I have been using the Czextruder from Lucy Clay for several months now and promised to give a quick review. I’ve been making a few different canes with a couple of the disk and really enjoy using this quirky little canes in my cane mapping. So I thought I’d combine the review with a short tutorial.
You can see this cane used on the wispy ends of the tail on this fish and across the middle.
If you’ll notice, I don’t care if the curvy parts are lined up perfectly, actually, I want the cane to go this way and that, more organic.
I find the extruder to be very well constructed and it as a large loading tube which I like. It holds more clay than other extruders I’ve used. It’s easy to clean.
The part I find difficult is the loading. The plug is not attached to the plunger and that makes it harder to reinsert, but worth it in the end.
I like that the disks from other extruders and disk makers will fit this extruder. I believe Cynthia Tinapple’s disks fit as well.
Over all I find it an asset to my polymer clay tool box.
You can order yours from Lucy Clay or if you live in the United States Kimberly Idalski represents the company here.
Hello, Alice.
If you clean that plastic plug between uses, it will insert much more easily. I use the Lucy clay brush to clean the barrel each time I extrude. Here’s how I clean that plastic plug…don’t tell them because they don’t want you using any other tools on this thing….first I take my clay blade and swipe it over the end of the plug where that big gob of clay will always remain. Where the real problem lies is in the clay that gets stuck in the rubber gaskets. Here I use a fairly soft WIRE brush to get all that gunk out of there. Their brush just won’t do it. I do this after each extrusion. That clay in and around the gaskets is what keeps the plug difficult to insert. You could also use a bit of their lubricant on it. It’s kind of a pain, but in the long run, I believe this extruder will last longer than some of the others I have used.
thanks Doreen, I clean it every time too, I still have trouble. The lubricant idea sounds good. what kind do you use?
Lucy clay sells a little tin of something…not sure what it is. That’s what I’ve been using. Seems to me you could try a tiny bit of mineral oil??
I have one of these too and had a hard time pushing the plug. Now, I unscrew the tube and turn the whole thing around and start the cane from the opposite end. You only have to push the plug in a tiny bit by doing this. Not sure if it was meant to work this way, but it does.
I had trouble with that at first too. It’s the one thing I really don’t like about it, I’ve learned to work with it though. Your solution sounds perfect. I’m not a fan of filling any extruder, but this one is larger and sturdier, so those make it the one I use the most. But what really makes it my favorite is the new crank that make the actual extrusion part incredibly easy. Worth the price if you are doing a lot of extruding.