Walnut Hollow Clay Extruder with Easy Crank Handle, Brown

Received quickly and exactly as described. I was nervous ordering after reading thru the reviews, so I was sure to use it right away, put it away, and go back to use it over a week later. This is what I found. It is easy to unscrew the cap to add your little metal disc, but if you do not clean it well, and you don't screw it back on to store it away tight, you won't have an issue. I found it very hard to clean the screw on cap fully, because Clay inevitably gets stuck in the threads. I did find using a bit of WD-40 or other metal lubricant/greaser meant for metal, definitely helps. You can see the first time you use it, it has a light lihjt coating of grease on the metal pusher inside, so that's what made me think of this. In closing, I'd suggest that after each use, you clean it well with a paper towel, especially the threads inside the screw cap, and spray a little bit of metal lubricant on your paper towel or rag, and wipe the inside threads with that before putting it away! Hope this helps someone! Other than the difficulties in cleaning the threads (which you will have with ALL these tools), I absolutely love this extruder. The body has a comfort grip, the handle turns easily and it's very smooth, even with the OLD clay I tested it on! (I did condition & soften the clay, but it was still old old clay, and I had no issues!)

It's fairly sturdy and it worked surprisingly well with my Chavant NSP medium clay. I thought the medium might be too hard for it to handle and that it might cause bowing or too much pressure on the parts, but it came out pretty easily. curious to try Chavant NSP hard.. but haven't yet. But you could always soften it up a little with heat and then it would be fine I'm sure.

This extruder is very easy to use and clean. The disks have held up to a lot of use. As the instructions mention, working the clay before putting it into the extruding tube mage pushing it out easier and all but eliminated any cracking. If there is one thing I'd like changed it it's to have a canister to keep the discs in. They either pop out of the plastic pack too easily (usually the ones I don't want to use) or the plastic had to be twisted just right to get the others lose.I'm currently storing my disks threaded on a doubled piece of button thread.The disks are the same size as the other crank type extruder. I usually use both types when I'm working with clay, using this set solely for light colored clay and the other for dark or mixed clay.

The threads on my very old Kemper mini extruder are getting worn, and I wanted to replace it with another hand extruder for small things. The new versions are not made well. Dies are thin and don't fit the barrel well. It's hard to apply enough pressure to get the clay through with small barrel if filled with firm clay.I have a Makins extruder set, and the rod at the end is hard to turn evenly. The start/stop of turning it makes lumpy extrusions. The Makins tool is very well made.The Walnut Hollow extruder is sufficiently sturdy and has bigger capacity than the Kemper tool. The crank makes it easier to apply pressure in a more uniform way. The extrusions are a bit less smooth than the Kemper, but much better than the Makins because of the rotating crank handle. The capacity is nice. It would be very hard to push clay through the dies w/o the crank handle. Good variety of dies. I've used the very small round and ribbon with no problems getting enough pressure to extrude.They offer a small expansion tip to make slightly bigger extrusions, but the dies on those are limited.

Wow! After using the regular extruder model, the one that really takes a lot of strength to use. I purchased this model because I am working on a piece for a competition that requires a lot of piping. And being the month of my birth I thought let me get this Walnut Hollow extruder, the handle looked like it would work better than the Makins professional extruder. Well I got it today and used it to extrude and let me tell you this is an amazing tool, it has already paid for itself I have never had such long pieces of extruded clay before and they come out really smooth and pliable. It was so smooth and easy to use I highly recommend it for anyone who is wanting a good extruder, it is extremely well made and will last!

Initially, it was ok (new toy I guess). But after a few usus, the black outer sleeve on the body came loose from the rest of it, so while you're winding the handle, that black part is just loose spinning in you hand, instead of the whole metal unit. So it got a little frustrating to use. Also, the black washer inside began to deteriorate after a few uses... so if you were extruding something white, you would see a black or grey tint on it, because the washer was breaking down and mixing with it.

This is easy to crank when you consider your forcing a soften clay through very tiny holes. Any crank will require effort, except a motorized one I guess. The crank arm swings open to provide leverage. The threads are not as robust as I'd like, which is IMO why people are stripping them and having problems breaking it. I suspect the metal is not of high quality but rather a mixed product that is cheaper. A decent metal cut for threads for threads would allow us to screw open/close the two ends quickly. The only thing I see is you need to be mindful when screwing them to not break it.

So, I do A LOT of work with polymer clay and when my last Makins extruder wore out, I decided to give the Walnut Hollow a try. I read other reviews and was hopeful that the handle on this extruder would be easier on my arms and go much quicker. Unfortunately, I was majorly disappointed - it's even harder to crank than the Makins extruder, in fact, it makes the Makins extruder seem even easier. And yes, my clay was thoroughly conditioned and even my softest clays are hard to crank out.To add to my disappointment, there's also an oily build up every time I try to use the machine and even though it's washed after use, it has to be cleaned again before use or it will ruin a load of clay by leaving a black residue on the clay. Hard to take apart as well. I'm thoroughly disappointed and will only be keeping this extruder as a back up to use when my new Makins wears out.

This works great, and I cant wait to get more dies

no me gusto lo fragil de las rondanas por lo demas muy bien

This is very nice and sturdy. My wife uses it for cake making. She is very happy with it. All you need to do is after using please clean it properly, otherwise the fondant gets frozen which will be difficult for you to remove later. Great one.

really nice , good quality , does what it does best ! would buy again !

Buy only this brand and nothing else . Best tool does the job