Hello.
I am working on making my school pottery studio to be more sustainable/ user friendly. One of the things I want to do is build a few simple pedal driven pottery wheels. How do some of you turn your footpedal grinding wheels? And how would you suggest turning this vertical rolling motion into a flat wheel turning? Simple drawings would be much appreciated.
Thanks eversomuchmoreso!
Archie

Have you ever seen a "kick" wheel? It's simply a wheel mounted on a very good bearing. The work surface is at a comfortable height and the lower wheel is substantial and has some weight - it is spun by kicking with a foot. Inertia keeps the wheel spinning until it's given another push. I have seen several professional potters using this type of rig and it works well once you get the timing down.

If it were me, I'd get a scrap wheel and tire off a car along with the spindle and bearing. This becomes the bottom wheel - the work surface is a piece of plate mounted to a section of pipe, which is bolted to the tire/wheel. Simple and effective - you already have your bearing and a fairly comfortable surface to kick.

At good old Eureka College (college home of US President Ronald Reagan) the kick wheels were two 36 inch disks of plywood that were sandwiched around some bricks and then bolted through (very obviously homemade) they used pillow blocks for bearings , and the whole frame was made of hardwood lumber in the form of a bench and small worksurface. Whoever made them took extreme care in balancing the wheels , because once they were up to speed, they would run by themselves for well over a minute just on inertia. They were also VERY heavy. IIRC it took two of us to scoot them across the concrete and at least three of us to pick them up and move them.