Wheel parts

[Julie Bergeron]

Since I can’t find an affordable used wheel, I am looking for parts and or plans to make one.

Thank you, Julie

[neilestrick]

33 minutes ago, Julie Bergeron said:

Since I can’t find an affordable used wheel, I am looking for parts and or plans to make one.

Thank you, Julie

You can build a very functional kick wheel for not too much money or work. See HERE. Thomas Stuart wheels are made of chain link fence tubes and fittings, angle iron, plywood, and concrete. In college we had a set of kick wheels that use a bike wheel filled with concrete as the flywheel. But you could use any sort of round container as the mold for the flywheel. Bearings are cheap.

Treadle wheels can be made fairly easily, too ,but if you've never thrown on one you may not like it. It's a different beast then kick or electric wheels.

Electric wheels are more difficult because you need a motor, controller, and rheostat/pedal to make it work, assuming you want something comparable to a commercially available wheel. That said, I had a wheel post-college that was given to me by a relative that a friend of hers built in the 70's with just an on/off switch. It was belt driven like a regular electric wheel, but there was no way to control the speed. It was fine for a lot of pieces, but there are limits to what you can do without slowing down the wheel.

[Julie Bergeron]

Neil, thank you so much. That information is really helpful. I like the idea of making a wheel with a ceiling fan motor in a 5 gallon bucket, as it would be easier to move around. My shed floods sometimes and I could bring it in if need be.

thanks again, very much!!!

[elenab]

Hi Julie,  I just made a  wheel with a ceiling fan motor...  and it's not good. It doesn't have enough of torque, it stops when I am  applying a force on a wheel plate, be it centering the clay or anything else.  I am very new to pottery,  maybe if I had some skills it would work for me,  although, I doubt. It works when the clay is soft, but when the clay is THAT soft, I couldn't make any walls to my bowls. Maybe I am missing something here? The fan had a strong motor since the span was 48".

I also made (my husband did) a kick wheel.   The kick wheel wasn't a successful idea  either.  lol

 

[Bill Kielb]

On 4/29/2020 at 12:55 PM, Julie Bergeron said:

Neil, thank you so much. That information is really helpful. I like the idea of making a wheel with a ceiling fan motor in a 5 gallon bucket, as it would be easier to move around. My shed floods sometimes and I could bring it in if need be.

thanks again, very much!!!

Ceiling fan motors don’t have a bunch of torque so they are not the best choice.  Sorry, just have not seen a decent  you tube workable idea other than a kick wheel.

A nice used wheel could be worth the hunt.

[Mark C.]

Bil is spot on the torque need to be there for a wheel to work-spining a fan takes about zero torque .

Thast why wheel motors are all at least 1/3 hp to 1 1/2 hp with 3/4 to 1hp  being average hp.

used wheel is way easier and cheaper  than making one

[liambesaw]

You'd want a large DC motor, so you can reliably control the speed, and you want to be able to gear it down with a pulley system so you get the torque you need.  Direct drive (connecting the motor directly to the wheelhead) will burn out the motor because of the way motors work.

By the time you get a decent motor, pulleys, belts, controller, you might as well have purchased one.