Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics
Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
Dale Savoie's Do-It-Yourself Slab Roller
Dale Savoie's Do-It-Yourself Slab Roller. This video on the Ceramic Arts Daily Website gives an excellent overview of a cable tensioned slab roller that anyone with a set of woodworking tools and basic skills could construct. At the end of the video is his email address so you can contact him for construction details.
I would guess the cost for materials for the slab roller shown would be around $150, but that is strictly a guess. I have a smaller steel framed slab roller that operates the same. Admittedly these rollers are not as great as the high end commercial rollers, they are marvelous when compared to rolling out clay with a rolling pin.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Marla Stroup on
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I saw this video and we are in the process of making our own. We happened to have a metal table frame to use and the foundation for the roller so it is slightly different from the one Dale shows on YouTube. We're to the point of cutting the 3" PVC for the rollers. Stringing the cable is going to be a challenge!
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Here's a photo of our finished slab roller. We started with the video on YouTube you mentioned but had a metal table frame for our base. It works very well and didn't cost $$$$.
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Permalink Reply by George Lewter on
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That looks great, Marla. Thank you for sharing your results.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa LaBarge on
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I just watched the video on making your own slab roller. Amazing! Are the plans available?
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If you email Dale he will send you some plans but they are not very detailed. They are enough to work with though and will get you headed in the right direction. I love my slab roller and wouldn't want to be without it! If you have questions as you go along just let me know if I can help.
Good luck!
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I built a slab roller following Dales plans carefully and my costs were between $150 and $200. I am very happy with the results and find the tool to be sturdy and very useful in my studio. If anyone has questions about the project I'm happy to fill in any gaps. Dale has worked hard on the plans. His site at www.mypotterytools.com/index.html is where the plans are located. You can also download the plans from my blog at www.mudismymedium.com I also just uploaded a video of my slab-roller to the video archive at http://cone6pots.ning.com/video/home-made-slab-roller
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Thanks I appreciate your help. Tim, I visited your website and loved your dragonflies. I tried this shellac method and found that the shellac would peel -especially if the design had small places. Am I just not putting enough shellac on the design areas? Have you ever tried wax as a resist? Love the results but wanted cleaner lines than I got when I was doing it.
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Hi Lisa - The shellac resist technique was a lark for me. I tried it out on the two pots you saw in my photos, but my experience is very limited. I applied the shellac in one or two coats to bone hard clay and allowed it to dry. I then used a soft sponge to slowly remove the clay around the design. You have to work away from the resisted area with the sponge. I did a very little bit of abrasion with a pin tool to dislodge any pieces of grog that stood proud around the design. The edges were actually too sharp when I was done, and I broke the edge after bisque with a small grinding stone to allow a smooth break to the glaze. I've worked with wax resist for glaze resist, but not for surface decoration like this.
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