Clay extruder

I designed this clay extruder to be flexible and easy-to-use it can be used on a tabletop

features:-

Hydraulic assisted (hydraulic jack is used to make the clay extrusion easy.

Main clay chamber can be converted easily to accommodate small dies.

With a simple adjustment on the plunger will allows you to have a smaller clay chamber. I like to think of this as a clay saver because you are not filling the large chamber full of clay for a small die.

I designed a small easy-to-use adapter to allow smaller dies, the adapter slides into the main clay chamber. It is easy to change over from the main chamber to the smaller chamber.

Larger die, I made an attachment which fits in the bottom of the main chamber this increases the diameter allowing you to use larger dies The main purpose of designing this system was to make it flexible and most of all easy to use. On the hydraulic side there is a sliding mechanism which helps to transfer maximum pressure evenly across the clay being extruded. The whole of this project was printed in 3d this allowed me to test and find the best way to achieve an adaptable easy-to-use extruder.

The finished project was a combination of stainless steel and 3D printed components

Main clay cylinder Is made from a piece of durable Heavy duty long lasting piping

2 Orange locating rings .

There are stainless steel locating pins which secure the cylinder to the base board

Below the base board you can attach the expansion box to the stainless steel pins

which are easily fixed in place with wing nutsins

Metalwork

Steel tubing throughout painted with rust presenter Zink coating with Matt black paint

Red paint has been applied to the main plunger Connecting fittings

stainless steel bearings and shaft stainless steel link pins with stainless steel locking collars

galvanised fittings have also been used in this project

One mounting board which slides into the steel metal frame for easy removal and cleaning

As with any extruder use soft clay .Using hard clay on any extruder may damage your equipment

always make sure the clay you use is suitable for the type of extruder you use

After making this extruder I decided to make a clay hardness instrument tool

Please go back to the main menu and click on the link clay hardness tool for more information