In my search for the perfect polymer clay extruder, I finally hit upon a dream machine.

I’ve written a short article about it (read it here) for Stacey Apeitos’ arts and crafts e-zine. Her Astarte’s Megazine is an Australian online magazine that you can subscribe to. There’s plenty of lovely info free on the site as well.

My hunt for a good small extruder (see an earlier project) became such an odyssey that I felt I could break my rule not to discuss tools on this blog. The BullensWullens adapter (contact pat@bullenswullens.com) was developed by an Ohio couple which makes my discovery doubly special.

  • reply Melanie West ,

    Cynthia, thank you soooooooo much for the BullensWullens tool tip! I know tool tips aren’t your thing, but this one is priceless! I’m going to have to email them pronto. When all else fails, a good retro cane is a great fall back, but sore hands often make retro canes impossible. Yippeee! 😉

    (PS, the Makin’s extruder is the very best tool for non production extrusions… but if you need to make miles of extruded clay, I’d go with Polymer Clay Expresses macho extruder.)

    • reply Melanie West ,

      *dope slaps forehead* Ack! I commented before reading the whole article. That’s a terrific tutorial, Cynthia, thanks for sharing it! I have never used the kemper cutter, I’ve just used the barrel of the extruder (filling the barrel as I go), and always ended up with air. Pre-cutting the stack before loading is brilliant!

      • reply Vixx ,

        I’ve been to classes where the instructor had one of those extruders from Polymer Clay Express. It makes all sorts of shapes and it’s easy to use too.

        http://polymerclayexpress.com/clay_extruder.html

        Thanks for passing this one along too.

        • reply Valerie Aharoni ,

          Just in time!! I have an extrusion project that I have been delaying. Customer called last night wondering….

          Thanks!

          • reply Jenny Patterson ,

            This looks like a great tool! Especially for me who extrudes miles of clay on a weekly basis! I was wondering, do you think it would work to put the extruder barrel into a clamp? I have mine in a clamp now, it makes it much easier to extrude.

            BUT I am still searching for the perfect extruder!

            • reply Lunes ,

              I like the Makins Pro one with the screw handle and it works a dream in my mini vice on my workbench!

              • reply Sarah ,

                Check out Kimba’s report on this tool /adapter on PCC. It didn’t work so well for her and the plastic shredded inside the chuck and destroyed a drill and a chuck. It may have a learning curve or specific requirements that aren’t immediately obvious. Sounded like a great idea to me until I read her report.

                • reply Patti Underwood ,

                  Hi,
                  What a wonderful idea. I want to contact them but what do I ask for/Will they know what it’s for?
                  Please get back to me?
                  Patti

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