DIY pottery wheel. How to make your own pottery wheel Pottery wheel from a washing machine baby

Are you a pottery enthusiast? Do you want to create masterpieces with clay at home? Then you will probably be interested in learning how to make a pottery wheel from washing machine. The cost of a new machine is often beyond the budget. And why spend money if you can make a device from improvised materials. Secrets handmade potter's wheel are revealed in our article.

Types of pottery machine

The first pottery mechanisms were used in Ancient Egypt 2 thousand years BC. Modern type The device has remained virtually unchanged since those times. The only thing that makes the machines different is the drive.

Varieties:

Foot. The rotation of the shaft is ensured by a person who presses the pedal and rotates the circle clockwise. The device was popular due to its simple design. But its operation is inconvenient: you have to simultaneously concentrate on the pedals and on working with the product.

Mechanical. The principle of operation is similar to the first option. The difference is that the shaft is driven by the return rotation of the pedal.
Electrical. Such models are common in modern times. The mechanism is driven by an electric drive. So the user can adjust the desired speed and dive into work.

How does a pottery wheel from a washing machine work?

The “Malyutka” activator type machine is suitable for us. . Even if you don’t have it in your bins, you can buy used equipment. This will cost several times less than buying a new machine.

What parts does the machine include? washing machine(CM):

Switch and speed controller;
Working wheel.

What is needed to make a device from SM “Malyutka” :

A piece of plywood;
Plastic bottle (you can take it from a medicine bottle);
White spirit and waterproof varnish;
Insulating tape;
Hacksaw, bolts, nuts, knife, screwdrivers and keys, pliers;
Soldering iron.

It is also possible to make a machine based on a welded frame and an engine from an automatic washing machine (AWM).

What it will include:

The bed is a stable welded structure that will serve as the basis;
Motor for rotating the shaft;
Two pulleys that, using a belt, transmit rotation from the motor to the circle;
Switch, speed controller;
Drive shaft with bearings;
A bowl that will hold the circle. Its walls will protect the room from clay splashes.

Choose the option whose components are easier for you to assemble. If you decide to assemble a machine from a “Malyutka” type machine, then you will not need drawings. Its design is most suitable for work.

Instructions for making a pottery wheel

Let's start with a simpler option.

How to assemble a mechanism from an activator machine

There is already a horizontally placed circle at the bottom of the case. You need to disassemble the case:

Turn the CM upside down;
Unscrew the screws securing the upper part;
At the bottom you will find a motor and a pulley that are connected by a belt. There is also a timer set there. It will not be useful for work, so remove it by disconnecting the wires;
Now remove the pulley. To do this, release it from the belt, twist the fastening nut;

Behind the pulley there is a ribbed impeller. A wheel with flat surface, so you can make it yourself, or contact a turner;
Measure the dimensions of the axle and sketch out a diagram of the components. The holder is made of steel, and the upper part is made of moisture-resistant plywood;

After manufacturing, wipe the plywood disc with white spirit and coat it with moisture-resistant varnish. The holder must be primed and painted;

It's time to build the impeller. Secure the holder to the plywood using bolts.

Take the prepared medicine bottle. Trim the top and bottom and place in the center as shown in the photo.

It will serve as protection against moisture. Then mount the prepared wheel. Secure the product with a plastic bolt.

Let's move on to the body. Make a mark along the cut line with a marker. It should be at least 1 cm away from the disc. Trim the top with a hacksaw. The base is ready, all that remains is to connect the engine.

How to connect the motor

You need to determine where the wire is located that goes to the motor windings, stator and brushes. To do this, it is better to use a multimeter. In one of the articles we wrote “ How to connect a motor from an old washing machine", the stages of work are described in detail there.

A switch must be connected to the power wire. On the body, select a place where it will be convenient to place the switch.

After installation, secure all wires with clamps and insulate them from moisture.

If you want to install a speed controller (500 W), the connection will be similar to the method with a switch, or the latter can be completely eliminated in this case.

Homemade pottery machine

Here you will need a drawing with exact calculations, as shown below.

Prepare components and tools:

Suitable for frame profile pipe size 80x40 mm;
The motor is from a machine with a speed of no more than 1500 per minute;
The drive and driven pulleys are also taken from the CM housing;
The circle/faceplate is ordered in advance or made from steel 10 mm thick. Please note that the diameter of the internal hole must correspond to the size of the shaft;
Bearings and shaft;
Welding apparatus;
Grinder with different attachments;
Drill.

