The kickwheel that’s taken up so much of my valuable time the last two months or so is, essentially, fini.

Now if I only knew how to throw.

I’m not a potter, and haven’t ever really considered myself a potter, but being a ceramic artist I am still very interested in functional clay pieces. I used to be at least mediocre using a wheel, but I’ve quickly realized how out of practice I am with this behemoth in my garage.

I started out with the plans found via this link. I modified them as I needed and wanted to, but ended up with pretty much the same thing as the plans picture — a kickwheel that works but is very difficult to get situated into (too much bulky wood on either side of the seat). The following is a rundown of the project starting with a gallery.

The most difficult part of the project, in execution, was the flywheel assembly. The flywheel, shaft, wheel head and bearings took up a significant chunk of research and development, as it were.

The wheel head and shaft I had fabricated by a local machine shop. An aluminum collar with a key slot, and two threaded holes for bolts to go up against the key, was welded to the bottom of the wheel head. The axle is 1″ diameter stainless steel and slotted to receive the key in the collar welded to the wheel head. All of these parts, from what I was told, were from the machine shop’s scrap pile. The owner didn’t charge me in the end, chocking my request up to “a learning experience.” He’d originally planned on getting a piece of 1″ thick aluminum stock to fabricate the wheel head from, but what he gave me in the end was only about 3/8″. It’s not perfect either, but it works.

The bearings took a lot of time to track down. I ended up purchasing one pillow block bearing and one flange bearing from The Big Bearing Store. Both ended up being self-aligning, something I knew I wanted but was too ignorant to go after intentionally. After shipping, they cost about $30. Also note the black wire at the bottom of the back of the finished wheel. This is an extension tube for a grease gun going to the flange bearing underneath the flywheel.

The bearings were secured with 3″ self drilling lag bolts.

The cast concrete flywheel used roughly 180 pounds of [dry] cement. The flywheel was cast in a form made of 1/8″ thick by 7″ wide masonite screwed to a circular piece of 3/4″ thick by 24″ diameter plywood. I cast the thing in place, and before doing so caulked the seams to keep concrete from running down around the bearings (this was probably unnecessary, but I was taking every precaution this first time around).

I drilled holes through the axle and inserted a variety of steel rods laying around my studio that were in our house when we bought it. These are what tie the flywheel and axle together.

Underneath the flywheel, the axle goes through the flange bearing and rests on a 3/8″ ball bearing which rests on the end of a 5/16″ steel rod. I cupped the end of the rod slightly with a drill to receive the bearing and filled the 1 1/8″ cavity around the bearing with grease. The rod goes to the floor so that the weight of the flywheel isn’t pressing into the lumber.

Further, I drilled two holes in a washer which I screwed to the bottom of the flywheel — into the plywood that was part of the stay-in-place form. The washer rests on top of the flange bearing. This was also a last second bit of paranoia on my part, trying to keep all of the weight of the flywheel from being solely on the 3/8″ bearing — mainly so it wouldn’t push through the bottom. That said, I don’t like the idea of all of the weight being only on that flange bearing either. Hopefully it’s equally distributed to both. Casting in place allowed me to be sure the axle was resting on the ball bearing and that the washer was resting on the flange bearings. Putting the force on both will also help moving the thing around, if the thing can actually be lifted up!

The mechanism works very nicely; now we hope that it lasts. The flywheel is not perfectly round but seems to be balanced well enough. I cut the plywood for the form with my jigsaw; if I had a jig, I would have used my router for a perfect circle. Next time.

The framing is self explanatory in the pictures, methinks. Ten 2×4s cost me about $21, but a lot of the wood was salvaged from my own stash. A variety of wood screws hold the framing together. The framing for the seat is problematic, as I already mentioned, and I may change it as I have time. The old tractor seat I bought on Ebay for $20 (which included shipping). It swivels thanks to Lazy Susan hardware from Lowe’s ($5). Silver spray paint cleaned up the rusty seat and sealed the shelf behind the wheel head.

I may also move the seat after using the thing a few times. I have a feeling it’s a little too high and too forward right now.

When I was almost finished with this project — as fun as it was to figure out and put together — I almost regretted all of the time it took. I could have been using that time to work on sculptures, those precious and fleeting hours that go scampering by. But I’m glad to have a functioning wheel, and imagine it will get some good use by myself and my friends by the end of the year. If I can get back into practice so I can teach them.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, I would probably do this differently the second time around, using a much more simple and accessible cross for a frame like you see on the left side of this page.