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Are there any extruders and printers that do a good job with ceramic clay?

I assume the clay has to be fine grained and with enough water added to be able to be pushed out through the extruder's nozzle. I also assume the print speed would have to be arther low for the already printed layers to gain stability before printing the next layer. Perhaps some extra equipment on the printer to spped up this drying process?

At the same time, the print speed can't be too low: if the bottom starts to dry enough to start shrinking, the object will crack.

Also, some solutions I've seen tend to result in rather low resolution/thick layers, which is negative.

So, what equipment is "out there"?

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3 Answers 3

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What you are looking for is the Frostruder style extruders.

Here is a link to a thingiverse file for it.

You honestly cannot expect fantastic results but it will get the job done! There are many other types. Quality will depend on the size of the point. However with something as high viscosity as clay I would not expect you to be able to push the quality very high.

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  • $\begingroup$ The Froststruder! lol This was one of my favorite attachments along with "The Unicorn"! Old-school MakerBot was pretty awesome... $\endgroup$
    – tbm0115
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 23:50
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Here is an open source clay extruder from standard parts, that i designed https://www.stoneflower3d.com/projects/clay-extruder-prototype/ Different designs of 3D printers, pumps, extruders etc. for clay are posted and discussed in the Google Community "Make Your Own Ceramic 3D Printer", driven by Jonathan Keep (https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109375785524125994679).

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  • $\begingroup$ That's a really cool design $\endgroup$
    – Nir
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 15:55
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I cant speak for the quality or type of clay, but there are several designs out there that print in clay. Here is the first one that popped up on my google search.

http://www.wasproject.it/w/en/wasp-launches-the-new-professional-clay-extruder/

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