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wheel wobbles

updated sun 31 aug 97

 

Jo Gilder on mon 18 aug 97

Hi Everyone,

It's been a tough day at the wheel. I spent 3+ hrs on the wheel and
came up with not one pot! After some investigation I discovered that
the head of my wheel moves 4/1000's of an inch for side to side and
8/1000's of inch up and down. All of my difficulty with this wheel
revolves around centering. Question:
Is this movement enough to cause centering problems or am I just
too new at this sort of thing?
Has anyone out there ever checked the movement of their wheel
head and if they did what spec's did they have and what should I be
getting?
Will replacing wheel head fix this or do I scrap the entire
wheel? BTW it's an electric wheel. Cheap! Doesn't even list a brand
name.

Any advise or help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Jo Gilder

David Hendley on mon 18 aug 97

Hi Jo
4 or 8/1000's of an inch is insignificant in pottery throwing, however I
can see how it would make it more difficult for someone who is just learning.
I often attatch small bats with a pancake of clay. After 10 or 15 bats have
been attatched & removed there is ALWAYS some up and down movement, often
much more than you describe. No problem if you have plenty of experience.
Likewise, I have bats that have become loose in fitting the wheelhead
through the years. These bats produce side to side motion. Again, its not
good, but really not a problem.
Do some more investigation of your wheel. It could be the wheelhead, the
bearing, the shaft. The faulty component could be replaced for not much $$.
Good luck.
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas


At 08:20 AM 8/18/97 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi Everyone,
>
>It's been a tough day at the wheel. I spent 3+ hrs on the wheel and
>came up with not one pot! After some investigation I discovered that
>the head of my wheel moves 4/1000's of an inch for side to side and
>8/1000's of inch up and down. All of my difficulty with this wheel
>revolves around centering. Question:
> Is this movement enough to cause centering problems or am I just
>too new at this sort of thing?
> Has anyone out there ever checked the movement of their wheel
>head and if they did what spec's did they have and what should I be
>getting?
> Will replacing wheel head fix this or do I scrap the entire
>wheel? BTW it's an electric wheel. Cheap! Doesn't even list a brand
>name.
>
>Any advise or help or information would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Jo Gilder
>
>

Cindy on tue 19 aug 97

Jo,

A friend of mine bought a wheel and worked for a year trying to throw pots.
No success. She felt terrible! Turns out it was a banding wheel. (Funny,
huh? She didn't think so, though) When you said 'small', I wondered if that
might be the same problem? The banding wheel just couldn't do it--at least
not for someone who had very little experience. I never tried her
wheel--never even saw it until she brought it to a workshop, so I'm not
sure whether I could have made it work, but I bet I couldn't have made it
work very well.

Cindy