NORTH STAR EQUIPMENT Air Release TILE PRESS
NORTH STAR Equipment Air Release TILE PRESS:
Tile
Press, complete. Includes press, Wagon Wheel handle, air hose, fittings,
plain 4 x 4 x 1/4 inch tile die, alignment pins, bat paddles,
instructions, copy of book Pressing Ceramics With Air Release by Reid
Harvey. Requires compress air supply.
Make tiles up to 5-1/2" - any shape with any raised or impressed
decoration.
Also do switch plates, jewelry, small plates, saucers, shallow bowls
and cups, handles, knobs, electronic porcelain parts and more at up to
120 pcs/hr.
Make your own dies or custom dies quickly available.
AN AFFORDABLE POTTER'S PRODUCTION TOOL .
Includes 4" plain square tile die, instruction book and 12 paddle bats
f.o.b. factory.
We call it a "Tile Press"
but, when you consider all the shapes you can make with it, maybe we
should call it the North Star Clay Press! We've made bowls, light
switch plates, candle holders, trivets, medallions, and drink coasters
so far! Here is the first hand-operated press for the potter and school
that uses air to gently and quickly release the finished part.
Air release pressing has
been used by industry for decades for good reason. It's fast, produces
nearly perfect ware requiring little or no fettling and requires only
one or two dies ("molds") unlike slip casting or jiggering. Such
presses have until now been hydraulically operated and too big, too
heavy and too expensive for the potter. Moreover, they were very costly
to tool up and could present substantial danger to the operator and
bystanders.
The North Star Tile Press
offers nearly the speed and all the quality and versatility of
industrial presses but in a smaller, much less expensive configuration
that is inherently safe in any setting. Thanks to the massive solid
steel gear drive, no great physical strength is required of the
operator. Within its size constraints, this press can turn out just
about anything that has no undercuts: plain and decorated floor and
wall tiles, saucers, small cups, bowls, ashtrays, spoon rests,
electronic parts, switch plates, sprigs, handles, knobs and much more
at upwards of 100 pieces per hour - all perfectly formed.
METHOD OF USE
A two-part die (or "mold") made of "hard plaster" (actually gypsum cement such as CeramicalTM or HydrostoneTM)
is mounted on the bottom and center plates and aligned. A wad of clay
is placed in the bottom half and the WagonWheel Handle is rotated to
bring the two halves of the die together. As they come together, the
clay is forced to take on the shape of the die. A small puff of
compressed air is fed into the bottom half of the die to release the
formed clay. The WagonWheel is rotated backward to raise the center
plate and the top half of the die with the formed clay clinging to it.
A bat is then held under the clay while a puff of air is fed into that
half of the die, releasing the formed piece to be caught with the bat.
That piece is set aside to dry and the process can be immediately
repeated.
CONSTRUCTION
The press comprises three
aluminum floor plates, each reinforced with 1/2 inch machined steel
stiffeners. The top and bottom plates reside at the ends of three 1
inch steel uprights.
The center plate is driven up and down by a WagonWheel handle turning a massive solid steel 6-pitch rack-and-pinion gear train.
Air from nearly any compressor is fed
through a 3-way valve, alternately to the lower and upper die halves to
release the formed part.
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