ronfire Posted October 22, 2020 Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 I found I could not centre my mugs well or get flat bottoms on larger pieces so I had a closer look at the wheel. It has always made a pulsing noise in time with the wheel head and is more pronounced when I load it. I looked earlier but did not find a reason until now when I ran it and looked closer. I found there was a wobble in the wheel head, removed the head and found it was in the shaft. The drive pulley also has a wobble in it that will lightly shake the wheel when on a table and run on high. Tried to post a short video but the file is to large. Contacted Skutt yesterday and spoke to Daniel about a problem with my wheel and was asked to send some videos and information. I will phone them back this morning and find out their solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted October 22, 2020 Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 Is your bearing block tight? Make sure it hasn't come loose in shipping. There are 5 allen head screws to tighten from the top. Also make sure the set screws where the shaft goes through the pulleys are tight, as well as the main screw at the bottom of the shaft. That one really needs to be tight. Basically just tighten everything up. You never know what might have come loose during shipping. It's also possible it got thumped somehow during shipping and bent the shaft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted October 22, 2020 Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 Let us know how this turns out. I was worried about Skutt buying up this company and lessing the product quaility wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronfire Posted October 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 Almost 4pm and they have not returned my calls. Not impressed. I will try and tighten everything, thanks Niel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted October 22, 2020 Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 Skutt, like most kiln companies, is very busy right now with orders and still trying to catch up from being closed at the start of the pandemic. Typically their customer service is top notch. Try them again tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted October 23, 2020 Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 I emailed them about a replacement splash pan and got a response the next morning, and it was from their technical support manager so I am thinking that if they have managers answering questions they're probably overworked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronfire Posted October 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 Got a reply shortly after posting. They are sending me a new wheel head, bearing block and shaft. They think it is the wheel head so I will start with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronfire Posted October 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 Would a bent shaft or wheel head cause the clay to throw uneven. Pulled a cylinder and trimmed the top, did another pull and was uneven again. When I cut it open I found one side was thinner than the other. Did not thing a warped wheel head would cause this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted October 23, 2020 Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 @ronfire I suppose it could be from the wheel head not running evenly, but it would have to be off by quite a bit. I see uneven walls every day with my students, and my wheels run true. It's more a case of poor centering, opening, and pulling all contributing. I've got a couple of wheels where the head only runs true in one position. If you haven't tried removing the wheel head and turning it 180 degrees and putting it back on, do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronfire Posted October 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 Tried changing the wheel position and made no difference. Will be interesting to see when the new parts come and find where the problem is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted October 23, 2020 Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 my opinion/observation, wheel head running out of true makes throwing "straight" more difficult, however, the clay can be centered and then thrown "straight" if/when the wheel head is not used as a reference, iow, brace against anything but the wheel head. It's too difficult (for me - several limitations, aches and pains to work with...) I've corrected or retired the plaster bats that aren't flat/true. I definitely use the wheel head as a brace/reference, e.g. the first part of the clay centered is where it meets ...the wheel head! Next day: ...having (mostly unconsciously) pondered this, finally realized that there's likely a big difference between a canted wheel on a straight and true shaft vs wheel head on a bent/wobbly/running out shaft, where the latter is worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted October 23, 2020 Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 I throw almost everything on a wobbly bat system so I dont even think I'd be able to tell if my wheelhead was wobbly Just another example of me doing everything the wrong way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted October 23, 2020 Report Share Posted October 23, 2020 @ronfire, haven't you been throwing on this new wheel for a few months now? Is this a new problem that has just started up or has the wheel been off from the get go? (time for your luck to change!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronfire Posted October 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2020 I have been throwing off and on for a few months. Now that I am getting used to it I have been noticing the pulsing sound that made me look closer at the wheel. I found the wheel head was not running true. Was wondering why centring was difficult as I use the bats to brace on, hope this solves some problems. Skutt has been good to me and sending out new head,shaft and bearing block to try to find the issue. I did a few videos and sent them to Skutt, looks like it might be a shaft but Skutt thinks it might be the wheel head. I will replace 1 part at a time to determine where the issue is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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