This is the Kemper Clay gun made by Amaco. Mia Rox sent in this photo along with her wooden "help me push this clay through" adaptor, seen on the bottom of this page.
	Shelley Mcloughlin has started quite a stir when she sent in this photo of her clay gun from England. Jane Asher sells these wonderful new Sugarcraft Guns that we are testing for use with clay! So far they are terrific! Click on Sugarcraft Guns to visit their website.

From Marie Williams - My husband adapted a caulk gun for me, too, but he did it very simply -- he drilled a hole in the bottom of the gun large enough for one of the clay gun's "finger grips" to drop down into. I hold the clay gun in position with one finger and extrude clay with the other hand. So simple, and he had to do nothing more than drill one hole! (Click Pictures for a Larger View)
Here's a terrific idea for a Clay Gun Cleaner from Caryl Unrein - "I've had so much trouble cleaning my clay gun, even after spraying it with armorall, that my mind started wandering to different ways to clean it. I decided to try a baby bottle brush so bought one for $2.49 at the grocery store. The large end wouldn't fit in the barrel. The small end, however, worked very well, except for having a very short handle. So I cut the short end off and made a handle for it. It also does a great job cleaning my discs, expecially the one with multiple small holes for extruding snakes.
Here's a simple wooden clay gun adaptor that Mia Rox sent to us. From what I understand you can apply pressure with your foot! Sounds really good to me! I can clay while I"m extruding.
Darla Sargent sent us her secret clay gun plunger helper. Here she is using giant spring clips to apply pressure to the plunger. We all know it can be a real pain trying to push the clay through those little holes!! This definately looks like it can help.
Our own Sunni send us these photos of an invention of Cella Determin, from the Polymer Clay Interest News Group.
Here's a picture of the same adaptor with a little more detail.
Sunni sent us these photos of the Clay Gun with a wooden Caulking Gun Adaptor, created by Sue Lee, which makes it easier to squeeze the clay through those tiny holes! More deatil below.

Tip: "I use a test tube cleaning brush to clean my extruder. They are available at a variety of places. I got mine from American Science and Surplus Supply Co. at http://www.sciplus.com/index.cfm"

Tip: "There are a lot of great suggestions here on how to extrude the clay. A lot of them suggest that you warm the clay one way or another before pushing through your extruder. Great idea! But, what do you do when the clay is too soft to make anything out of???? Well, try putting it in the freezer for a short period of time. This will speed up the process of the clay hardening enough to use it again. Have fun!"

Tip: "You can also place the portions of clay to be extruded onto a heating pad to soften them for the gun. Use the clay wrapper to protect the heating pad surface. Do not over heat!!! If you over heat it, some Sculpey diluent might help it. Also using smaller amounts of clay are easier to extrude."

Tip: "Cleaning the Clay Gun - Wrap plunger in a baby wipe, and push it into the gun. When it comes out at the bottom, it has cleaned the gun and pushed the waste clay out the bottom of the extruder so it can be reused on a later project."

Tip: "I was having a very hard time squeezing clay out of my clay gun. The little handles don't give you very much leverage and some of the stiffer poly clays are a nightmare. I now use a regular household caulk gun. My husband made a small wooden circle with a hole and slit in it to place at the tip end of the caulk gun so that the handle on the clay gun would not slip and slide. I put the shaft, clay, and plunger through the slotted wooden hole. Screw on the disk and squeeze the caulk gun. Presto - even the harder clays like Kato poly comes out with ease."

Tip: "To clean your clay gun, simply take it apart and bake it along with everything else. When you can handle it, peel off the thin layer of clay inside the gun. Not quick, but really easy,and thorough. Apologies to the author of this suggestion that I found on the web, and cannot find again."

Tip: " **Use with care** - When I want to extrude a LOT of clay with my sugarcraft gun, I load it and put it in a WARMED and turned off oven for about 2-3 minutes. It warms the clay enough to slip through like butter, but doesn't heat it enough to bake it."

Tip: "Place the clay in a resealable plastic bag and put into a bowl of warm (not hot!) water. This softens the clay and makes it easier to extrude."

Tip: "I dip the gun (with plunger up) into very warm/hot water (not too hot) for a few seconds. Shake off and load the clay. The clay comes out even and easy, and the clay cools down as any dampness from the water dries."

Tip: "My daughter Nancy in Oregon has taken up clay work, discovered that a brass shotgun cleaning brush works well for cleaning clay guns, follow with a cotton guncleaning swab. I adapted my nutcracker, the kind with a lever action to be a clay gun extruder, a little grinding in two places with the dremel and a grinding stone, it works well for me. "

Tip: "After seeing the tip about the bottle brush I went in search of one. It turns out that the Gerber Nipple brush works *perfectly*. It's exactly the right size."

Tip: "I put the plunger against the floor and have my husband push down on the finger grips with his feet while he surfs the net. He has big, thick shoes, and I have time to craft while he extrudes for me."

Tip: "I have tried the caulking gun adaptation method but found another suggestion on a link (which I lost - sorry to whomever it belonged to!) using two 2x4s a hinge and a hole in the top for the clay gun nozzle to fit through. There is a corresponding depression for the plunger head to fit into and when put together you have two hinged boards one above the other, pop in the filled clay gun, press slowly but steadily on the top board (great leverage!) and voila! works great and takes much less effort. Also love the sculpy brand clay gun discs since they are thick and sturdy. The other brand has discs that tend to buckle and collapse due to the density of the clay."

Tip: "After loading the gun, I set it under a heating pad on low for a few minutes. Pushes out easier."

Tip: "I load the clay gun and then run my hot blow dryer on it for a minute or two. It usually softens the clay enough to extrude it easily. I still want to try the caulk gun adaption thing!!!"