Car Tire Pottery Wheel

Craft & Design Energy & Sustainability
Car Tire Pottery Wheel

Mississippian Hillar Bergman is known, first and foremost, as a musician—he plays the fiddle. His YouTube channel features several interesting videos describing his wonderful “post-apocalyptech” potter’s wheel, and demonstrating his skillful use thereof. (Including one in which he’s mounted it to a trailer hitch so he can use it at a lakeside campsite.) It’s just an old wheel and tire, really, mounted on an oak stump with a pair of pipe flanges and a short nipple, and spun up to speed with a tire iron stuck through the holes in the hub, but Mr. Bergman uses it with considerable skill. [via Recyclart]

12 thoughts on “Car Tire Pottery Wheel

  1. Rebecca Gibson Bourque says:

    hey, I might need this when I move to Korea. Somehow I doubt my electric wheel’s going to be of much use there LOL

  2. Anonymous says:

    That’s delightful, thankee. Sufficiently so, that i’d sure like to understand the smooth robust bearing he’s got under that wheel

    It’s just an old wheel and tire, really, mounted on an oak stump with a
    pair of pipe flanges and a short nipple, and spun up to speed with a
    tire iron …

    just two flanges and a nipple ((hey you in the back, stop sniggering!)) doesn’t seem to cover the concept of a rotational bearing.

  3. double_booyah says:

    YESSSSS!  I saw this video a while back and fell in love with it.  Not only is Hillar just a sweet guy, he is really a natural on the wheel.

    Not to mention the fact that he makes pottery completely accessible to EVERYONE.  No more excuses.  Anyone can find themselves and old tire, a bolt or two, and a stump!

    Love it
    Steve,
    http://www.pottery-on-the-wheel.com

  4. Rolling Tool Table from Stacked Tires says:

    […] Car Tire Pottery Wheel […]

  5. Best of MAKE: My Ten For 2011 says:

    […] Car Tire Pottery Wheel […]

  6. rims vancouver says:

    Hillar Bergman rocks! i saw many of his videos, including this one and i am a big admirer to the skills this guy have. he allows every one to make pottery. Thanks for sharing this video.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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