Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Edited too add pictures that were taken tonight after original review was posted. We witnessed darker and lighter grey streaking last night however that's average. The clay was a pure stark white originally but now has a grey pallor to it from all the streaking. Also notice how the clay just shredded on thinner setting. This was not cold clay and not really warm either. Room temp is 72* and my wife conditioned it a little before trying to roll it for pictures. The same clay that was conditioned properly and rolled last night resulting in the following review. Ended of edit. Bought this press for my wife who is aspiring to get into making polymer clay beads and focal pieces for use in her jewelry making. These are my observations watching her as well as her's. Short review is it works kind of. Leaves streaks of grey in the clay. Clay sticks to rollers and is stripped from the ribbon at thinner settings. Works affable up until middle settings 4 or 5. If you're looking to do thin strips for fine layers you're better off with something else like maybe an Atlas. I ordered up an Atlas 150 last night as a result. Will update after the Atlas arrives. So the machine arrived yesterday. Upon unboxing it we detail cleaned the rollers with alcohol and paper towels then cotton balls with more alcohol to ensure any oils were removed so as to not contaminate the clay. We used the provided clamp to secure the press to a large cutting board and noticed the base was warped. Verified this on the table and counter top as well. Clamp held the press securely so this warp appeared to be a non issue to function, or maybe it's not? Initial rollings of clay were very pleasing on thicker settings but soon noticed grey streaking on the white clay. Sculpy 3 for anyone who cares. Sculpy is largely regarded as kids clay by many pro polymer clay artists however the wife wisely chose to use it to test out this machine rather than the more expensive Fimo she bought. We broke out the alcohol and repeated the cleaning process again thinking perhaps some oil worked it's way out of the bearings or we missed some. Giving the machine the benefit of the doubt from the start rather than just blaming it right away. Using the same now test piece of clay she went thru tighter and thinner settings again and soon saw more grey streaking on the white clay. We started thinking something was wrong and the machine was crap at this point and the wife went to YouTube to do some research while we cleaned the rollers again.... Now that we were trying to do thinner ribbons we noticed clay starting to stick to the rollers. Upon inspecting the back side of the thin ribbon it appeared that the clay was coming off in streaks. Now to be fair this primarily only happened on one roller. After some thinking and discussion with my wife I told her that this machine was going to quickly cost me a lot of money in damaged clay with all the grey streaks when she started using the more expensive materials. I could see the cost quickly adding up to more than what a more expensive machine would cost me. So back to Amazon I went with a fresh cold beer and started looking. Atlas 150....2100+ reviews, made in Italy. Solid 4.5 stars $80.... SOLD!!! Ordered an Atlas and put this thing back in its box. We're now contemplating sending it back, throwing it out, or giving it away as a pasta press after a detailed cleaning. Now after thinking on this and the issues we were having I have some theories. Perhaps the warp in the base has things off kilter just enough to affect function? Maybe there's metal rubbing or touching an unclean surface under a cover we can't see resulting in the grey streaks? Perhaps the gearing on the two rollers is off just enough that on thinner settings one roller is moving just a hair faster than the other resulting in it stripping clay? Whatever is the cause we don't know and while the machine was less than $20 I really don't have the inclination to tear it apart to investigate it more. So final thoughts..... Considering the machines low price the production quality was suspect from the beginning however this is no excuse. China's labor and production costs are so low that they can turn out a quality product and still sell it for $20 making it profitable for them and everyone. Capitalism and monetary gain being what they are though.... So where was I? Oh yes it's a low cost machine that looks well but considering their capabilities the poor performance is still inexcusable. Machine would work well enough for thicker blends if it wasn't for the streaking. When you start looking at the costs of more expensive better quality clay and additives the risk of expensive loss sure to grey streaking becomes unacceptable. My advice is save up and buy a different machine. Atlas seems to have the reviews so that's what I did. If you can't afford better than this machine do things by hand with a roller and save up until you can afford better. I dislike leaving negative reviews because that means I wasted money but there it is. All show and no go for this item! 2 stars only because it works kind of and I'm being generous. I purchased my wife's clay press for full asking price off Amazon receiving no discounts, compensation, or sexual favors for my review. I've attempted to show the good bad ugly and indifferent in an effort to better help others make educated buying decisions. I really hope this review helps someone out! If you find my review helpful please let Amazon and others know by clicking yes however if you think it's about like what u think if this press let them know as well. Thanks for reading and hopefully this insight helps you to make a better buying decision than we did.