Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Pizza and magnets


Looking for reviews of a trimming tool I was thinking of buying led me to a forum where someone told about making a homemade version from a pizza pan and some magnets. I thought it was worth trying because it seemed easy and would let me do a "test run" to see if I liked the concept of the tool or not. And it was only an investment of about $6.00. I have bought tools and equipment in the past that seemed like a good idea, only to learn that they didn't fit with my way of creating work. Some are still collecting dust and I didn't want that to happen with this tool.

I made a run to Walmart and Harbor Freight and purchased the basic components. The magnets are strong welding magnets and come in a pack of 4. I ended up modifying this contraption by attaching the pizza pan to a bat with glue squares. I also added round magnets under the strong welding magnets because the others had a tendency to release from the pan if I got the wheel spinning too fast. A permanent marking on the pan of a series of concentric circles was another modification. I have been very happy with the homemade version and plan to make a larger one with a bigger pizza pan. Right now it works well for altered bowls, which is the main thing I wanted it for.

4 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

Great idea!

Chris said...

are those little foamm pads there?

Vicki Gill, potter said...

Thanks Meredith--again, not an original idea but someone else's that I could think with and modify for my purposes.

Christine, they are foam cut from 1" foam brushes. The original forum person took the foam from their cone boxes and attached to the magnets. I didn't attach it because I use the magnets in the horizontal as well as the vertical position depending on height of bowl. And was thinking for future of attaching a contraption to magnet that would handle tall, skinnier work. Haven't figured it out yet, though.

Vicki Gill, potter said...

Thanks Meredith--again, not an original idea but someone else's that I could think with and modify for my purposes.

Christine, they are foam cut from 1" foam brushes. The original forum person took the foam from their cone boxes and attached to the magnets. I didn't attach it because I use the magnets in the horizontal as well as the vertical position depending on height of bowl. And was thinking for future of attaching a contraption to magnet that would handle tall, skinnier work. Haven't figured it out yet, though.