, tools, and dies around it. The advantage of the smaller extruder is that it's easier to do smaller projects, but I really like the wagon wheel type handle on the other one because you don't need so much pressure to extrude. There are lots of types out there, so choose according to how you will use it. If only for handles, handheld is a good choice. For slabs, bigger is best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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