Stories
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The cross brace had to be high enough so that one did not hit one's shin when kicking the wheel. I did a curved notch there for a little extra clearance. Still the primary bracing would be in the front with that 1x12 rectangle of fir. I later replaced that with a 2x4 X same as the back. So that was blocked and stable. Now I needed to tie that to the second from the front up-rights with a horizontal cross brace that also acted as the top bearing holder.
The bearings I bought from Bearing Engineering which was on the north-east corner of what may have been Van Ness, Howard and South Van Ness. I always used the super heavy duty bearings which would support a whirling bus, and had a single grease lubrication nipple. I braced horizontally flush at the top the first and second up-rights with a slotted X brace and triangular shaped block to secure the upper bearing. Now I had a completely rigid frame solid as metal. I rounded all the external corners with a rasp and sanding and stained the whole thing dark walnut and finished with a coat of Urethane. Ultimately I had a completely original elegantly designed wheel which was excellent for the throwing of pots.
Building the wheels was only part of it. One had to buy clay. I would need a kiln, glaze materials, a scale to weigh out the glaze formulas, tools to work the clay and for throwing pots. Someone had already built sink traps for the double sink to keep the clay out of the drains.
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