Speedball Artista Pottery  Wheel

Speedball Artista pottery wheel

On July 30, 2016, I retired after 42 years of research as a grant funded researcher.  I received a Speedball Artista pottery wheel as my retirement gift. 

So far the Artista wheel has handled my throwing needs. My larger pieces are 16 lbs. My kiln limits to pieces to 14 inches diameter and 20 inches high so probably will never exceed the 25 lbs clay capacity of the wheel. The wheel has needed some repair but Speedball has made it right. The main problem is the set screws in the motor pulley have come loose every couple of months. I now know to check the set screws regularly and when the wheel is noisy. The foot petal plug is flimsy and recommend replacing with a 90 degree angle plug. I have also trimmed a frayed edge off the belt. 

Ideas and Hacks

1. The wheel bench is large enough for the wheel and a 1 gallon bucket of water for hands and tool washing. The buckets are old paint cans with the rim cut off with a can opener if the can was metal and pried off  if the can was plastic.  I am currently using a ome gallon plastic paint can because the metal rusted over time.  

2. Level wheel using bubble level by adjust legs of bench.

3. The wheel is bolted to throwing bench.

4. A small hand mirror placed hand thrown tool bowl (see below) and sets on the wheel shelf for viewing the back side of items being thrown. 

5. A foot pedal allows the wheel to be turned on and off hands free. Consider buying one but be aware the petal has poor speed control.

   1. A wood stop block was hot glued to the wheel pedal face to set the ideal throwing speed. Spacer strips were added to the block to fine tune the speed to 90 rpm.  A "rpm meter app" for cellphone was used to measure the speed. For my throwing skills, 90 rpm works well for centering, 40 to 60 rpm for throwing and 60 to 90 rpm for trimming. The addition of the stop block reduces accidental changes in speed that damage the piece.