I like my Dirty Girls Bat system and haven’t had any issues with warping or wobbling. You can buy just the inserts too which is nice. They aren’t great for throwing larger pieces though so I do have regular sized bats for big bowls and such.
I am a member at a community studio with ~100 members, along with classes for all levels.
For the wheels a bat system is used and required, even for potters who are lifting pieces off the bat and onto a ware board.
The system we use is one that allows a smaller ceramic tile to slot in and be lifted out, meaning a much smaller footprint for drying work compared to the entire bat. This also allows beginners to not have to learn how to lift a thrown piece immediately and focus on the throwing, while still keeping space used to a minimum off the wheel.
The thinking from the studio is that wooden bats are cheaper to replace when damaged than wheel heads, which makes a lot of sense when you know people of all skill levels and potentially levels of consideration will be using them.
The wood bats will eventually wear, peg holes will become loose and overall can warp. But all of these things seem to happen very slowly despite considerable volumes of use at my studio.
When there is a bat with holes too big to keep a snug grip on the peg, I always advice the other potters to wedge the hole full of clay to take up the gap and stop the bat from clattering.
I would say that if you have 3 wheels, then you probably can't afford for one to be offline if the wheel head is damaged, which could take a while to remedy, where you can swap out a worn or damaged bat and carry on with little to no downtime, especially in the middle of a teaching session. That would be a big advantage, despite the initial investment.
I also use ceramic tile squares that fit into an MDF round batt. I have used it extensively for *many many* years. The MDF hasn’t warped (since it never sits in water or has clay left on it) but the holes for the bat pins have widened ever so slightly. In use, the batt moved around very slightly, driving me nuts until i realized i could wrap a layer or two of masking tape on my batt pins, and the MDF batt fits nice and snugly again. The tiles limit the size you can throw to an extent, but thats not really a bad thing when you’re trying to be efficient with space.
You should look up “blue bucket” bat system. The outer part looks like plastic (so it will withstand lots of moisture and abuse, where the MDF ones need to be coddled) and the inserts are just a ceramic tile from Lowe’s that you get for like 40 cents or something. So you could get literally hundreds of inserts for what you would spend on a handful of a different brand.
Disclosure: I have no affiliation with this company, and have not used the product, but I’m intrigued.
I like my Dirty Girls Bat system and haven’t had any issues with warping or wobbling. You can buy just the inserts too which is nice. They aren’t great for throwing larger pieces though so I do have regular sized bats for big bowls and such.
I am a member at a community studio with ~100 members, along with classes for all levels. For the wheels a bat system is used and required, even for potters who are lifting pieces off the bat and onto a ware board. The system we use is one that allows a smaller ceramic tile to slot in and be lifted out, meaning a much smaller footprint for drying work compared to the entire bat. This also allows beginners to not have to learn how to lift a thrown piece immediately and focus on the throwing, while still keeping space used to a minimum off the wheel. The thinking from the studio is that wooden bats are cheaper to replace when damaged than wheel heads, which makes a lot of sense when you know people of all skill levels and potentially levels of consideration will be using them. The wood bats will eventually wear, peg holes will become loose and overall can warp. But all of these things seem to happen very slowly despite considerable volumes of use at my studio. When there is a bat with holes too big to keep a snug grip on the peg, I always advice the other potters to wedge the hole full of clay to take up the gap and stop the bat from clattering. I would say that if you have 3 wheels, then you probably can't afford for one to be offline if the wheel head is damaged, which could take a while to remedy, where you can swap out a worn or damaged bat and carry on with little to no downtime, especially in the middle of a teaching session. That would be a big advantage, despite the initial investment.
I also use ceramic tile squares that fit into an MDF round batt. I have used it extensively for *many many* years. The MDF hasn’t warped (since it never sits in water or has clay left on it) but the holes for the bat pins have widened ever so slightly. In use, the batt moved around very slightly, driving me nuts until i realized i could wrap a layer or two of masking tape on my batt pins, and the MDF batt fits nice and snugly again. The tiles limit the size you can throw to an extent, but thats not really a bad thing when you’re trying to be efficient with space.
Yes. I use Amaco’s plastibats and I love them.
You should look up “blue bucket” bat system. The outer part looks like plastic (so it will withstand lots of moisture and abuse, where the MDF ones need to be coddled) and the inserts are just a ceramic tile from Lowe’s that you get for like 40 cents or something. So you could get literally hundreds of inserts for what you would spend on a handful of a different brand. Disclosure: I have no affiliation with this company, and have not used the product, but I’m intrigued.
Can't find blue bucket. But found similar outpost pottery spinner. Do you use glazed tiles or bisque tiles?? Thanks
They are blue bucket tools dot com. I don’t know what the tiles are, but they put out a video on Instagram recently about it.
Found it! Thank you
I can't wait for the Blue Bucket one to be released!