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Walker Pugmill


Min

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok I didn't get it until a few days ago...

It went for a test run today.

AAR (after action report)

It's not so great for mixing, clay from dry ingredients.

It excels once clay is firm.

I like the quality of slurry mixed clay anyway.

It's missing 2 splines on auger and 2 splines on tank.

Regardless one clay was holding shape it pugged like a dream.

I did notice clay seemed "not so dense" no air pockets to speak of, But definitely could,use some aging.

 

The walker is a siren. "It screams put your hands in here"

 

I did get a bunch of paper work manual directions that I haven't seen on line I'll eventually scan and post somewhere

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Even with blades missing you will get years of use out of it. You can have someone weld in some pieces if they do stainless. Don't succomb to the siren, she has more torque than needed to remove any invader!

 

No doubt.  They look and work the same way as a commercial meat grinder, and would probably lead to a similar product....

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Pres, Since you have a lot of experience with walker. How do you handle keeping chamber moist between sessions. How often do you unbolt bad deep clean?

After using it I prolly won't bother getting welding done. I've decided to slurry mix and dry all my clay. Just wondering what was your process to make clay from dry ingredients.

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The side exit port had a metal cover for over it. No seals. I had a couple of different solutions to that-first solution for years was a wet rag over the end, then jam on the cover. Second solution was foam pipe insulation lining the edge of the cover, then jam that on. As to the large inside, I always just flipped over the cover at night after a light mist of water on the clay inside.

 

When storing longer, I would place bath towels inside the hopper well dampened, not soaking wet. This would keep enough moisture in there for several months with the cap on the exit end with a wet rag under it.

 

As to full time cleaning-I didn't! Too much trouble to remove the safety shield, and the top of the tube. I did full cleaning when ever there seemed to be a need, if something was making noise in the beginning, but after a few years, I could tell what was happening by sound. The Walker is pretty indestructible.

 

If it bogged down because of hard clay, or so I would just reverse it, and let it clean itself out. I would then put it in forward and go. Best clay came from a mix of cheese to leather, and slaked down clay mix. I got to the point where your could look at the lug coming out, and determine how much of which to add. Some times you get a hard inside liner in the exit tube, and a short wrecking bar worked around the edges when the machine is off will clear that up. Look for nice squared up lugs, if  you have too much slop, lugs will not be squared up, but more rounded. If you have too much cheese/leather hard, you will have some openings in the lug on the edges. If the center comes out leaving a slower moving outside rectangle, run through again until that clears up. This is usually because the clay/water has settled to the bottom and staying there not working into mix.  A year of experience will do a lot for your understanding of the Walker. The machine does compress, not deair. However, when I was running it in the later years, I rarely saw an air bubble in a wire cut lug no matter how often I did it.

 

Hope this helps you out,

best,

Preston

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Just shy of 300 #.

It felt a bit "not compressed" this is un aged out of the mill. Most of this was mixed from dry ingredients.

It does pull fine on wheel inspite of failing the wrap around finger plasticity test. I did wedge and wheel wedge ( cone up and down)

I have put some away for aging.

And same recipe slurry mixed aging and drying

Rectangle pugs are cool!

 

http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/gallery/image/4629-walker-pug-mill/

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My recipe is easy for cone 10 clay.

 

1 6 gal bucket of slop 

1/2 bag of  Lincoln Fire 60

3-4 large scoops of Lane 70 mesh sand

1 large scoop 35 mesh Grog

 

Then sometimes I add some granulated Magnatite when I want that spotted stoneware look.

 

Yields about $150lbs of clay in the walker.  then I let it "sour" for at least a week and hand wedge.

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