Potter's Throwing Gauge

[Bill Satko]

I made this throwing gauge based on pictures and rudimentary dimensions that I found on a London potter's website. I estimated most of the measurements based on the pictures and drew it up in SketchUp. I had designed the actual pointers to be composed of three 1/8" thick pieces (plywood) that would be cut and then glued together. I would highly recommend in doing it this way and NOT the way I did. I made them out of a single piece and then had to hand saw the slot and chisel it out.

I used binding screws from a kit I got from Amazon. I initially bought 70 Shore A rubber from Amazon but found it to be too stiff, so I bought 60 Shore A rubber instead and I think it works better.

I also suggest getting a leather punch to cut the rubber. I had to improvise and use a paper hole cutter we had. Not the best way.

If anyone is interested, I could forward my primitive SketchUp. After a little cleanup of course. I just sketch enough to get by and don't get very fancy with my models.

The most enjoyable part for me was cutting out the tenon and mortise joint that joins the upright to the base. Except for the routing of the slot and drilling of some holes, most all this work was done by hand.

 

[Darren Wright]

Nice work Bill! I’ll have to add one to my project list.

 

[glenn bradley]

That is a beaut. I threw pottery for most of high school but never saw such a thing. Probably because we were just making strings of one-offs that didn't really have to match each other or anything else.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Very nice work, Bill. I never knew such a device existed.

I find a certain amount of humorous irony in the fact that you use a computerized tool to create sketches of a project that you ultimately build primarily with hand tools. I suspect the cabinetmakers and pattern makers of old would have done the same thing if something like Sketchup was available back then.