How to build / make an adjustable speed electric home made potters / pottery wheel

This video shows how we made our potter's / pottery wheel with an AC electric motor. As stated in the video, we decided to build one with this kind of motor because of it's cost (it's cheap!) and because their easy to come by. Using a gear box is a great idea, but gear boxes are verily hard to find and can be expensive. Also, DC motors can be used, but they too are harder to find used and more expensive (however, on ebay you can get them for about $75-100.00 with shipping). If you have any questions or you're having problems building your own potters wheel, feel free to email me at tessa.thepottersplace@gmail.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• POTTERS
• WHEEL

[pottersplacestudio]

i have not yet filmed a video yet of myself throwing on this specific wheel. i will try to film a clip tomorrow.

[newearthclaypottery]

Does this design hold torque at all speeds?

[pottersplacestudio]

Ya, it does. This is a very similar design to the old Shimpo wheels. With a few exceptions. Theirs had another pulley system involved. Instead of the wheel head pulley (the pulley directly under the wheel head) being belted directly to the pulley that controls the tension, it is belted to another pulley system that just slows the speed (so the tension pulley would be attached to another set of pulleys that we be then belted to the wheel head pulley).

[pottersplacestudio]

I know you can google ac motor and a frequency regulator and there are some sites up that describe how to use the two together. I am not sure if an AC motor can be used with a PWM (pulse wave modulation) which I think is what you have? But about the petal, yes, when I lower the petal, the belts tighten up and create more or less speed the tighter it get's. The speed varies from 10rpm to 250rpm

[sohappychic]

So. What did you use before you buitl this amazing thing? I have never tried to use a pottery wheel and would like to have one until I saw they were super expensive.

[drphosferrous]

Nice! thanks for posting. I'm trying to figure this out and find your video helpful. Why did you opt to control your speed with the pulley system? Isn't there a potentiometer in available used pedals?

[andrdreg3]

Yeah at slow speed on this wheel would such cuz the belt would slip so it would stop at slow speed so yeah and if u want it to turn in the other directions just place the motor upside down and it spin in the opposite direction but ud have to change the design a bit

[newearthclaypottery]

@rockershocker89 I didn't know you could get ZEROMAX rebuilt.. Still, with a free motor you can have a very strong wheel w plenty of touque at low speed for a fraction of the cost of new wheel with similar power

[rockershocker89]

@newearthclaypottery Doubtful, the wheel is probably useless at slow speeds, but her design is far more economical than yours. Even refurbished Zero-max drives cost $200.

[rockershocker89]

How is the speed adjustable? it just seems to me that you can increase or decrease the amount of torque being applied to the wheel. At slow speeds the wheel would stop spinning if you barely touched it.

[Amgenhammer]

@pottersplacestudio

Could you build one for my Fiancee? She is finishing her B.A. in Ceramics. I would pay.

[NeilEvan814]

Thank you very much for taking the time to make such an informative video. I think it is the best potter's wheel ever. You are a great teacher.

[me41ca]

how much did it cost to make?

[PedoCat]

God damn it. How many times did you say "Go ahead" or "Went ahead"?