Walldepartment Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hello. I am thinking about buying a pottery wheel. Of course, I want it to be as cheap as possible and these things aren't cheap. I mainly want to make bonsai pots, and I will need a throwing diameter of 16". Pottery wheels with 16" diameter wheel heads are much more expensive. So I was wondering if it's possible to buy a wheel with a 14" or even a 12" wheel head, and use 16" bats to get the diameter I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 yes, that is how it is done. bonsai is very hard to do, are you a bonsai lover? someone asked me to make some. i investigated the process and found so many limitations that i realized it would not be something i enjoy doing and turned down the "opportunity". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walldepartment Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Yes, I have 30+ trees in training. So would a 12" wheel head suffice? That would save me a lot of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I use bats up to 24" on my 14" wheel head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatthewV Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 If you make your own bats out of 3/4" plywood, the wheel head size doesn't matter too much. Just make your bats the same size as your kiln :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 YES! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatthewV Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 When I stop to think about it, I would actually rather have a 12" wheel head. Nearly all my work is done on 12" bats. The extra inch just gets messy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayaldridge Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but if your splash pan is not removable (like mine) you can use an extender bat to raise the bat surface above the pan. That's what I have to do if I want to trim anything larger than 15 inches or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 I like a 14 inch head -my trimming wheel is a 12 inch head. Bats are all different sizes and most pots get thrown on plaster bast on a clay wad on wheel head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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