Building a Clay Mixing Pug Mill - Part 3 

Was thinking the same! I'm definitely jealous of the level of shop equipment Justin has!

I am in "AVE" with his skills too. 😄

It won’t let me edit my comment. Visit you not bust!

That sounds like a fun project. I'd love to see it.

Justins Makery project into is here, next vid will be about the pugmill ... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rR3MTB34QLs.html

Thanks!

I, too, was pondering the hours of labor which should be added to the total cost for a more accurate comparison.

Depending on the cylinder, I bet you could do that.

I have read about people trying this and trying meat grinders. The result was always the same: Catastrophic failure on first use.

Thanks! Hard to say how much time. Maybe 30-40 hours of actual contact time. I enjoy the prototyping, so it is hard to say what my time is worth. Just like the labor, another important unconsidered cost is the cost of keeping my shops up and running. This overhead is a major "real world" cost that I ignored as well.

@@JustinsMakery amazing , sharing knowledge resolving problems is priceless !!!

The logs that come out of the pugmill do have a spiral pattern in them. It's not extreme, and I do usually wedge them a few times and slap them into balls before throwing.

@@JustinsMakery do you know of any other mechanical method of wedging besides pug milling?

Very late reply, but commercially made pugmills have various ways of counteracting this. For a start they have at least one grate that the clay is pushed through, which is usually where the deairing chamber is located, and which also removes auger memory. If you see spirals you either have a very cheap (old) pugmill (or a DIY job), or someone has left some pieces out. One of my favorite throwing videos is this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1Td7qL82Msk.html and he just jams a massive pug right on the wheel (9:25).

There might have been a thinner schedule in stainless, but I wasn't sure how thick and strong the walls needed to be to handle dry clay. I also ran into problems finding the cone pieces from 8" to 3" and would probably have to have it custom made. The flange ring and back plate is where some money and weight could certainly be saved. Having them machined out of a plate of stainless might have saved money. There were so many possible directions to take.... I ended up going with what was "easiest".