Sasha Hill

Continuing to experiment with the first technique of sucking the clay back in and it seems to be helping, thanks!

The thing is, on a visual inspection without taking the o-ring out, it looks fine. Also, the vacuum gets up to full pressure without leaking before the pugging starts. And the same problem happened when I lined the door with clay which should mean that it isn't a problem with the o-ring.

Thanks for the responses! I tried it and was still getting 12-14 of twisty airy clay at the beginning. The vacuum also 'popped' and the gauge jumped even the second time I started pugging after sucking the clay back in. Only some went back in when I switched it to mix, I had to cut some of it off. I'm attaching a picture of the twisty clay so you can see what I mean! As for the vacuum tests I guess the main thing was the one I mentioned: lining the outside latch door of the mixing chamber with a coil of clay to see if that improved the vacuum. That might indicate a problem with the seal on the rubber ring but, but lining with the clay didn't make a difference. I also cleaned the rubber ring and the opening of the latch door and checked the ring for scratches or indents.

Hello! I am having a persistent problem with the Peter Pugger VPM-20 power wedger at a studio where I work. The process I use is stuffing the chamber completely full while mixing, then letting it mix for 6 minutes, turning the vacuum on and then pugging. The problem is, the first half of the batch comes out with twists and air bubbles in the clay. When bending the log, it is very short and breaks. By the time several logs have plugged out, the second half of the clay is properly de-aired and plastic. But I'm wasting a lot of time and effort having to put a full half of the batch back through each time I pug. I have called and spoken to the company several times and they've recommended several tests of the vacuum seal, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. The vacuum gauge goes up all the way to between 28 and 30 when I turn the vacuum on (although it does dip a bit when the pug first starts coming out and then restabilizes), and there was no effect on this problem when I lined the rim of the latch door with clay to test the vacuum seal as the company recommended. Has anyone had this problem? I'm kind of at a loss for what to do about it! Thank you!