How to Make a Flywheel for Throwing Pottery
A flywheel is the wheel that the potter kicks in order to move the pottery wheel. This part of the pottery wheel helps to create an even, circular movement for the wheel so the creations are symmetrical. You can create a flywheel with materials that you can buy from lumberyards and hardware supply stores.
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Things You'll Need
- Plywood
- Yardstick
- Pencil
- String
- Tack
- Saw
- Drill
- Epoxy glue
- Four U-bolts, lock washers and nuts
- Oil
- Wooden dowels
- Four 5 by ½ bolts
- Tar paper
Instructions
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Measure the center of a 24-inch-by-24-inch piece of plywood with a yardstick. Use a pencil and piece of string as a compass. Attach the string to the middle of the plywood with a tack and attach the string to the pencil. Stretch the pencil to the edge of the plywood and draw a 23-inch circle. Take the tack out of the middle of the plywood. Cut out the circle with a saw. Drill a hole in the center of the plywood disk.
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Attach the bottom pulley wheel two inches from the bottom of the shaft with an arc welder or two-part epoxy glue. Locate the pulley perpendicularly so that your wheel will run smoothly. Allow the epoxy glue to harden for 24 hours if you use this material to attach the pulley wheel. Use four 2-inch U-bolts (metal bolts in the shape of a U) to attach the plywood disk to the pulley wheel through the spokes of the pulley wheel and through the disk. Secure the U-bolts with lock washers and nuts.
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Drill four 5/8-inch holes in the disk, one in each quadrant of the disk. Make a mold with tar paper about 7 inches high around the plywood disk. Tack the tar paper with thumbtacks around the edge of the disc. Oil the holes so that you can easily take out the dowels after you pour the cement. Cut four 12-inch sections of 5/8-inch dowel and place these dowels in the already-drilled holes in the disk.
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Set up a jig to hold the shaft and disk assembly before you pour the cement. Have someone else support the assembly and mix about four to five inches of the cement into the tar paper mold. Pour the cement evenly and closely around the shaft in the center. Slide the top pulley wheel over the shaft and embed this up to the top of the pulley section in the cement.
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Tighten the set screw of the top pulley into the vertical shaft and epoxy this screw into the shaft. Remove the dowels before the cement begins to harden and replace these with four 5 by ½ bolts. Let the cement dry around the bolts. Tear away the tar paper from the cement. Epoxy the pulley wheel to the cement if you want additional adhesiveness and strength of the wheel.
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Tips & Warnings
Wear safety goggles and gloves whenever you do shop work to prevent injuries.
References
Resources
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