Going Over To The Dark Side With A Pug Mill-Never Thought I'd Say That

[Denice]

Mentioning the soldner pugger reminded me that I ran across a small factory just north of town that had a Soldner sign on the outside of the building.  It was a Sat. so it wasn't in operation.  When we got home we looked it up and discovered it was started by Soldner, sold and still producing pug mills. I'm not in the market for one now but it is good to know they are hard to clean, I probably would have bought one if I found one cheap.   Denice

[Wyndham]

The Peter pugger/mixer allows me to quickly make up a batch of clay from scrap or if I have some wet scraps my wife bagged up from her slab roller, that can balance out some drier clay.

I bought the PP back when I bought some filter cake clay from Blackjack clay in Texas and needed to mix that clay with some Laguna  and Highwater clays. One batch from the mixer will last me a day or so, I'm slow on production.

Yes Nancy, just as logs, though I'll slam the ends down to block up the logs to start centering.

The mixer also allows me to have the right mix to throw with. I like the clay rather soft and if I have some that's sat around and too firm for me, throw it in the mixer add water and get the feel I want.

Down side is I've got to replace the main bearing as the bearing gets eaten up by clay squeezing past the bearing sleeve  and wearing out the bearings. I have to do that about every 5-8 years, this time I'll get a local machine shop to do it for me but it's been so cold i don't want to do it till the weather warms.

Wyndham

[Norm Stuart]

Paul  -  This is a photo of two clay slices from a pug which has delaminated during firing due to the sheared particle orientation impressed on the clay by friction inside the pugmill.  It looks just like an S-Crack at the bottom of pots whose bases "were not compressed".  No surprise there.

 

You can download this file under the "Education" forum, the topic "Fundamentals of Ceramics" has a PDF file "Lecture #6 Particle Orientation" see pages 26 - 30.

 

 

Yes, lengthwise.  If you put it on the wheel like soup cans, with the cut surface on the wheel, you will have S cracks.  The pug is spiraled and the twist is in the clay.  I have figured out how many inches = how many pounds of clay and cut logs accordingly, and slap them into shape on the wheel before I start the wheel turning.  No S cracks that way.  Learned that the hard way, got the pugger. cut 40 3 lb. logs. Sat them on the wheel upright, so neat and tidy that way!  super easy to center and threw 40 bowls in almost 40 minutes.  Very Happy potter!  EVERY ONE had an  crack in the bottom.

 

Ouch!  I can count on 'S' cracks when I have not compressed the bottom and when the bottom is significantly thicker than the walls...but your experience scares me.  I wonder if you took a 3/8"-1/2"in slice off of a pugged log and bisque fired it if you would get the same results?

 

[Mark C.]

Mentioning the soldner pugger reminded me that I ran across a small factory just north of town that had a Soldner sign on the outside of the building.  It was a Sat. so it wasn't in operation.  When we got home we looked it up and discovered it was started by Soldner, sold and still producing pug mills. I'm not in the market for one now but it is good to know they are hard to clean, I probably would have bought one if I found one cheap.   Denice

I was talking about a soldner Mixer (concrete tub on floor level that spins)

The mixer worked great EXCEPT getting the materail out of it-was back breaking

Dough mixers were so much easier as they self dumped

Walkers even better as they made them for clay not dough.

Bye gone days for sure-my back paid a price on the soldners.

I am not aware Soldner made pug machines-Learn something new every day.\

Mark

[Spart248]

Keep in mind that your not just saving money on recycled clay....money isn't everything.....but in case it is...

 

You're also saving hundreds of dollars (plus the pain and inconveniance)

-On that future wrist injury+arthritis treatment you would get from wedging years worth of clay

-On the many hours you would have wasted wedging and conditioning clay when you could have been either being productive or resting

-On the energy you would have spent on wedging clay that probably could have been used to make those last hours of work that less tiresome

-Numerous other small things that add up to be well worth the cost

 

It indeed does pay for itself......trust me.

[Idaho Potter]

I have no idea how my clay is oriented by the time it hits the wheel head.  I pug out 3 and 4 lb. pugs, slam them into softball (or larger) size lumps, and have no idea of which side was up.  Problems with S cracks usually show up when throwing off the hump because I haven't compressed the bottom enough.

 

Shirley

[Mark C.]

Well Pug mill showed and now I;m working thru technical issues now. Its all claen but the vacuum did not hold pressue so today I took it all apart to bearing seals on main shaft of drive motor.

This unit was made in 2006 and the seals are worn down on main shaft.The pressure guage was tweeked as well as the power cord. I called in a parts order to Petter Pugger and will stop by on way Home from San Francisco next week and pick them up. Seems seals  wear out 8-9 years depending on mantaince schedule (this came from a high school)

so thats a toss up either way.

Hopefully I'll be pugging clay later next week

One note if you are pugging low fire clay  in amachine you really need to clean it out now and again and that stuff is super sticky and really gets stuck to everything.

Mark