How to Make a DIY Pottery Wheel | I Like To Make Stuff

We built a working pottery wheel for $200! It works great, come see how we did it!

TOOLS & SUPPLIES WE USED (affiliate links):

For this project I knew that I needed a motor that had a lot of torque to handle the forces applied to the clay. I found a small DC motor meant as a replacement for Hover Boards. I could control this whole system with an off-the-shelf motor driver unit that allowed the wheel to increase in speed and change direction. Knowing that the motor's RPM was too high for conventional pottery throwing, Josh came up with a pulley reduction to slow the motor down.

From the motor, we attached a 1.5" pulley that drives a 10" pulley with a v-belt. The 10" pulley has a drive shaft through the center that will spin the pottery plate, called a bat. I mounted all of this to a piece of 3/4" plywood and drilled holes for some bearings that the drive shaft would go through.

Now that I had the drive system attached to a platform, I flipped that piece over so that it would all be under the working surface. I cut some simple 2x4 legs and arranged them in a triangular pattern so that you could center the pat between your legs. I mounted the motor driver system to the rear of that platform and cut a simple shelf that will be attached later.

The bat is the super flat surface on which the clay is worked. Looking online, I could only find bats that fit on a pottery wheel's existing spinning surface, none would fit onto the drive shaft that we made. Without an inexpensive commercial solution, we decided just to make our own bat. I decided to use a thick plastic cutting board and CNC out the pieces we needed.

Josh modeled up the circular bat as well as a coupling that would lock into the drive shaft and fit into the underside of the spinning plate. With a little bit of filing the pieces fit together perfectly. I locked the coupling to the drive shaft with a nail and some epoxy. The bat fit snuggly down over the key in the coupling and the whole system worked perfectly.

To ensure that there was enough support under the bat, I added some bearing casters that the bat could ride on top of. I quickly noticed that we had to add a rubbery gasket the the bottom to buffer the sound of the bat riding on the casters. This greatly reduced the noise level and I was really happy with the result.

Everything was coming together and the pottery wheel was working surprisingly well. One thing that needed to be addressed was the slight wobble in the bat. Because we could trace every connection back to its origin, we found that the 10" flywheel and the drive shaft weren't quite straight. Luckily, we didn't screw down the plate holding the opposite end of the drive shaft just yet.

Josh and I were able to work together to slightly adjust the flywheel and shaft position underneath so that they were perfectly square, which resulted in a tracked bat up above. All that was left was to use a lathe tool to score in some reference centering lines on the bat surface so you know where to center the clay.

Although I have no idea how to properly use a pottery wheel, my wife and her friends do. One of my wife's friends is a professional potter and came by to test out the wheel. She seamlessly began molding and shaping a lump of clay into an awesome bowl. I asked her about the speed, the control, and the tracking, and she said that it performed just like a commercial pottery wheel.

We were all taken back ever time she used the word "perfect" when comparing our $200 pottery wheel to ones you can buy for upwards of $1,000. I hope this video inspired you to trying something that you've always had an interest in. More specifically, if that interest has an expensive barrier to entry, look at making some of the equipment yourself, it can be just as rewarding.

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About I Like To Make Stuff:

We have lots of projects including woodworking, metalworking, electronics, 3D printing, prop making and more!

These videos are our attempt inspire and empower others to make the stuff that they want to have. Hopefully you'll see something here that will inspire you to make something that you're passionate about!

How to Make a DIY Pottery Wheel | I Like To Make Stuff

[Iliketomakestuff]

We ended up NOT gluing down the bat so that it's removable. That way cleaning isn't an issue. The couple holds it in place just fine with out glue 👍🏼

[aaronsadowski]

I own a pottery shop and use wheels all the time. One of the most helpful things to have is a rack to hold your sculpting tools, you should add one.

[AmandaJohnson]

Waiting on the tutorial for building a kiln!

[askariana]

"I was able to throw on some clay and turn it into a thing that I wanted to make and I call that a win". I will live the rest of my life by this.

[WoodChuckCreations]

Great job! A sewing machine pedal should work the same way as well

[carltonlee]

I'm probably never going to do pottery, but dang if I didn't watch the whole thing and learn something new. Troubleshooting the problems are the best part in videos like these.

[PolicePubliCallBox]

Girlfriend is a ceramicist, so I’ve spent some time on a wheel. You’re going to regret not being able to remove the bat or the tub that catches the water. They’ll both get gross quit, and not being able to remove the bat will keep you from easily removing whatever you just made. That being said, you can easily make bats to drop onto the one you have. Drill two holes into the bat you have, then make another bat with two holes in the same place. Put some pins through both bats and you’re good to go.

[scotthaun]

i like how you made the birds mouth joinery. super simple but i would have been trying to do trigonometry to figure out the angles.

[Phyre.hazurd]

Thanks for the tip with the knife to prevent tear out on plywood, I'll be sure to use that one in the future.

[earlye]

Perfect timing. I was just looking around youtube yesterday for "how to make a diy pottery wheel, " and then one of my favorite maker channels answers the question :D

[nasebear]

Hi there. Cool project.
The cake pan/splash guard: you may want to revise it a bit. You’re going to need to remove it to dump the water or wait for the clay to soak up and dry out the water and then reach under and pull out the clay that falls in the pan.
If you look at commercial wheels, the splash guard is made in two interlocking pieces and are removable for cleaning and removal of clay. Otherwise, you will have clay, that you cannot see, building up under the bat. It doesn’t necessarily need to be circular just big enough for the water and clay to fall into.

[williammarshall]

I learned so much from the B-roll in this video alone! I'm not an active woodworker but I'd love to be one day and I would have never thought to use the clamps to support the stringers from the underside while attaching them. I also never thought about with a pocket hole jig to make sure your bit will fit right by placing the bit in the jig and sliding the work piece into it. Great stuff Bob and team! Thanks for awesome content that I can still learn from even after following you for the last 2.5 years.

[chainbraindg]

I've been wanting to build a pottery wheel for a while now but did dedicate the time to doing the research and creating a parts list. Thanks for doing all the hard work!

[JrsyMk]

My new tip from this was using a clamp to act as a stop when screwing in a piece of wood. Simple, useful!

[indeliblyronnie]

Probably my favorite ILTMS video yet. Great job. I think you've inspired me to look into making one myself.

[ryanh]

I’ve been thinking about making one for a long time. My wife is into pottery so you’ve inspired me to make one for her! Thanks!

[jeffreynerdin]

Thank you for this. I’ve been meaning to make a pottery wheel for my daughter using an old commercial sewing machine motor. Your video showed me how to solve a few problems that I hadn’t worked out yet. Now maybe it will actually be done. Much appreciated. I agreed with some critiques below, but I should acknowledge that you actually MADE a pottery wheel, whereas I’ve just been planning to make one for the past year and a half, so what you actually made is infinitely more productive and efficient than the nothing that I’ve actually made. Kudos.

[paulgeier]

i love this kind of build and using the stuff on hand or get at hardware store good build bring more like this THANKS GENTLEMEN

[nitchmakes]

My father has always been interested in pottery.

I also have always wanted to learn how to add electronics into projects. This may be a cool project that him and I could work on this summer.

Another great video, thanks Bob

[JPA]

Awesome man. This is why I love your channel. I do remodeling by trade and am familiar with a lot that you do, but you come up with ideas for projects that I would never think could be diy. Great job. Pro tip. When sealing a screw hole, dab the sealant onto the surface first, then the object you're attaching (your bearing) then screw through the sealant. Guaranteed, every time. Great job man. Thanks 👍🏾