Pottery Circle with your own hands

Pottery business has recently been very popular, especially among children. It is not only interesting, but also develops motility of the hands, coordination of movement, attentiveness and purposefulness. In addition, the child will be very important to see the end result of its work. For pottery classes, equipment is needed, without which it is easy not to do. Required in the manufacture of clay products, you need a furnace for firing. The no burnt clay does not get a normal fortress and simply cracks. Another indispensable Potter attribute is a potted circle. Without it, it is impossible to make smooth cylindrical details.

Buy a potted circle for child classes makes no sense. First, it is far from the fact that the young passion will not disappear in a few weeks, but a rather not cheap unit will simply take a place in the garage. Secondly, pottery are not too cheap, especially the models with an electric drive. The leaving of this situation may be the lease of a pottery circle or making it with its own forces. About how to make a pottery with your own hands - further in the article.

Types of pottery circles

The designs of the pottery circle, according to historians, have already been several thousand years. During this time, she practically did not change. It represents a one-piece wheel of solid material (they may be a tree, stone or steel), on which a clay billet rotates with a given frequency. When rotating it is processed manually or using a special tool.

They distinguish pottery circles by the type of drive, thanks to which the billet rotates. They may be:

1. Foot. The simplest design of the pottery circle, which was used for many hundreds of years. It is a shaft, which from different ends the drive and the working circle were attached. The rotation of the drive circle gave the potter himself, pushing it clockwise with his feet. This design is not too convenient, as it requires the use of considerable effort when working. The foot drill circle is made very simply, which is its main advantage.
2. Mechanical. Such a circle was developed by the famous English Gonchar Bernard. The structure of Lich was quite successful, so the industrial production of such circles began in the middle of the last century. The principle of operation of such a circle is based on the transformation of the reciprocating movement of the pedal to the rotational movement of the circle shaft due to the crank mechanism. It was much more convenient, it appeared to more accurately adjust the rotation of the circle, which is very important when processing materials with various properties.
3. Electric. With the advent of electrical drives, the mechanization of pottery circles took a step forward. Thanks to such machines, the gonchar no longer need to make an effort to rotate the details, and you can directly focus on its processing. Also became possible accurate adjustment of the speed of rotation of the part. In addition, the dimensions of the machine became much less.

Electric Pottery Circle Design

The design of the electric pottery is pretty simple and its installation is not particularly difficult. For the embodiment of the project, electrical appliances, installation of electrical equipment, welding works are necessary to implement the skills. If all this is, you can take a job.

The circle design consists of several main nodes:

• Stanna. Welded metal structures on which all the nodes of the machine are attached.
• Electric drive Motor of small power to rotate the shaft.
• Lead and driven pulleys. Designed to transmit torque from the electric motor to a pottery circle. Pumps connected with a wedge belt.
• Circle. The steel disk of the required diameter, on which the workpiece proceeds directly.
• Electrical equipment. Frequency converter, power regulator, circuit switch.
• Drive shaft with hub and bearings. It serves to transmit torque from the slave pulley to the circle directly.
• Production bowl. Designed to protect the room from dirt in the process of processing clay. Under the action of centrifugal force from the rotation of the circle itself, poorly attached pieces of material can simply fly away. So that this does not happen, the circle is placed in the production bowl, most often made of plastic.

Preparation of materials, tools and spare parts for a pottery circle with their own hands

Before starting work, it is best to make a drawing of a pottery circle with your own hands. This will help determine the required amount of materials and schedule a sequence of work. For the construction of a simple electric pottery circle, you will need it:

• Profile pipe measuring 80x40 mm. Designed for the manufacture of frame frame. To install the engine suspension design, a smaller pipe is used.
• Engine. The engine must be low-power (no more than 500 W) with a maximum speed of revolutions up to 1500 rpm. If there is a working, but unused washing machine, the drive mechanism can be taken from it.
• Pulleys. Drive and slave pulleys under the belt can be taken from the same washing machine. In some cases, if the engine is used by another, it is possible to pull the pulley under the belt directly on the rotor shaft. The slave pulley must be greater diameter.
• Potter's wheel. It is made of sheet steel with a thickness of up to 10 mm, preferably, stainless steel. It is cut and processed on the lathe. Basis must be approached under the diameter of the drive shaft.
• For the connection of the slave pulley and the potter circle uses shaft and bearings. The most suitable bearing is the hub from the Zhigulevsky nine. The advantage of it is that when the climb, he himself is centered. To install it, it is necessary to sharpen a glass, and boil it into the frame crossbar.
• Shaft. The shaft is pulled out under the size of the pulley.

From the tool for the assembly will need:

• Welding machine with a set of electrodes.
• Bulgarian with a set of circles for cutting metal and stripping welding seams.
• Drill for drilling holes.

Production of a pottery circle with their own hands

Procedure for work:

1. First of all, it is necessary to weld the metal structure of the frame of the potter circle. It is a rectangular frame from a profile pipe with a welded legs. The pipe connection is better made at an angle of 45 °. For this, the ends of the pipe are trimmed with a grinder.
2. Closer from one of the edges in the middle of the frame the crossbar of the same pipe, only located the larger surface upwards. It will serve as the basis for installing the shaft and the table cheeper.
3. After that, the maintenance design is welded at the engine installation site. It consists of a transverse tube, which is welded to the opposite frame pipes, and two longitudinal, which are welded perpendicular to the transverse.
4. For longitudinal pipes, guides and uses are installed. Easy engine is attached to them. We are needed to change the distance from the engine to the slave pulley, thereby increasing or reducing the tension of the wedge-shaped belt.
5. The window of the self-made potter circle, made by their own hands, is a metal sheet, the in the middle of which the hole is drilled under the shaft, and the fastening bolts. Do it better on a radial-drilling machine. Manual drill to drill a hole for the shaft will be problematic.
6. The engine is attached to the fastening bolts. Salazks are made of steel, with milling grooves and welded to supporting design. Now the engine can "go" back-back, changing the belt tension.
7. The next step is welded a glass for the installation of shaft bearings, after which the whole mechanic is assembled: the shaft is installed and the drive pulley. Be sure to check the center of the motor pulleys and the drive shaft. Their centers must be on the same axis, and the pulleys themselves must be in the same horizontal plane. Otherwise, the belt skew will occur, which will lead to its rapid wear.
8. Next, a protective cover is installed on the machine frame. As the latter, you can use any plastic container (a large dish or a bowl). It dries holes under fastening bolts and one hole for the shaft, on which the potter circle will be attached. After that, it is installed in place.
9. The last thing in the assembly of the mechanical part of the pottery circle is the installation of a table cheeper.
10. After the mechanical part of the potter circle is assembled, you can proceed to the electrical part. It consists of several parts:

• a frequency converter;
• switch (normal light switch);
• adjustable resistance.

The engine directly connects to the frequency converter. One of the suitable models of the latter is "Vesper-8100". It allows you to adjust the engine speed from zero to 1500 revolutions per minute. In this case, the engine power does not fall. A variable resistance is connected to the frequency converter, which allows you to change the number of revolutions by the user. Connectivity to the converter is carried out according to the scheme, which is indicated on the instrument itself or in the manual for its operation. Turning on the voltage in the network is carried out by a conventional switch, which breaks the phase of the AC. Instead of the latter, it is better to install a machine on 10a, which will serve as an additional network protection.

Electric potted circle with her hands: Scheme, photo

How to make a potted circle with your own hands: video