Progress:

Make a frame using welding. You should get a rectangular frame with legs. Fasten the profile at an angle of 45 degrees.
Attach a crossbar from the same profile to the middle, closer to the edge. It will serve as the basis for the shaft.
Now you need to make a base for the motor. To do this, a transverse pipe is welded to opposite profiles. Two longitudinal pipes are fixed perpendicular to the transverse one.
Attach the runners and guide to the longitudinal bases.
Attach the motor stand.
Install the engine. Use bolts as fastenings.
Attach the bearing cup.
Install the shaft with the pulley and center it.
Put protection on top. This could be a plastic container.
Mount the faceplate.
Connect the electrical part: motor, switch.

The video shows the stages of making a pottery machine.

Watching a potter make a piece on a potter's wheel is a magical experience. This article will tell you how to make a pottery wheel with your own hands and start creating things. If your goal as an artist is to create unique items, then this type of pottery wheel is perfect for you.

Just find a 360 degree rotating bucket, use a few items from around the house and you'll be ready in 10 minutes. The project is inexpensive and works as efficiently as any pottery wheel. With a little practice I can center, twist and turn this pottery wheel well. After correcting the vibrations, centering is now automatic thanks to the concentric circles on the potting tray.

The foot potter's wheel is inexpensive, lightweight, portable and takes up little space. What's great is that there's no soldering, no heavy machinery, and it works on your feet. The best part is that it doesn't require electricity.

Here's a quick compilation of all my videos after I learned how to throw mop buckets on a potter's wheel after 50 throws in 14 days.

Step 1: Gathering materials

What you will need:

Bucket for circular mop
Plastic pots or boxes to increase the height of the pottery wheel
Plastic pallet
Strong glue, such as polyurethane or a hot glue gun
Level

Here is a video from the first day of assembly and a performance test of the pottery machine. Everything was strange and incomprehensible until I eliminated the hesitation.

Step 2: Glue everything together

Surprisingly, the lightweight materials worked well when I filled the bottom bucket with small rocks. I placed the weights around the center hub and this somehow helped slow down the rotation a lot as the circle was moving too fast and wobbly and things were getting out of control. Not all 360-degree mop buckets are built the same. Some have better mechanisms than others and operate more smoothly.

Glue all the buckets and trays together in a suitable order. Use a level to make sure everything is level.
The design of this pottery wheel can be changed in many ways - it's up to your personal taste. You need to find buckets and pallets for flower pots, which will reach the height with which you feel most comfortable. If you need to redo your design, hot glue can be easily removed by spraying some Lysol alcohol and using pliers.

If the wheel of the circle is below your waist level, then you can use leverage and your body weight to lift the walls of the product. This way, your body will be positioned more ergonomically and this will avoid back pain.

Step 3: Start twisting - examples of work

Show 4 more images

I originally started with solid piece clay, which was really difficult to shape. Also, the higher the circle was, the more it swayed. I looked under the mop bucket and noticed that the pieces weren't twisted together straight.

I removed the buckets, rearranged them and placed small rocks and sand in the inner rotating bucket. After that everything became more stable. There is still some hesitation, especially at fast speeds - but your skills will improve and you will soon begin to enjoy the work.

The second time I used pliable and prepared brown stoneware clay.

Step 4: Rolling Method

In Asia there is a rolling method, when a clay product is rolled directly on the wheel. After watching the method used by Korean and Japanese potters, I decided to try this route myself. Their method saves energy, water and clay waste is reduced.

Rolling method:

Roll out or flatten round tiles on a wheel
Attach thick walls to it.
Rotate the wheel slowly and begin processing.
Below is an example of how I made a cookie container lid and cup on a wheel.

Step 5: Firing the products

How to fire clay creations if you don't have access to a kiln?

Several inventors have successfully used the clay kiln to fire bricks. The rocket stove consumes little fuel, but is capable of maintaining temperatures up to 650 degrees Celsius (or more).

It produces little smoke and will make your pottery items durable.

Watch the video on how you can make a rocket oven and use it as an oven. (Note, to prevent the food from burning, the inventors installed a deflector plate between the flames from the rocket oven down inside the cooking chamber).

Another option is a barrel oven, which can easily be used as a kiln. Materials include oven tray, metal barrel and a pipe. The kiln uses very little wood and reaches temperatures of 1,100 degrees Celsius—hot enough to fire the shard and glaze.

A third idea might be to use a collapsible metal camping barbecue stove or rocket furnace, in which you can burn small objects.

The fourth idea is a barrel-type stove using sawdust.

