Potters wheel

I apologise in advance for the lack of pictures. I didn’t take as many as I should have.

We had potters wheels at school but only the top art students were allowed to contemplate touching them and that apparently wasn’t me so although I have always wanted to have a go on one and it wasn’t until recently I actually did. My wife saw an event by the name of “Mad Hatters Potting Party” run by Scottish Potters Association at the Edinburgh Festival where one could go and attempt to throw a pot. I knew the two possible outcomes would either be total failure or limited success. My first pot fell into the latter category; not a masterpiece but none the less functional as a vessel.

With this success suggesting that acquiring a wheel might not be a total waste of time and money I had a brief browse over eBay, preloved, etc. looking for any bargains and it was soon revealed to me that they were generally very expensive and, as always, far away and wanting pick-up only.

So given that the general concept is not very complex I decided to try and build one.

The first thing was to find a motor and speed controller, some kind of foot pedal and then something that would act as the wheel. All this came from eBay. I went for a single to three phase inverter and a universal voltage three phase motor with a gearbox. Most wheels have around a 1/2hp motor with about 200rpm top speed. It turns out that most second-hand industrial gear-motors are built for speeds above or below this by quite a way so it took a couple of weeks of looking before one came up with the speed and power I wanted. In the end, a German machinery breaker had one that cost me less than £100 to buy and have delivered. The inverter is a Siemens Sinamics but came without the Basic Operator Panel or “BOP” which is needed to programme it. This meant that I got it for just £25 and fortunately that’s exactly the same type that is on my compressor so I just pinched the BOP off that to do the inverter set-up. I knew these inverters had the option to have a speed input potentiometer so for a foot control I just needed a foot pedal with a pot in it. I found an end of line volume/sustain pedal for an electronic instrument of some sort and with just a panel mount jack socket I had all my necessary electrical gear. I also added a second pedal that is just an on/off affair to enable and disable the motor because I liked the idea that once you have the speed set you can just use that one to turn the wheel on and off, however I think it’s not really required.  For the wheel-head I found seller who was offering aluminium V-belt pulleys bored and broached for a keyed shaft of your choosing and so proceeded to purchase the largest one they sold (10″) with a hole to fit straight onto the gearbox output shaft.

Everything else is just glue, screws and timber; either 2×3 CLS or 1/2″ ply. A bit of filler and a coat of floor paint was added to make everything watertight and little ridge placed around the place the gearbox in the bottom of the tray so that water didn’t run into it. The bat is just a further bit of ply cut to a rough circle with a couple of blocks glued to the bottom to lock it onto the opening of the wheels.

All in all it worked quite well, even if the first pot collapsed a bit…

After a bit of use it came to be apparent that the lack of any drainage and  low height of the wheel-head above the bottom of the tray were a bit of a problem so I made up a shaft extension and raised the edge of the tray

That expanding polyurethane glue (gorilla glue type stuff) actually came in handy here with its gap filling and stick to everything properties to hold the new rim on. A few screws and some wood filler and a new coat of paint and it’s done. The drain is just a standard sink drain which I cut a hole for (with a slight counter bore to keep if flush with the surface), siliconed in and then painted around. The bat is also a new piece of ply cut on the band saw with a trammel arrangement so that I got a perfect circle, gave it a sand and again cut some blocks to lock it onto the wheel but still be able to take it off and put another on.

Now to get potting…

Edit: Some other pots I made on it