Reversing the direction of a wheel?

Some setups you can, others no. What kind of wheel are you proposing to modify? (Check it first, those that can be readily switched often have a reversible connector at some point for just that purpose.)

Why go through all this? Sell your wheel and buy a Shimpo that can go both ways. You can find them used if you're patient.

-nancy-

Many brands of wheels have a reverse switch these days, especially on higher end wheels. My Pacifica is reversible and many Brents are.

Re reversing a wheel - call the manufacturer. Most wheels use DC motors so, in theory at least, it should be fairly easy to reverse the motor direction. The manufacturer should be able to tell you how.

And under the catagory of unsolicited advice - there really is no need for a leftie to have a wheel that goes clockwise. Both hands are used almost equally when throwing. I have heard it said that there is some benefit to having your dominate hand on the outside when throwing vases, pitchers, etc. and on the inside when throwing bowls, but it's not really practical to switch back and forth. I'm a leftie and I throw with a std (at least in the US) counterclockwise wheel. Trimming is the only thing I think would actually be easier with a clockwise wheel as I could hold the trimming tool in my left hand. Centering is probably actually easier for me with a counterclockwise wheel as I can exert more force with my left arm that way.

deg

John,

Most AC induction motors (that is, motors with no brushes) can be made to rotate in the opposite direction by reversing the wires to the starting winding. This will involve accessing the wiring connections in the motor itself, and would be best left to an electrician or other specialist. If the motor uses brushes, it is probably a DC motor, and you can just reverse the wires to the motor.

(There are AC brush motors of course, as used in handtools, but I have never seen one used on a pottery wheel. These can be made to rotate in the reverse direction by reversing the wiring to the brushes only.)

But first make sure that the mechanical arrangement on your wheel will allow it to be driven on the reverse direction.

Dave

Thanks for the advice guys. I am just trying to determine what my option might be if I picked up a used wheel. As for being left handed versus right handed, I actually play a right handed guitar and find my left hand doing more elaborate things. I had one teacher start me off left handed and another suggest that I go right handed. I guess eventually I could learn either way.

Being terminally right handed I envy the ambidextrous, especially when my right hand is not functioning at 100 percent :-)

In a bygone era I messed around trying to learn to play guitar. What struck me as odd was that, as a right-hander, the left hand had the more difficult task. That was especially true for conventional beginner guitar, where the left has to tie itself into knots to hit all the right frets without touching the wrong strings, and the right just had to strum. But even after I gave up on chords and went for simple picking, it still seemed the left was the more important hand. After a while I decided that maybe this wasn't so strange after all, since the left hand is controlled more by the right brain, full of all those musical and artistic brain cells.

But I never did get very good at guitar....

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis