Pottery Wheel Manufacturers

This is a little blog for people trying to identify early makes of pottery wheels in Australia and information about maintenance and possible repairs.

See my other page for information about Venco wheels.

Alsager wheels made by Podmore in the UK. In my opinion the king of wheels but cost around $5000 . I had the chance to buy one of these in pristine condition from someone who brought it here from England. I passed it up in the end because I thought it was too heavy. Always regretted that. Graham Suttor from Palmwoods pottery had one and I learnt to throw on it in the mid seventies.

Brent

Brent.Made in USA. Very good quality and a full range of parts and repair videos available for the B, C, CXC models. Older A model has limited parts available. A good wheel, I have an older C model and a new CXC.

Cowley

Cowley wheels made in NZ. These wheels are still being made and are popular in England. Parts are still available and the motor is a standard split phase 240V motor. Very sturdy. The top two pictures are of an older Cowley that I refurbished a few years ago.

Doall

FACT

Jonwig

Jumping Jack

L-E-C

LEC information

Karklen

KRAUS

Kraus wheel information

MiniMerv

Shimpo

Shimpo wheels are made in Japan and many were imported into Australia. There was a model made under license in Australia for a while in the 1970’s. Most parts are still available from Krueger Pottery in the USA. Motors and forward/reverse switches are not available but can be sourced from other manufacturers. The used mitsubishi and hitachi motors, mostly 1/4 horsepower. Up until the late eighties they were cone drive with pulley belt. They changed to a traction drive setup after that which are, apparently very difficult to repair. A good source of information on repairing Shimpo is Shimpo RK 2 Restoration group on Facebook._

Talisman

Talisman. Made in NZ from plywood. Spare parts such as replacement drive wheel rubber and pulley belt are available from CCG in Wellington NZ. Used Compton Parkinson motor and replacement motor would be relatively easy to source. A good one of these is equivalent in value to a Cowley or Venco.

Tetlow

Tetlow were made in Melbourne and were good gear. Heaps of them were made in the day and I come across them fairly regularly. I had one for a while that worked well. There is someone on the south coast NSW who apparently has some replacement drive wheels. Can be worth buying if the drive wheel and motor are in good condition. A bit more difficult to work on than Venco

Underside of a beautifully restored Tetlow.

Photo showing a Tetlow drive wheel that is still in good condition. 2023

Tetlow drive wheel and motor. Used mostly Australian made Betts motors same as early Venco.

Ward

Oddballs and don’t knows

Unknown

Aussie made.

Unknown

Unknown, possibly home made.

Unknown

Unknown wheel belonging to Genie Cassis. An ingenious method of turning a sit down wheel into a stand up using a bar clamp. Thought at first it might have been an early Cowley wheel from NZ but I think it’s homemade.

Warill brand, not much known about this one. Pictures from an ebay ad.

These two pages are meant to go side by side. Compiled by Doug Alexander and printed in Pottery in Australia.