A potter's wheel is an expensive pleasure for a beginning craftsman. The simplest circle from a foreign company costs about $500. That is why our craftsmen were given the task of making a pottery wheel from a washing machine so that the project could then be implemented with their own hands at home. As a basis, you can take either an activator machine or drum type. But first things first.

We prepare everything you need

Let's look at making a potter's wheel with our own hands using the example of an activator washing machine. You can even buy such a machine, and if you have an old washing machine that still works, you will save about another 1,500 rubles.

Important! The activator in the washing machine must be located on the bottom of the machine strictly horizontally, without tilting.

In addition to the washing machine, we will need about a dozen more necessary details, without which you won’t be able to make a pottery wheel with your own hands. Namely:

a piece of moisture-resistant plywood;
a simple microcircuit that regulates engine speed with a switch;
moisture-resistant varnish and paint;
White Spirit;
wheel machined to size;
plastic medicine bottle;
any switch;
insulating tape;
silicone sealant;
soldering tin;
bolts, washers, nuts and self-tapping screws.

In addition to materials, you also need some tools; it is also better to prepare them in advance. Nothing special just:

felt-tip pen;
wooden ruler;
a hacksaw with fine teeth, suitable for metal;
sharp knife;
set of screwdrivers and keys;
pliers;
multimeter;
soldering iron

Making a circle and protecting

We are starting to remodel our primitive washing machine with our own hands. The alteration is not God knows what, but the result is savings of several tens of thousands of rubles. So, let's start by partially disassembling the body of the activator washing machine to determine the location the most important details– motor, electrics and drive mechanism. Let's remove the drive belt, pulley and other parts with our own hands to expose the shaft.

On at this stage we have the first difficulty, namely, we have a shaft, some kind of drive mechanism and a motor, but we do not have an impeller on which the rotating circle will be fixed. What to do? We have no choice but to take the dimensions of the shaft and order an impeller from a turner. The turner should turn something similar to the part shown in the picture below.

We will not indicate the dimensions, since they are purely individual and will depend on the size and type of washing machine that will be taken for remodeling. We carefully paint the turned part and then put it aside for a while.

Before painting, the part must be thoroughly sanded with your own hands, removing traces of rust and dirt.

Now we need to cut a circle from a piece of moisture-resistant plywood, as shown in the figure below. We impregnate the circle with varnish, which we mix in advance with white spirit; on this circle we will place the clay blank.

Let's assemble two parts of the impeller, put the wheel on the shaft with our own hands, thus preparing a part for installation on the drive mechanism. The working part of the circle, which will hold the rotating workpiece, must be well centered. Otherwise, the workpiece will rotate unevenly, which will lead to problems when making clay objects.

Next, we need to protect the drive mechanism from moisture and corrosion. To do this, we take an ordinary plastic bottle of vitamins or medicines and put it on the shaft, after which we securely fasten the improvised part with a nut. At this point, you can stop the assembly of the working part of the pottery wheel; let’s move on to the body of the washing machine.

We don’t need most of the washing tank, so we take a hacksaw and cut the tank without any mercy, leaving only the bottom with the activator and low sides along the edges. With the body of the potter's wheel and the moving mechanism done, now the most difficult part is connecting the motor and electrician.

Connecting the engine

We have written about this many times in other publications on our website. However, we will once again describe this process, taking into account the features of converting a washing machine into a household pottery wheel.

First, we need to determine the identity of each wire protruding from the motor of an activator-type washing machine. It is better to do this, guided by the principle electrical diagram, but if it is not at hand, you will have to act at random. We need to find the wires:

engine speed controls (if any);
going to the stator winding;
two wires going to the brushes.

We disconnect the supply wire and install a switch on it. We cut a groove for the switch in convenient location housings. All wires are carefully insulated. If possible, you need to put a rubber casing on each wire or, at worst, wrap each wire with electrical tape.

Next, we mount and connect the device that regulates engine speed. Such a device is connected to the power wire and two wires that control the engine speed. After this, we put the pulley in place, put on the drive belt, insert and fasten the shaft with the impeller. Then we assemble the body, go through the groove with sealant so that once again no water got in and that’s it, the assembly of the electric potter’s wheel can be considered complete.

In any case, the engine speed will have to be reduced, otherwise, at a speed of 500-700 rpm, the clay workpiece, under the influence of centrifugal force, will fly into the wall.

In conclusion, we note that you can assemble an excellent electric pottery wheel for beginners with your own hands without special tools and special technical knowledge. The main thing is that there is desire, tools and materials and, of course, hands that are not used to getting bored. What happens next is a matter of technique, good luck!

