Getting to the point

I worked for a summer at a production pottery near San Antonio Texas. When throwing repeat forms it was important to make them a consistent size so we used pointers. Most of us used a wad of clay on the splash pan and stuck some kind of stick into it. It worked but had problems. You could easily bump it and move it off your mark. It couldn't be moved out of your way and back into position. So I decided to make a better pointer. This version is a definite improvement but it will be rebuilt at some point too to make further improvements.





What you can't see in the pic is the base. The upright is a 1/2" pipe and the base is a flange. The flange is clamped to the wheel now but some sort of permanent attachment will follow. The height is set with the bottom block and uses an eye bolt as the set screw. The top block is left free to rotate out of the way until needed. I use a brush as the pointer because it is a lot softer than other options and won't mark the pot being thrown. The brush is held in a hole drilled through the block and is held in place by jamming a toothpick in the hole with the brush handle.
Pointers aren't needed for a lot of throwing but I find them especially useful when making things that need to be a specific size like nesting bowls and drinking mug sets.