Slowing a motor on a potter’s wheel

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

Epicyclic gearbox inside the driving pulley – Would that work ? No motor change or layshafts required.

The driving pulley would have to be large enough to accommodate the gearbox, which would speed up the wheel, but the high gearbox reduction would make up for that.

However; are epicyclic gearboxes available which will turn the output in the same direction to its input ?

 

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

I’ve just found out that epicyclic axial gearboxes are available whose output rotation is in the same direction as their input rotation.

So if the smaller pulley still results in a wheel that is rotating too fast, you could fit a suitable epicyclic gearbox onto the motor shaft, and fix the drive pulley onto that. No layshafts, no brackets, no new motor, no VFD with all the wiring.

I think you would need one simple metal strap to stop the gearbox outer ring rotating.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Sturmey Archer bike wheel 3 speed gearbox ??

[Speedy Builder5]

On Speedy Builder5 Said:

Sturmey Archer bike wheel 3 speed gearbox ??

That wouldn’t mount directly on the shaft. Much as I love the SA SW3, it isn’t really suitable for this application. It would be difficult to affix a small pulley to the hub body (I’m already down to 43mm pulley). Also likely to overheat with the high speeds involved. I suppose . . . no, stop that!

(anything involving old bicycle parts is tempting, but probably foolish)

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Washing machines have epicyclic gearboxes made to take that sort of loading. They run direct drive for spin dry but if the outer housing is restrained (by a brake in the washing machine, but by solid mounting otherwise), the reduction gearing for the agitator takes over. You would need a gearbox from a more modern washer that uses a reversing motor for the back and forth motion. Older washers had a complex mechanical reversing mechanism in the gearbox. Probably not good for potters!

If you already have a 43mm pulley and want to go slower, Poly-V belt conversion would be the way to go. You could easily get down to 25mm pulley with Poly V. But the big pulley could be expensive.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

I hope you watched the Repair Shop  BBC1  20:00 4/09/2024.

Bob

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

Hopper,

Have a look at my post on this thread 23/08 @11:57 regarding the large pulley. He could be in luck and make a plain pulley from the existing one.

Speedy Builder5

Yes I did. The belt looked very slack but perhaps he adjusted it before the final demo. Otherwise pretty much like the OP’s set-up so was that wheel going too fast ?

[mrcharlyParticipant @mrcharly]

Reporting back:

The (very fussy) potter has now used the wheel to throw about 20 items.

She reports that it is quieter and smoother (the lower speed just happens to be outside of the speed band that was causing resonance).

The lower speed is “just about ok, but it would be better if it were ever slower”.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

It’s probably a bit late to post on the thread, but would your better half be happy with a Leech Wheel, modified to have a steel section fame and adjustable height bicycle saddle seat?

SWMBO is planning to pass her’s on in the near future and it would be good to sell it to someone who made use of it (after the work I did in replacing Simon Leech’s original wooden frame with something that could  be disassembled to fit through doorways 😀 )

In Rugby.

[mrcharly]

On mrcharly Said:

[…] The lower speed is “just about ok, but it would be better if it were ever slower”. […]

Which, dare I mention [?] gets us nicely back to the opening question  … which some of us answered instead of coming-up with ‘better’ ideas.

MichaelG.

[Mark Rand]

On Mark Rand Said:

It’s probably a bit late to post on the thread, but would your better half be happy with a Leech Wheel, modified to have a steel section fame and adjustable height bicycle saddle seat?

SWMBO is planning to pass her’s on in the near future and it would be good to sell it to someone who made use of it (after the work I did in replacing Simon Leech’s original wooden frame with something that could  be disassembled to fit through doorways 😀 )

In Rugby.

My SWMBO is addicted to pottery tools, wheels and (to my eyes) experimenting with an endless variety of glazes.

She’s definitely interested in your partner’s Leech wheel. Maybe we should take this discussion to Private messages.

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