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Hand rolling is not that big of a deal to me compared to washing yet another tool. It seems like it would be faster to plop a blob of fondant down and roll one long rope than to keep loading bits of fondant into an extruder.

Am I missing something?
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Just try it!! I am too much of a perfectionist to trust my rolling skills!! I use the tri hole and then twist them....check out my photos.
I also use a spritz of Pam in the tube and then blot it out...so no feathering. Love,love ,love the extruder!!!

I bought a metal one from Michaels that around $10. I think it is a Kemper Clay Gun. It works well; not as well as the more expensive ones, but it does work.

Jennifer Dontz told me about this one http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Supplies/ClayGuns.htm

I love it , I thought it was pricey but it sure has been worth it. I can make ribbons now and snakes big enough to go around a 16" cake with one fill even some left in the gun. You can do a three tier cake even. It's big but it's easy to use.

Which gun from that site do you have, debster?

I feel so dumb! Duh, of course a 1" diameter piece of fondant will extrude out much longer!

For a long time I have used the metal green Makins Clay Extruder (bought with 40% off coupon) and absolutely love it (thanks to all the posts - it seemed the most ideal here on cc) . I made sure I did not buy the small plastic metal one or small green plastic one. It comes with 20 discs. I took the plunger out once I got it and "greased" the inside with a thin coat of shortening. I like the idea of using a little pam in it. I can make really long ropes. Its not hard to clean.
Lets face it, no matter how good you are at hand rolling ropes you will still be able to tell any type of unevenness when its used on the cake.

bettinashoe..... I bought the large one for 45.00 and the 6 piece discs. If you look the disc with the -------- line is the one I use for ribbons. I had a problem with them being consistant in size now no problem. It gives you like 2 different ropes sizes and 2 that's like ropes that are 4 sided squares. I haven't used those yet. What I like is if I'm doing a cake that I have to transport a couple tiers seperated I just put them together on site and use the gun to put the rope on at the venue.

My problem was transporting the ropes they would stick together and then make a mess for me . I hope you understand, I don't explain the best online.

That's a really big gun, debster. Are you able to use it for smaller things or just the rope? I only see 3 dies for that gun. How much fondant must that thing hold?

In one class I used the Sugarcraft gun which sells for around $45.00. I liked it better than my $10 gun as it wasn't nearly as hard on my hands.

Yes you can use it for smaller things Jen told me she puts the smaller discs from the smaller guns over the holes on the bigger discs. It does hold about a pound to a pound and a half of fondant so if I were doing something small I would just put a small amount of clay in the gun. Most of the cakes I do are 3 tier and up so it's fine for me. I just wanted to buy something once that I could use. I bought a silver needle type one from Michaels and heard on here they are a pain to use so I haven't tried it yet. Ours didn't carry the green one. Guess for tiny progects I do need one of those, or borrow the kids play dough guns . Hahahahahaha, J/K I wouldn't use theirs.