My husband rigged up this electric drill so I can have both hands free to work with the clay. It’s screwed into the side of the counter. (It’s an old counter.) My clay studio is in the basement, so it’s not elegant.
I’m spoiled by having a motor on my Makins pasta machine and didn’t want to go without until a motor is designed, tested and manufactured for the Lucy Clay Machine, if that is indeed planned. That all takes quite a bit of time.
In the Lucy Clay Machine manual the maximum speed recommended for a drill is 350 RPM. They also recommend a battery-powered drill, rather than electric-powered.
The Ridgid electric drill can go as fast as 850 RPM. I’m only comfortable with about 60 RPM, which is why we put the wood block on the trigger. (I put a piece of tape on the drill chuck and counted revolutions.) My Makins motor goes 47 RPM on the slow setting. I don’t like it to go too fast. It scares me.
We later added the Foredom variable speed foot pedal. It works really well to control the speed of the electric drill.
I’m sure other drills and foot pedals would work.
P.S. I bought all these products myself and received nothing from the manufacturers.
Thank you so much for all the helpful info!! Between you and Ginger we polymer clay addicts will stay addicts!
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Thanks, Betty! It is addictive!
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Great to see your drill setup with yhe lc machine. I am going through the setup process at the moment. It’s such a great machine to use, but I do need the motor for production. Thanks for sharing
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The drill is a jury rig, but I think you’ll really like it. It’s hard to go back to cranking if you’ve gotten used to a motor.
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Thanks for sharing this really innovative and informative post. I like it all the way from beginning.
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Thanks, Carlton!
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