Leach Treadle Wheel Explanation

Описание: Want to know everything about a Leach style Treadle Wheel for pottery? I put together some helpful info to help if you are planning on building one. I made this with a person in mind, but think others might benefit from it too.

This type of wheel is the cream of the crop for throwing casual pottery. As a huge bonus, it uses no electricity to run. It is all leg-powered fun! It is an intimidating build, that I think just about anyone can accomplish with a bit of gumption and a bit of hiring out for machining and welding.

Here are a few tips:
1. Neither the all-hardwood nor painted pine treadle have mortise/tenon joinery in the smaller 2x4 supports, and I have not noticed that it needs them. Both however use them in the "T" frame with the thicker wood stock. These parts are the major support part of the wheel, use mortise and tenons here. This can be accomplished with simple chisels and a mallet, or to make things go much quicker use a table saw for the tenon and forstner bits for the mortising (using a chisel to clean out the rectangles better).
2. Have the wheel head, once fully seated, sit just a hair proud of the slop tray/box in order to use larger bats in the future. If it is proud, you will have no issues using large bats. If the wheel head sits lower, then you will most likely need to make bats with risers in them or multiple bats.
3. When making the flywheel, don't forget to mark the center of the circles before they are circles or it gets a bit complicated. And never lose those centers whilst making the flywheel!

I made this video very quickly, it's not perfect, but I think it fits the bill for filling in some strange missing information regarding treadle wheels that initially stumped me when trying to complete my first wheel.

You can do this! And be prepared to have some pitfalls and creative problem solving.

Phill

www.phillipschmidtpottery.com