Electric Throwing Wheel from Repurposed Bucket, Ceiling Fan Motor, and Sewing Machine Regulator for Pottery Demonstration

: The cost of electric potters’ throwing wheel keeps soaring high even when throwing yet a course that firmly exists and is valued in the ceramic production process besides other forming techniques in art/design schools. The challenge herewith is the need to look for cheaper alternative electric throwing wheels through local fabrication to alleviate the impending high cost of imported ones and the general scarcity of potter’s wheels for demonstration in a simple ceramic studio setting by improvising available materials. The experimental-based methodology was deployed by sourcing and assembling the required components – an electric potter's wheel using a sewing machine regulator, iron bucket and basin, German plywood ½ inch, 1inch screw nails, bolts, and nuts, and 3 pin plug head. The principles of the ‘development cycle’ and the ‘rotational kinetic energy (RKE’ were adopted. The results of the study revealed that: the electric has the capacity speed of 200rovulation per minute (rpm) sufficient to center a-2kg of a well-prepared mass of leather hard clay - 50 rpm cylinders and bowls of various heights and widths up to 6" (height) and 5" (width) are viable; the repurposing of the conventional functions of the water bucket and fan the provision of air into an electric throwing wheel was successful. In conclusion, the study showed some success. The recommendations of the study include thus: further improvement as the focus of this one (project) is primarily to proffer a concept even though the topic is relevant to both product and service design; adoption of improvisation through repurposing for the mass construction of wheels as an alternative to the costly imported ones should be encouraged.


Types of Wheels and How They Work: The Principle
said two types of foot-powered wheels exist: kick wheels and treadle wheels. And that each of them: the kick wheel works by kicking the flywheel in a specific rhythm, which powers the wheel head, and uses a heavy flywheel that stores energy as it speeds up when propelled by your foot. The treadle wheel uses a lever with a mechanism that turns a shaft with a weighted flywheel. The main components of most kick wheels include a steel frame, an adjustable seat, reinforced cast concrete flywheel, cast metal wheel head, and wood metal or composite work surface. The author said though the wheels can be powered by foot, some models come with an electric motor option, however, flywheels weigh between 120 and 140 pounds, and the motors easily maintain momentum after the flywheel is turning. Conversely, the treadle pottery wheel is easier to operate than the kick pottery wheel as the left foot is used to rock a treadle, rather than in a kicking motion, which rely on a foot-powered treadle mechanism to drive a flywheel. They once were common in English and American potteries and more lately mass-produced for both school and private studios (Jonathan, 2014). The author further said that the ubiquitous type is a sit-down version based on a design refined by Bernard Leach at the beginning of the 20th century; a legendary among potters who prefer the nonelectric wheel, probably because of the body exercises achieved while throwing compared to the electric wheel that is propelled by an electric motor; though does not need any manual meddling, but requires concentration completely on the work while the hands are doing. Berg (2020) averred that wheel coiling RKE is applied to a vessel originally made of coils and can be introduced at different stages of the forming process. And while pots are made by coiling and then thinned or smoothed on the potter's wheel at its most basic, a coil is added and 'thrown' at its most advanced. Common features mirror those of wheel-thrown pots, nonetheless are less nonstop and regular. The potter's wheel runs at speeds sufficiently high to develop RKE which is used by the potter to pull up and shape the clay with bilateral movements the author added. Although most potting activities fall within a range of 50-120 rpm, however, the author attested that both can reach a maximum speed of 220-230 rotations per minute (rpm). The author went further to say that a simple wheel consists of one single, a heavy wheel that serves both as the flywheel and the putting surface, which is activated by either a stick or hand -either by the potter or an assistant. And the momentum is stored in the heavy wheel and steadily slow down as the potter works; a pivoting axis is set in the ground, depending on its length, which may also need stabilizing. Although improvisation is often viewed as the second-best solution to design problems according to the foregoing authors, however, it is still crucial to developing nations such as Nigeria, whose technology is hitherto at an infant stage. The problem of the study includes thus: the theoretical knowledge with no hands-on experience by a significant number of ceramic students who despite the advantages of using electric throwing wheels are deprived of due to their short in supply, the high cost due to the harsh policies on importation by the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the lack of synergy among the departments (for example, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and industrial design) in the school of technology that disfranchises productive alliances such as leveraging the fabrication of local machines. The main aim of the study is to repurpose a bucket, ceiling fan motor, and sewing machine regulator for the construction of an electric potter's wheel for studio demonstration, to alleviate their scarcity for demonstration in formal institutions of learning apprenticeship. Improvisation of a prototype potter's electric wheel (PEW); inspire the lifeforce of improvisation through conceptualization; provide wheels that are affordable and operational by a simple generator when electric supply (national grid) fails during the demonstration; revalidation of some principles: rotational kinetic energy (RKE) by Berg (2020) and Development Cycle by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler (2015); motivate and enhance entrepreneurial development among ceramics and engineering graduates that might explore it as means of livelihood. This will reduce unemployment, which in turn minimizes restiveness as well as other vices among especially the youth; and enhance local technology which is achieved through the following objectives: i. conceptualize design via drawings of an adaptable prototype design of electric wheel; ii.
identify bucket, sewing machine accelerator/pedal, and ceiling as viable components; iii. assemble of the components; and iv.
Assess the performance of the electricity of the prototype PEW.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The materials used in this project include a ceiling fan motor, sewing machine regulator, iron buckets, German plywood ½ inch, 1inch screw nails, bolts and nuts, and 3-pin plug heads sourced from within the Yola metropolis.

METHODOLOGY
The experimental method was deployed for the setup given the idea of repurposing via assemblage while adopting the principles of the Development Cycle by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler (2015), which advocates four stages of creation known as requirements, design, development for any successful product, and testing, and the principle by Berg (2020) that states that the potter's wheel runs at speeds sufficiently high to develop RKE for the potter to pull up and shape the clay with two-sided movements. First Step: Concept Development -The fabrication procedures began with design as planning and making that determines the success via how product design (Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary, 2013); see Figure I. This was attained through concept development -from brainstorming on the selection of viable component parts to their assemblage into an electric wheel prior testing the final experimental setup as opined by Lidwell, Holden and Butler (2015).

Second
Step -The freehand drawings were drawn and redrawn using a computer for better clarity. The drawings include the labeling and dimensioning of the different parts of the components (see Figure 2). Also, a design that an iterative process and design thinking and client brief to finished work (Ambrose and Harris, 2010) was adopted how ideas are translated to the stages of the decision on the material to be used for the electric wheel.

Figure 1: Freehand drawing of parts
Third Step: Assemblage -The stage of development culminates with the adoption of design specifications transformed into an actual product in accordance to Lidwell, Holden, and Butler (2015) as seen in Figure 2a-f by selecting components in a detailed and meaningful way from product concepts, concept testing applied to the developed product concepts in line with Gurbuz's (2018) adopted for this project by the researchers who were exposed to the components (a: ceiling fan head (motor); b: wheel head; c: wheel head mounted on ceiling fan head; d: iron bucket turned facing downward; e:1 inch plywood; and f: assembled parts that formed the electric potter's wheel) based the selection of appropriate ones for this project. The Plates 1-3 were finally composed into an electric potter's wheel as seen in Plate 4, translated from Figure 2f.