FILENAMES:

pugmill1.jpg
pugmill2.jpg
pugmill3.jpg
pugmill4.jpg
pugmill5.jpg
pugmill6.jpg
pugmill7.jpg
pugmill8.jpg
pugmill9.jpg
pugmill10.jpg

DESCRIPTION:

These are pictures of a pug mill for mixing pottery clay.
Posted by Bob Powell <bobp@dogpatch.com>. Bob provided 
the following description:

=================================================================
Photos of a Walker (clay) pug mill, 1960's - 70's vintage.  It's a
project waiting for a need, all I did was clean out the dry clay.
The auger bearings are pretty much siezed, and several of the blades
are bent or broken.  Other than that it seems OK.

The photos are 1280 x 1024, about 100K each, I left them large to make
it easier to see detail.

pugmill1.jpg: hopper
pugmill2.jpg: hopper
pugmill3.jpg: hopper
pugmill4.jpg: output tube
pugmill5.jpg: output tube, far end
pugmill6.jpg: output tube, hopper end, showing part of the long helix section
pugmill7.jpg: output tube, far end
pugmill8.jpg: end view
pugmill9.jpg: motor, speed reducer, shaft coupler, bearing box
pugmill10.jpg: motor plate

Clay is dumped in the hopper and forced into the chopping blades with
the half-cylinder-shaped hand.  Note the double arm mechanism it
attaches to, and how it moves along the length of the hopper by
sliding along the rusty rod visible in the first photo.  The hopper
is about 2' long.  The auger is about 10" diamter overall.

The blades in the hopper and in the output tube are short.  Some are
angled shallow, some steeper.  I don't know if the variation is by
design or by abuse.

There is a single continuous helix section of blade in the area
between the hopper and output tube, visible in the right side of
photo 3 and the top of photo 6.  It's a single blade, about 2 full
revolutions.

The auger feeds the clay through the tube and extrudes it out the
small rectangular opening visible in the top of photo 4, bottom of
photo 5 and right of photo 8.  The output tube is about 10" diameter
and 20" long.  

In use, the "output" half of the auger is completely enclosed in a
cylinder about 10" diameter, formed by bolting a half cylinder shaped
cover over the half cylinder bottom.  The cover is not shown in the
photos.  Photo 4 shows 4 bolt holes and 4 dowel pins that align the
cover.

The body and auger are stainless, approx. 14 gauge.  It sits on an
angle iron (steel) frame.  Powered by a 3/4 hp motor with speed
reducer for net 11 rpm to the auger.  Note the large lovejoy coupling
between the gearbox and auger.  

The auger is supported by large bearing boxes at each end.  Not sure
of the nature of the bearings and seals.

Bob Powell
bobp@dogpatch.com