Getting the Hang of Pugging

I’ve had my Pugger (aka "Fat Baby") a couple weeks now. I’ve been reclaiming buckets and buckets of dry recycle. I would be lying if I told you that I pugged great clay right off the bat. Actually today was the first day I got a good consistency. There is definitely a learning curve.

My first batch was way too soft. Next was way too hard. Third sucked because I let the clay get too hot in the mixer and the log came out of the pugger with the sides ripped up and peeling. Last night I mixed a batch of dry recycle to what I hoped was a good consistency. I ran the pugger for 5 minutes and noticed that the clay was getting warm, so I shut it down and sealed it up.  This morning that clay was nice and cool and a good consistency so I deaired and pugged. It came out smooth and a good firmness.

A weird thing about this pugger is that the clay log twists to the side when it’s coming out. You can see in the photo that the clay logs are kind of bowed. It doesn’t matter if the clay is soft, hard or perfect, it just won’t pug out straight. Anyone else get that with your pugger?

Monday I called Peter Pugger with a list of questions. They were pretty nice, but basically told me it’s a lot of trial and error. I’m getting there, but it's quite a process. Any helpful pugging hints would be cool.