Okay, let me tell you about this whole Stanley Behrens thing. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and decided, “Yeah, gotta get me one of those.” Nah, it was more like… getting pushed into it.
See, I’d been messing around with pottery for a while, just in my garage, trying to make something that didn’t look like a lumpy potato. I went through a couple of those newer wheels, you know the type. Lightweight, fancy electronics, looked nice. But man, they just didn’t feel right. Felt like toys. One started making this weird whining noise after a month, the other one wobbled if you looked at it funny. Drove me nuts. Spent more time fighting the equipment than actually making anything.
Finding the Old Beast
I was pretty close to just packing it all in. Then I was at this dusty flea market, mostly digging through old tools, and saw this lump under a tarp in a corner. The seller, this old fella chewing on a toothpick, barely glanced up. Said it was an old pottery wheel, belonged to his wife’s aunt or something. Heavy as sin. He just wanted it gone.
I pulled back the tarp, and there it was. Looked ancient. Built like a tank. Had this metal plate on it: “Stanley Behrens”. Didn’t mean much to me then, but it just felt solid. Different. Paid the man probably too much, bribed a buddy with pizza and beer to help me wrestle it into my truck. Seriously, thought the suspension was gonna give out.
Getting it Running
Getting it home was one thing, getting it running was another. Thing was covered in decades of dried clay and who knows what else. Took me a whole weekend just cleaning it.
- First, scraped off the big chunks.
- Then lots of scrubbing with wire brushes and degreaser.
- Checked the motor – looked okay, surprisingly. Belt was dry-rotted, though.
Finding a new belt that fit was a pain. Had to measure the old cracked one, hunt around online, finally found something close enough at an industrial supply place. Put it on, plugged the wheel in, held my breath… and it just hummed. A solid, low hum. No whining, no rattling. Just pure, steady power.
The Real Test
Sat down at it, threw a lump of clay on the wheel head. It was different. The feel of it. There’s no fancy speed control, just this big lever KINDA like a gas pedal. You gotta learn its quirks, how much pressure gives you what speed. It’s not smooth like those digital ones, it’s got character. You feel the motor working, feel the momentum.
Honestly, it was frustrating at first. I messed up a lot of pots. The wheel didn’t coddle me like the others. It demanded attention, demanded I learn it, not just expect it to do what I wanted. But when I got it right? Man, the stability is incredible. You can lean into it, work bigger pieces of clay, and it just doesn’t care. It keeps spinning true.
It’s loud, yeah. Takes up space. It’s probably terribly energy inefficient. But you know what? It works. Every single time. It feels like a real tool, something made to last, not something designed to be replaced in three years. It’s just sitting there in my garage now, like some loyal old dog. Doesn’t ask for much, just does its job.
So yeah, the Stanley Behrens. Wasn’t planned, ended up being exactly what I needed. Sometimes the old ways, the heavy, inconvenient ways… they just work better. Took me getting fed up and a lucky find at a flea market to figure that out.