Fran Schwartz on thu 12 aug 99
Hi,
After reading the archives, and getting a copy of the plans for building
the slab roller from Getting Into Pots by George and Nancy Wettlaufer, I'm
ready to search for parts and begin the project.
Does anyone who has built this slabroller have any advice or added
information, or any problems that they would share with me before I start
down the road?
I'm not very knowledgable about hardware so I plan to take the list of
materials to my friendly hardwarestore: am not experienced with building
things (except for the experience I'm getting building with clay)so will have
to call on all who are willing to help.
TIA for all your thoughts.. If you care to answer off list please do to
Fran at Franandal@aol.com
Paul Lewing on fri 13 aug 99
Fran Schwartz wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
> After reading the archives, and getting a copy of the plans for building
> the slab roller from Getting Into Pots by George and Nancy Wettlaufer, I'm
> ready to search for parts and begin the project.
> Does anyone who has built this slabroller have any advice or added
> information, or any problems that they would share with me before I start
> down the road?
Hi, Fran,
I've been handing out these plans to workshop participants for at least
twenty years now, and this is the slab roller I have in my own studio,
so I think I can offer you some advice.
1. If you put the refrigerator casters on the base board where it says
to, the bed will roll off one set of casters before it rolls onto the
other, which means the bed will rock for a few inches. You need to move
the casters closer together than it says to get a smooth passage.
2. Before you put the angle iron onto the bed, stretch canvas onto the
bed and staple it down, and attach a piece of hemmed (very important!)
canvas to the end of the bed that so it can be flopped over your slab
like on a Bailey or Brent. In the illustrations, George W. just uses a
loose towel. How that does not wad up into the clay I cannot imagine.
3. When you get done, wrap the ends of the cables with duct tape. The
frayed ends can be lethal.
4. He just shows a Vice-grip as a handle, and I must admit I still use
one on mine. But one friend found a large pulley that fit on the axle
so he has a wheel much like a Brent, but not as big. And another friend
used a bicycle pedal- took the rubber parts off and just used the
central steel part of the pedal, to make a crank.
5. For the first few years, you'll have to periodically tighten the
cables. After that they seem to be all stretched out and you don't have
to anymore.
6. This would be a real deluxe adaptation, but if you could devise a way
to separate the incoming cable end from the outgoing one, it would make
this thing run much more smoothly. Sometimes a loop of cable that's
being wound up goes over a loop that needs to be fed out and the thing
jams. So some kind of collar or fence, maybe a thin band of L-shaped
metal attached with the same screw that holds the cable to the roller
would work. I've never done this or seen it done, but if I were
building this again, I'd try to figure that out.
And remember, this is never going to be one of those honkin' machines
that you can throw a 25 lb. block of clay into and run it down to a
quarter of an inch thick in one pass, but it does work, it is cheap, and
it's easy to put away when not in use. Mine lives on a shelf under a
table when I'm not using it, and I can move it easily by myself. And
I've made a lot of tile on it. And he's right when he says that the
most important thing is to have the hole in the end caps centered on the
roller.
Good luck,
Paul Lewing, Seattle
Curt Lacross on fri 13 aug 99
hello Fran,
I would be interested in getting plans for a slabroller. As slab rollers
go, I am partial to the Brent slab rollers. I have seen homemade slab
rollers that are similar to the brent. Our school has two Baileys and
they have given us more grief than slabs.
regards
Curt
Anna L. Gagern on fri 13 aug 99
Fran,
I made a slab roller this spring from the plans. It works great! I had a coupl
of challenges with the items on the list. For the bushings, I used pillow block
bearings. They were a bit pricey, but work great. Please feel free to e-mail m
with any other questions.
Fran Schwartz wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
> After reading the archives, and getting a copy of the plans for building
> the slab roller from Getting Into Pots by George and Nancy Wettlaufer, I'm
> ready to search for parts and begin the project.
> Does anyone who has built this slabroller have any advice or added
> information, or any problems that they would share with me before I start
> down the road?
> I'm not very knowledgable about hardware so I plan to take the list of
> materials to my friendly hardwarestore: am not experienced with building
> things (except for the experience I'm getting building with clay)so will have
> to call on all who are willing to help.
> TIA for all your thoughts.. If you care to answer off list please do to
> Fran at Franandal@aol.com
--
Anna L. Gagern, Reiki Master ROOTS & BRANCHES: A Reiki Place,
http://www.reikiplace.com
Ingeborg Foco on sat 14 aug 99
Curt,
Could you expand on the type of grief the Bailey slab rollers gave you? I'm
very interested.
Ingeborg
Lori Pierce on sun 15 aug 99
Hi Inge...the rollers on my Bailey slab roller were coated with some sort of
brown abrasive granular substance which rubbed off, contaminating my light
clay...I loved the old big roller Baily I originally used, but I sold this
last one. I would expect the complaints may have been such that the abrasive
is no longer used on the rollers...other than that I had no problems,
however I believe that one of my friends who uses a Brent, likes the ease
she finds using it for inlays and impressions, rather than the Bailey. I
found the Brent very well made, but stiff and heavy for me to use. Lori in
New Port Richey Fl.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ingeborg Foco
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Saturday, August 14, 1999 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: Wettlaufer Slab Roller
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Curt,
>
>Could you expand on the type of grief the Bailey slab rollers gave you?
I'm
>very interested.
>
>Ingeborg
>
Curt Lacross on mon 16 aug 99
Hello Ingeborg,
We have two Bailey slab rollers at Michigan State University.One has
never worked since I have been there.I am not sure what is wrong with
it.The other bailey I have worked on with the ceramics tech. It seems we
have had trouble with the tension spring falling off. I also have always
had difficulty making slabs , it seemed that if I wanted a 1/4 inch slab
I had to start with a 1/2 inch slab. that seems kind of bothersome.I
have also used Brent slabrollers. The brents seem to flatten just about
anything small children,fauna, even clay.Maybe it is just a preference
thing but, I like the brents.Rolling pins are good too!
Regards,
Burnt Face Jake
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