I admit it. I take it for granted that I have a pasta machine to use with my clay. In fact, I have several although I only use one every day. And it’s a good quality Atlas pasta machine with a motor that isn’t bad to clean and doesn’t make weird noises yet. The first few years that I played hard with clay I didn’t have a pasta machine and the first few machines I worked with were ones I got at various discount kitchen stores or old Amaco ones from garage sales. They did the job just fine.
Amy Christie of This Heart of Mine describes how to do basic conditioning with a pasta machine. I mostly work with Premo clay these days and it conditions simply by hand or a pasta machine (particularly in the summer!) but when I got my first machine I was still working at least half with Fimo Classic and being able to use a machine to condition my clay was a revelation. It was a lot simpler and more efficient for getting all that clay nice and workable.
My absolutely most basic hint for new machine owners? Clean the crud out of the machine every. Time. You. Use. It. Wipe the crumbs out of the corners by the roller, brush or scrape off the scraper near the bottom of the rollers. Don’t let it build up. You’ll have less maintenance and less streaking and mess. And the other tip: try to not force thick slabs through the machine. You’ll get years more time out of the thing if you stick to the no thicker than double-ish the gap.
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