Vince Pitelka on fri 20 aug 04
> Does anyone have one of the old Alpine gear-drivenn 1HP wheels thry would
> like to sell? I'd also be interested to hear any comparison of the
Alpine and
> Shimpo wheels.,
Brad -
I think that there are quite a few of the high-end wheels being made today
that would fill the bill, and I would think that the old Alpine gear-driven
wheels would be about the last thing you should consider - they are
cumbersome and awkward, and the speed range is inadequate. Isn't Brent's
largest wheel direct drive from a gearmotor? You might want to look into
that.
Shimpo wheels are not gear-driven in the strictest sense of the word. All
of the earlier designs involved variations of friction drive systems. I do
not think that the newer "Whisper" direct drive wheels would handle the
amount of clay you are talking about. I think that the ideal setup for very
large amounts of clay would feature direct drive, with integral DC gearmotor
and an AC controller. As I said, I think that one of the Brent wheels is
set up that way.
But ultimately, what you are looking for is a money-back guarantee from the
manufacturer that their wheel will center 200 pounds of clay. If so, then
it doesn't really matter which drive system is used. The big Soldner wheel
will do that, and I think quite a few of the other high-end wheels will
handle it.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
Brad Carter on fri 20 aug 04
For the few years, I have been developing my skills for throwing large-scale
pots. Sometimes I have 150 ponds of clay or more on the wheel. I have been
taking classes at community colleges, but would now like to start setting up
my own studio. My community college instructor suggested that I try to a buy
an Alpine brand gear-driven (as opposed to the common belt-driven wheels)
wheel. I searched the archives and found out that these were made by the Alpine
kiln manufacturing company, but were discontinued years ago. I also have
discovered that Shimpo makes a gear-driven wheel.
Does anyone have one of the old Alpine gear-drivenn 1HP wheels thry would
like to sell? I'd also be interested to hear any comparison of the Alpine and
Shimpo wheels.,
Thanks for you help.
Brad Carter
Grass Valley, CA
bradcarter@aol.com
Earl Brunner on sat 21 aug 04
I would add that even back in the 70's, we had trouble at school finding
replacement parts for them. If I remember right, the gear drives were made
with surplus aircraft parts. When the parts were no longer available there
was a problem.
Earl Brunner
Las Vegas, NV
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Vince Pitelka
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 10:56 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Gear driven wheels
> Does anyone have one of the old Alpine gear-driven 1HP wheels they would
> like to sell? I'd also be interested to hear any comparison of the
Alpine and
> Shimpo wheels.,
Brad -
I think that there are quite a few of the high-end wheels being made today
that would fill the bill, and I would think that the old Alpine gear-driven
wheels would be about the last thing you should consider - they are
cumbersome and awkward, and the speed range is inadequate. Isn't Brent's
largest wheel direct drive from a gearmotor? You might want to look into
that.
Bonnie Staffel on sun 22 aug 04
Way back in those days of the 60's and 70's Norm Schulman started building
wheels with those aircraft motors, gear driven. they were very loud. He
made one for me and I used it for a number of years after standing at a
treadle standup kick wheel for 12 years. I loved it as it was the only
electric wheel available to me at the time.
J. T. Abernathy in Ann Arbor became noted for building his own wheels and
threw gigantic planter pots for the city streets of AA. These were a
two-man throwing operation. His giant gas kiln was about the size of a one
car garage. And he did all this in downtown AA behind the stores. It was
amazing to this newbie.
I believe that JT is still living and you could probably contact him to
inquire about building or acquiring a gear driven wheel. I looked his name
up but did not find any web site for his work. Seems to me there should be
some acknowledgement of his contributions to the art of clay during his
heyday.
Scale drawings of his non-chimney kiln designs can be found at
http://www.ibremsen-potter.com/abernathy.html
I didn't look any further, but there probably are mentions of his work with
the Ann Arbor Potters Guild. He was famous for his soft matte turquoise
blue on blue decorative techniques.
Warm regards,
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel
http://www.vasefinder.com/
Potters Council member
Gary Navarre on mon 23 aug 04
Bonnie reminisced:
> J. T. Abernathy in Ann Arbor became noted for building his own wheels and
> threw gigantic planter pots for the city streets of AA. These were a
> two-man throwing operation. His giant gas kiln was about the size of a
> one
> car garage. And he did all this in downtown AA behind the stores. It was
> amazing to this newbie.
>
> I believe that JT is still living and you could probably contact him to
> inquire about building or acquiring a gear driven wheel. I looked his
> name
> up but did not find any web site for his work. Seems to me there should
> be
> some acknowledgement of his contributions to the art of clay during his
> heyday.
Ya Bonnie, what a character. I still love the old fart for stealing my
prom date. Maybe that's why he gave me one of those aircraft gun tourett
mounts to build a wheel. I don't know what ever happened to it, maybe
it's in my moms basement. I talked to the gal at Rovin a few months ago
and J.T. still makes clay. I should stop and see him when I go down
state here soon to see mom and Gawaine Dart and my other clay pal Bruce
Dibboll. He and his dad Bob are still making their salt glaze crocks and
jugs.
South East Michigan did have some leading edge potters back in the early
days of contemporary ceramics in America.
Gary Navarre
Navarre Pottery
Norway, Michigan, U.S.A.
Hank Murrow on mon 23 aug 04
On Aug 20, 2004, at 9:17 AM, Brad Carter wrote:
> For the few years, I have been developing my skills for throwing
> large-scale
> pots. Sometimes I have 150 ponds of clay or more on the wheel. I
> have been
> taking classes at community colleges, but would now like to start
> setting up
> my own studio. My community college instructor suggested that I try
> to a buy
> an Alpine brand gear-driven (as opposed to the common belt-driven
> wheels)
> wheel. I searched the archives and found out that these were made by
> the Alpine
> kiln manufacturing company, but were discontinued years ago. I also
> have
> discovered that Shimpo makes a gear-driven wheel.
>
> Does anyone have one of the old Alpine gear-drivenn 1HP wheels thry
> would
> like to sell? I'd also be interested to hear any comparison of the
> Alpine and
> Shimpo wheels.,
Hi Brad;
I can offer no comparison between the two wheels, but I use the Alpine
gear-driven wheel daily and find no fault save somewhat more noise. I
do not work at large scale, however. I got mine form Noel Osheroff, who
has several for sale in Venice, CA. I have talked to her about your
need, and you may reach her at noelosheroff@earthlink.net .
I believe they are 1 hp, and she wants $500 each for them. She may also
be able to drop one off somewhere along I-5.
Say, do you know Don Anawalt in Grass Valley? I went to school with him.
Cheers, Hank
murrow.biz/hank
Hank Murrow on mon 23 aug 04
On Aug 20, 2004, at 9:17 AM, Brad Carter wrote:
>
> I have been developing my skills for throwing large-scale
> pots. Sometimes I have 150 ponds of clay or more on the wheel. I
> want to use a gear-driven wheel.
Again, Brad;
I know that you could score a surplus gearmoter and controller for $300
or so in the power range you need, and if you have some fabrication
skills, a fine tool could be built.
Something to think about. Course, you could buy the Alpine AND build a
wheel of your design.
Cheers, Hank
murrow.biz/hank
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