Wheel Thrower

What this simulator models

The Wheel Thrower builds a vessel from a parametric profile rather than a fixed mesh. Six controls describe the form: rim flare, neck narrowing, base width, wall thickness, height and maximum diameter. Change any of them and the profile is re-solved and the lathe geometry rebuilt in real time.

Why a lathe profile is the right model

A thrown pot is a solid of revolution. Every point on its surface is defined by a radius and a height, which is exactly what a lathe profile describes. That is why changing the rim flare on a thrown form changes the whole silhouette smoothly rather than creating a crease — the clay is continuous around the axis.

Where the numbers come from

• Capacity is the volume enclosed by the inner profile, computed by integrating the square of the inner radius over the height — the same disc-integration method you would use by hand.
• Clay needed starts from the volume of the wall shell (outer profile minus inner profile), multiplied by a nominal clay density of about 1.9 g/cm³, then padded by 18 % for throwing loss, trimming and slip.
• Wall ratio is wall thickness divided by maximum diameter. Below roughly 1:12 a form becomes delicate; above 1:6 it reads as heavy.

Try these experiments

1. Set the height to 90 mm and the diameter to 96 mm, then increase rim flare from 0 to 60. Watch the capacity rise even though the body has not grown — the rim is doing the work.
2. Load the Vase preset, then push neck narrowing to 80 %. The capacity falls sharply and the wall ratio climbs. That is the trade-off every vase makes.
3. Take the Plate preset and raise wall thickness to 24 mm. The clay weight estimate jumps far more than the capacity does, because a plate is mostly surface, not volume.