The potter's wheel is one of the first mechanisms that people created with their own hands. The machine for making objects from clay was originally manual - the master turned such a circle with his hand and at the same time formed the product, which was quite inconvenient. Over time, people came up with the foot potter's wheel, and the matter became easier, because the potter could spin his circle with his feet, and his hands were completely free. With the advent of electricity, the electric potter's wheel appeared. Now there are many models of such devices, but also ancient devices and modern devices combines the principle of operation: the working circle is mounted on a vertical shaft, which sets the entire structure in motion.

The main thing in a homemade pottery wheel is to ensure its rotation, and this can be done using different devices.

Potter's wheel from a drill

To make such a pottery wheel you will need the following tools and materials:

Old drill
Pedal from sewing machine
Plastic bucket
Rotating round tray
10mm drill
Self-tapping screws
Wiring terminals
Extension
Silicone sealant
Carriage bolt and nut

How to make a pottery wheel with your own hands

A hole is drilled in the bottom of the plastic bucket with a 10 mm drill. This is quite easy since most of these buckets have a raised mark. At the bottom of the container you also need to drill a hole with a diameter of 15 millimeters for the wires to exit.
At the next stage, check the coincidence of current and voltage in the drill and in the pedal from the sewing machine. This data may be indicated on product tags. This is very important, because if the initial parameters do not match, the pedal will overheat and even smoke.
It is also necessary to remake the pedal plug from the sewing machine. Its two central wires are marked with electrical tape in order to connect later.
Cut the plug from the pedal wire and pull the wires through the hole drilled in the side of the bucket.
Now the two marked wires are twisted together and secured with a wiring terminal.
For safety during operation, the wire connection is treated with silicone sealant. The remaining two wires are connected to the extension socket (it must be waterproof).
Since the wires will be located inside the container, where moisture can get in while working with clay, it is necessary additional measures precautions: ground connection and careful insulation of all connections.
To check the operation of the device, the pedal is connected to an outlet, and the drill wire is inserted into a new plug. Then you need to press the power button of the drill and press the pedal. If it does not work, then disconnect all wires and check the correct connections and contacts.
Next, they begin to make a rotating circle, for which they use a purchased plastic tray. If there is a raised center mark in the center of the tray, this will make drilling the hole easier. You can also determine the center of the circle by the rod at the bottom. Drill a hole using a drill and a drill of a suitable diameter.
A carriage bolt is inserted into the hole so that its head is located on top of the surface of the tray.
WITH reverse side Cover the gap between the surface and the bolt shaft is filled with silicone sealant.
Screw a 6mm hook onto the bolt shaft and tighten it so that the head of the bolt is recessed into the hole in the cover.
To prevent the nut from loosening, you can slightly deform it and tighten another identical nut on top. For additional reliability of the connection, you can treat it with silicone sealant.
Now you can start assembling. At this stage, the drill, which will act as a rotating drive, must be installed vertically in a plastic bucket and under the right angle to the bottom. You can use a mounting bracket for this.
To align the drill and the hole drilled at the first stage, use a wedge made of wooden block dimensions 50x100 mm
bracket, which greatly simplified installation. To get the tool aligned with the 6mm hole I drilled at the beginning of the job, I used a wedge made from wooden beam with a cross section of 50*100 mm, and several self-tapping screws.
Silicone sealant is applied to the bottom of the tray and placed on top of the bucket so that the fixed bolt fits into the drill chuck, which is then tightened.
The drill is connected to the plug from the pedal. The drill power button (or trigger) is pressed all the way and fixed in this position to turn the device on and off only with the pedal.
After assembling and checking all the connections of the resulting homemade circle, it can be tested in operation. You also need to check its tightness: to do this, wait until the silicone dries, disconnect the device from the power supply and spray it with water to detect leaks. If water gets inside, all cracks must be sealed again with silicone.

If all stages of work are carried out correctly and elements are selected, this homemade circle can work reliably and for a long time. This principle of operation is also suitable for homemade pottery wheels with other devices as a rotating drive.

If during long work it is noticeable that the drill is overheating, then you can place several wooden blocks under the plastic bucket for cooling and better air circulation.
In the pedal of a sewing machine, you can make a speed limiter in the form of a thin stick - it is placed under the lid. This must be done in order to avoid too high a speed of rotation of the wheel, because this can cause the pots to turn out uneven, and the clay will fly off while the wheel is rotating.
If you have to work often and for a long time, then it is better to use a more powerful drill. For example, when large quantities clay, a low-power drill may not cope with the load.