Throwing left, right and seldom center!

"KSL" wrote in message
u...
Bubbles


It's many years since I did any throwing and I have never seen this
'screw' method for steadying bats - I used a ring of clay with no other
mechanical retention.

I have done a bit of Google searching and this is what I understand from
the descriptions;

There are holes drilled through the wheel, into which are screwed
cap-screws (round-headed bolts with a hex). The bats have holes drilled
through them that correspond with the heads of cap-screws. When the bat
is placed on the wheel the screws stabilise the bat.

If this is all correct and the holes in your bats are now oversize, then
the solution seems obvious. Drill new, correct size, holes in the bats.

No much to complicated, like Celeste recommended just pad it out with some
fairly stiff clay. Works a treat for me. I use bats all the time, I hate
working directly on the wheel head.

I second using a Batgrabber, we've tried them out and think they're
excellent. I've used them on the wheelhead without pins, and provided
you back off on the muscle power a bit they work really well.

Steve
Bath
UK


In article 42db738a.528.41@news2, gmccord
writes
Two things to try
1. Use a clay bat ring instead of the pins
Take about 1/2 pound of wedged clay & center it on the
wheelhead. Open it to the wheeelhead and slowly make a ring
about 1/2 inch wide that is slightly smaller than the
diameter of yur bat. Pinch the clay between you fingers and
thumb holding your thumb steady and let the clay go up.
Then, press down on the clay, holding the inside of the ring
steady to let the clay move out from the senter of the
wheel. Just repeat this a few times until you get the ring
the size you want. It should be about 3/8 inch high when
you're done. Place a dry bat on the ring, tap it in the
center a few times & you're goo d to go.

2. Batgrabber
You can buy a batgrabber at www.batgrabber.com that is
placed under your bat. It's a rubber-ish material that will
hold the bat from moving . It also seems to do a great job
of helping with warped bats as well.

Good Luck!



Hi folks!

I am finally back at my wheel after many months not being
able to use it for one reason or another.

I realize that it will take me a while to get "the
feeling" back, but in the mean time, I have a rotten
dilemma.
If I throw on my wooden bats (I have 2), the holes are
slightly bigger than the screws, so the whole bat goes
kachung-kachung as I am trying to center - so I can't
center. I put some toothpicks into the spaces, but it
still seems as if the bat is not "solid".

If I throw directly on the wheel, I center pretty good and
can make "something" - but!!!! When it comes time to take
my work off the wheel, I use my "topfheber"
(http://www.michel.ch/michel/images_k...toepferscheibe
/topfheber.jpg), I end up making the nice round pot
crooked somehow :-(
Any tips/suggestions would be gratefully read and tried!

Marianne



--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK

"Steve Mills" wrote in message
...
I second using a Batgrabber, we've tried them out and think they're
excellent. I've used them on the wheelhead without pins, and provided
you back off on the muscle power a bit they work really well.

I bet you bought your's from Bath Pottery Supplies! :-)

I have just sent them an e-mail asking how much they would charge to send a
pair to me here in Zurich. Would be fun to try!

Marianne

Steve Mills wrote:
I second using a Batgrabber, we've tried them out and think they're
excellent. I've used them on the wheelhead without pins, and provided
you back off on the muscle power a bit they work really well.

Steve
Bath
UK


But why are they nearly double the price here in the UK ??

Bubbles

You *won't* go through lots of bats. You may drill many holes, but a bat
can have quite a few holes in it before you need to discard it.

The only reason for buying the new bat is to act as a template for you to
drill (or have someone else drill) new holes in your old bats.

When you say that "sooner or later" the new holes will become too big,
exactly what time frame do you have in mind? If you have to drill new holes
every six or twelve months, that is hardly a problem. Given the time it
takes for the pot to dry to leather hard, at which stage you can 'release'
the bat back into use, I can't imagine that you would have to drill too many
holes.

As Steve mentioned, it is also probably worthwhile getting new screws,
assuming you can get the old ones out without too much trouble.

Ken Lipworth

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

Hehe!

The thing is that all holes will sooner or later become too big, since the
edges of the screws will kind of file the holes every time you put the bat
on the wheel - so I would go through a lot of bats if I didn't find a
sollution to the loose bat problem.

Too complicated???

If Bubbles gave me her two old bats and new bat, I'd have the four new
holes drilled in the old bats in under 60 seconds!!

How complicated is it to drill two holes?

Ken



"Xtra News" wrote in message
...

"KSL" wrote in message
u...
Bubbles


If this is all correct and the holes in your bats are now oversize, then
the solution seems obvious. Drill new, correct size, holes in the bats.




No much to complicated, like Celeste recommended just pad it out with some
fairly stiff clay. Works a treat for me. I use bats all the time, I hate
working directly on the wheel head.

"KSL" wrote in message
...
Too complicated???

If Bubbles gave me her two old bats and new bat, I'd have the four new
holes drilled in the old bats in under 60 seconds!!

How complicated is it to drill two holes?

Ken

You have to make sure that they are the right size, placed in exactly the
right spot, you have to have your drill and your drill bits handy.
Clay is just there, it takes 10 seconds, I use a little clay around pins to
secure batts all the time whether they are loose or not, last thing you want
is a batt flying off. )

In article .com, Jack
Ouzzi writes


Steve Mills wrote:
I second using a Batgrabber, we've tried them out and think they're
excellent. I've used them on the wheelhead without pins, and provided
you back off on the muscle power a bit they work really well.

Steve
Bath
UK


But why are they nearly double the price here in the UK ??

It costs a reasonable amount of money to import stuff from the USA, to
which Import Duty is always added!
Dealer's discounts help, but any profit margin also has to take into
account the fluctuating values of the currencies involved. It is very
easy to *catch a cold*!

--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK

Steve Mills wrote:
In article .com, Jack
Ouzzi writes
But why are they nearly double the price here in the UK ??

It costs a reasonable amount of money to import stuff from the USA, to
which Import Duty is always added!

Ooooh Eck, Thanks Steve !!

Could paint a painting on the bat and call it art. Art is duty free.
:^)

--
Lee Love
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs

"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

-- Prospero The Tempest
Shakespeare