My home made potters wheel.

[Mark Norman]

I want to try pottery with my girls; makin stuff spinning clay so I set out to equip myself with a few of the necessary machines and tools needed. I could and still likely will build a gas fired kiln but to get started I decided to buy an electric one. I got a killer deal on a kiln and will be picking it up next Saturday. (Thanks Dave!)

In the meantime I decided to build me a potters wheel. How hard is it to make a lazy susan hooked up with an electric motor right?
I had a few well seasoned rough sawn 2"x6" ceder boards that use to be a part of my arbor in the back yard. So I figgured I would use that.

I had most of the spinney bits on hand and borrowed the 2 hp motor and drive from my wood lathe. I bought a few carriage bolts ($20) and another pulley and a sheave ($40).

I'm going to drill and tap the pulley and make a platter that will be attached with a couple counter-sunk screws.





My way cool supervisors.









I really like the look of the aged cedar planks but I think I will do a mortar bed and tile the surface. I think my first clay project will be to make the tiles for the table surface. I drilled a 1-1/4" hole and stuffed a 1" piece of pvc through to serve as a drain and I will just set a bucket on the floor under it.

I have the motor mounted and a clutch set up but the batteries died in the camera. I'll get a couple more pics later when Lori gets home with some fresh batteries.

[Mark Norman]

[Andy Clift]

Hi Mark,
Great Post! Would live to promote it to an article and feature it in an upcoming Claystation newsletter when it is finished.
Regards,
Andy Clift

[Mark Norman]

I'll document the build right here in this thread for ya Andy. Its so straight forward I am really surprised I couldn't find more home made electric potters wheels on the net. I searched and researched for a week or more. After watching dozens of videos of folks throwing pots n such I decided I would want a fairly good size table to hold all the tools and stuff; like a small water bucket. I thought it would be nice to have a water-proof surface such like a counter top and it needed to be real stable so the weight was a plus.

Still kinda guessing as to the height of the finished wheel surface. Any suggestions? I'll also make my own bats.

Hi Mark,
Great Post! Would live to promote it to an article and feature it in an upcoming Claystation newsletter when it is finished.
Regards,
Andy Clift

[Mark Norman]

Detail of the motor mount

Added about 2" to the table toward the operator:




Ready for a mortar bed, or in this case I'll be using concrete.

[Mark Norman]

First for some steel:



Even put a seal around the drain.



using what I have on hand..

[Andy Clift]

Hi Mark, Did you finish this wheel? Would love to see you progress.

[Sarah43]

Great tips. real helpful

[brad000123]

this look great, how it work ,, i want to learn more about it plz?