Banding Wheel and Turntable Roundup!

Banding wheels and turntables work like a lazy susan. You place your piece on the wheelhead and rotate it to give you access to all sides of your work. In the case of making pottery and sculpture out of clay, both banding wheels and turntables come in handy at many stages of the creative process.

The name "banding wheel" refers to the banded lines you can create by holding a brush against your piece as it spins on the wheel head. Banding wheels are designed to spin evenly and continuously, after being given a good turn by hand, for an extended period of time. The rotation is centered and smooth which allows for precision brushwork and the most delicate applications. For pottery, this could mean accenting a rim of a bowl with a band of underglaze color or creating a perfect line of wax for resisting glaze. 

If you are looking for a banding wheel that will spin the longest, check the specifications and descriptions to find the ones that have weighted rims, wheelheads made of heavy materials like steel and cast iron, and wheelheads with larger diameters. These are the features of a banding wheel that, like the flywheel on a potter’s kickwheel, will maintain the thrust of a turn for the longest possible time. Ball bearings provide the mechanics of the rotation, so ones that are sealed will provide a smoother, more even rotation than those that are not.



Both banding wheels and turntables are used for decorating, sculpting, carving and handbuilding, and both allow you to easily view all sides of your work. The difference between the two is that turntables do not spin continuously after being turned. They do hold a fair amount of weight, however, which makes them the perfect for building a sculpture on.

If you are looking for a turntable that will support a heavy piece, look for turntables with larger dimensions and check their weight capacity. Some of our turntables can support an impressive 300lb! Turntables typically have tops and bases of the same diameter for stability and heavy-duty ball bearings attached to both surfaces. This design makes turntables a great choice for large sculptural work.  

Whatever you choose, having a surface that rotates allows you to work in the round with ease. And working in the round will encourage you to make sculptural considerations as to how a piece functions from many angles. Chances are, you will be amazed at how often you reach for your banding wheel or turntable to help with decorating and sculpting.