Cookie shooter to clay shooter conversion

[tyger]

A local artist, Leslie Wallace-Coon (http://www.lesliewallace-coon.com/), makes dogs out of clay (life-sized small dogs), and the hair is made by extruding the clay out of a syringe-like thing. It makes your thumbs and fingers hurt just to watch her do it. It is a real struggle, let me tell you. She says that there isn't any other way to do it.



I have been thinking about that for a few months now: there has to be a better way to extrude clay. Well, I found this cookie shooter at the local charity thrift store for $1. As you can see, it works much like a caulking gun.



I removed the plastic end from the notched stainless steel pusher, and replaced it with a new end that consists of a cut-down penny soldered to a piece of steel brake line, in turn soldered to the stainless notched pusher rod.



Then, I fashioned a nozzle out of a larger brass disc into which I cut a large hole, soldered in a piece of copper water pipe, and soldered on a smaller brass disc into which I drilled a few dozen size 56 holes.



The new barrell liner is made from a piece of black irrigation pipe.


The gun is assembled and ready to test.