Skytou Pottery Wheel Pottery Forming Machine – OWNERS REVIEW

You are new to pottery making or you may be a seasoned potter looking for a second wheel. Do you find yourself looking for other options than the classic pottery wheel? The Skytou Pottery wheel machine offers an affordable option to create your own ceramics. Find out how this Wheel stacks up in terms of features and price!

Some of the factors that we will look at here to evaluate the Skytou include:

• Price
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Centering capacity
• Wheel head
• Good choice for a beginner
• Optional accessory
• The motor

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Price: The Most Attractive Reason to Buy

For anyone new to pottery who doesn’t know if they want to invest much in this hobby yet, the Skytou Pottery Wheel offers you the ideal entry point. In fact, you won’t find a lower price that gives you a good wheel at the same time.

As far as value goes, the Skytou offers you a good value for the price that gives you a decent starting point. Right out of the gate, you can tell that the Skytou isn’t the most expensively made pottery wheel.

Where might the lower price come in handy?

Let’s say that you want to learn how to throw on the wheel, but you’re not sure if it’s something you will enjoy doing all the time. You don’t want to spend a lot until you know for sure that you will stick with the hobby. In that case, you would be hard-pressed to find a better budget wheel. 

Hobby potters who just want to express themselves with clay may also like this wheel because it gives you a good starting point. You just want to relax at the wheel after a long day at work and make some cool-looking pottery. In that case, the Skytou may do enough to where you feel satisfied with it. 

Skytou Pottery Wheel: Advantages

Beyond the price point, the Skytou Pottery Wheel offers its users a smooth experience.

You can adjust the wheel speed easily: It spins fast enough to where it can easily handle up to 8 pounds of clay. This wheel can reach up to 300 RPMs, which is a good speed for pottery wheels.

Wheel Direction: Potters can use this wheel either as a clockwise (left-handed) wheel or a counterclockwise (right-handed) wheel with the reverse switch. Not all pottery wheels offer the ability to switch like this.

The Skytou comes with a hand lever and foot pedal: This gives you the option of using one or both. I have used both but find the hand lever more to my liking.

A quiet wheel: Another thing that many potters have commented on is how this wheel operates quietly. That’s surprising compared to many electric wheels that can make more noise when you use them.

The Splash Pan: While some pottery wheel splash pans are not removable, this wheel does come with a removable splash pan. You can wash the Skytou easily because the removable splash pan gives you access to wash the wheel underneath. That matters if you don’t want the clay to build up under your pottery wheel which helps make it run better and last longer.

Affiliate Disclaimer: We are ambassadors or affiliates for many of the brands we reference on the website.  As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Pottery Machine size is small: The other advantage comes from its lightweight and compact size. It stands 14 inches high, 20 inches long, and 15 inches across including the foot pedal. Weighing in at only 25 pounds you can easily move it around your studio and even travel with it to do demos on the road or throw at a friend’s house.

Pros

• Good budget pottery wheel
• Can center up to at least 8 pounds of clay – good for the price
• The motor offers a good amount of speed
• Has good speed control
• Forward and reverse switch
• Comes with a hand lever and foot pedal
• Won’t make a lot of noise when throwing
• Removable splash pan
• Doesn’t require a lot of space to use it
• Lightweight

Skytou Pottery Wheel: Disadvantages

This wheel can not handle a large amount of clay: Although it doesn’t give an exact number of how much clay it can center, I have successfully centered and thrown 8 pounds. Judging by that I would estimate it at between 8 to 10 pounds as the maximum.

Be careful with the Foot pedal: If you apply too much pressure to the foot pedal it can tip the pottery wheel a bit. Which I have done. My pottery wheel will tip but it does not tip over.

Splash Pan may leak: Because the splash pan is removable, if you throw wet (use a good amount of water) the splash pan may leak where it attaches. Yes, my Splash pan leaks but that’s ok. I would rather have that than not be able to remove it.

