Hi, Jan and Monkey Ann,
First report on the cxextruder. First, thanks for your input.
I did get the all in one. Took a bit to sort things out. Like, where to put the 'vice', and how to attach it to table, which way, turned it around, and around, end to end, etc. Sorted out what screws to what. What goes into where.
Anyway, my report. I used my stainless steel one a lot, and wanted to extrude leeched clay. I was having a lot of problem holding the tube tight enough, even in my vice. And, turning the handle was not a picnic, either. With the cz, when you put it in their 'vice', it holds the extruder very well. I have a block of wood under the extruder-it's a long tube just hanging out there without any support. After a while of extruding, something is going to happen to something.
I used the drill, and it worked very well. I just laid the drill on the table by the extruder and pushed the button-didn't even have to hold the drill. Then, I tried the handle. Handle was easy to put on, and worked extremely well. I tried dry clay with the smallest hole die, and the clay extruded like butter. There was no effort. So, the drill was very easy, but the handle was just as easy. I'll probably just use the handle. Only problem here was that the Z handle does not have a 'hand grip'. The end of the handle is threaded, so I think I'll try to find a hand grip. Something like my Atlas pasta machine handle would be great. But, like I said, the handle works well.
Agree with Monkey Ann, the little thing that pushes the clay out was kind of funky-didn't really have a way to get it out without something to shove it out of the tube. And, it was really hard to move. I needed to push it out with something really substantial. I finally took one of the O rings off it-it has 2. Works quite easy with just 1 O ring, and seems to work properly.
I tried several dies and was quite happy. I'll have to spend some quality time with them after our retreat at the end of the month. There's a new die disk coming out.
After I sorted out everything, I'm very happy. It does what I was having a problem with on the standard extruders. It extrudes very well and very easily. I'm a Happy Camper. And, the Magenta is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Hugs, Boni

in Wonderful Yuma, arizona