May not be a good long-term Pottery wheel: This Wheel may be viewed as more of a stepping stone to start with pottery. As you improve as a potter, you will likely want to upgrade to a better wheel with more features.

No Bat Pins: Another downside comes from how they don’t make pins for the bat. If you like to use a bat you won’t be able to do it with this one unless you drill holes.

Cons

• Can’t handle large amounts of clay
• Applying too much pressure to the foot pedal can tip the pottery wheel a bit.
• Splash pan attachment area may leak
• Many people think of this as a temporary wheel
• Does not have holes for bat pins

Centering Capacity

As stated earlier you can center between 8 to 10 pounds without a problem on the Skytou Pottery Wheel. While 8 to 10 pounds of centering capacity sounds limiting, but many Potters will never center more than 10 pounds of clay at once.

Especially as a beginner, you may find it easier to work with small amounts of clay for centering. Most beginners stick with projects that require 1 to 5 pounds of clay. Once you go past that your skill levels have gotten so good it may be time to upgrade to a full-size wheel anyway.

Don’t let the advertisements for centering 200 to 300 pounds of clay mislead you into thinking of them as inherently better because they often don’t have the utility. In some cases, you may only need 8 to 10 pounds, although 25 pounds is the desired range for smaller wheels. 

Skytou Pottery Wheel: Wheel head

The Skytou comes with a 9.8-inch wheel head. That doesn’t make it the smallest wheel head, but you don’t have the largest one either. Pottery wheel heads range from 8 to 14 inches across.

They made the wheel head with aluminum alloy. The aluminum alloy doesn’t rust like a steel wheel head would. However, you can still get pitting over time so it’s best to clean your wheel head after each session.

Good Choice for a Beginner

In fact, we would argue that they made the Skytou Pottery Wheel, especially for the beginner. Many seasoned veterans would find the limitations to be too much. On the one hand, if you don’t plan to throw anything too big, you could make use out of this, but they have largely made this wheel for the beginner.

Some of the things that make this a good choice for beginners include the price, easy-to-use controls, and enough motor power that it never becomes an inconvenience. At the same time, you have enough freedom that you can make many things, such as Bowls, Mugs, Teapots, and Jars just to name a few.

This wheel also comes with a set of 4 metal and 6 plastic shaping tools, and a sponge to help you get started.

Keep in mind, this wheel does sit lower to the ground than most standard wheels. Some people have even said that this wouldn’t make the best choice for adults in general because of how it sits lower to the ground. You can place it on a bench or risers to sit higher or stand while throwing. For someone with a bad back, you can use this wheel for standing pottery, and it would work well.

Check out my hands-on detailed video review of the Skytou Pottery Wheel  

Optional Accessory

With the Skytou you can use the same accessory that many of the full-size wheels offer, which makes it quite impressive. You could use the Giffin Grip on this pottery wheel. It fits without a problem. I found this to be a big plus as I use it often for trimming.

Skytou: The Motor

As far as motors go, the Skytou hands you a good-quality brushless motor with a wheel speed wheel of 300 RPM. The motor is 350 watts, which puts it near 1/2 horsepower. Most pottery wheels use 1/4 HP to 1 HP, which makes the wheel turn faster than those on the lower end.

While most full-sized wheels only go to 250 RPMs they have more torque (rotating force on the wheel). Don’t buy this if you plan to do larger projects, because you will be limited with the pressure you can apply to the wheel head.

Conclusion

Many people have loved the Skytou Pottery Wheel, and if you want to get started in pottery for a lower price, this pottery wheel will suit your needs better than other choices. The Skytou doesn’t make for a bad wheel for the part-time hobby potter or if you have a tight budget but you’d still like to get started. It does come with a few setbacks, which we have highlighted, but it is still a popular pastime or starter wheel.

To get more information on other wheels you can also check out Choosing a Pottery Wheel which gives you a Step-by-Step Buyer’s Guide for Beginners.