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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Making and Using Pottery Chucks and ChumsPrintable pottery guide

The whole job, in the order you do it: which pots need a chuck and which need a chum, how to throw one to fit, how to set a pot in it without a mark, and what to do when it goes wrong.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 32 printable pages
  • 10 video picks
  • 6-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any printer
  • The lesson stays free
The printable, at a glance

What is the Making and Using Pottery Chucks and Chums printable guide?

It is the trimming stand on paper: how to tell which pots need a chuck and which need a chum, how to throw a chuck from reclaim, how to size the opening and the walls, how to set a pot in it and wad it, what changes at the wheel once the pot is standing in the air, and what to do about each fault. Built to be printed, worked through at the wheel and kept on the bench.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Making and Using Chucks” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 32printable pages, US Letter
  • 6quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 10hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that will not stand up

It is the setup that decides it

A bottle cannot stand on its own neck, and a bowl with a wavy rim rocks on a wheel head. So you build something to hold it: a chuck for a narrow opening, a chum for a delicate rim.

Throwing one takes a few minutes. What decides whether the pot survives is everything around it: a level rim, a soft coil on a hard edge, a bisque chuck that has been soaked, a few small wads, and a pencil held against the pot while it turns. They are small, dull checks, and easy to skip with wet hands and a video playing.

The guide sets each check in the order you do it, and puts the sizes where you can find them at the wheel: how much narrower than the pot to make the opening, and how tall the walls must be. It also has a page to write down every chuck you make and what it fitted.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a bucket of water on it

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.

  • Page 3 of the “Making and Using Pottery Chucks and Chums” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good trim looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Making and Using Pottery Chucks and Chums” printable guide: what a chuck actually is, shown with the sample watermark
    What a chuck actually isThe first page of the lesson, with the diagram: a bottle resting on a chuck and a bowl sitting over a chum, and the six numbered parts that make each one work.
  • Page 19 of the “Making and Using Pottery Chucks and Chums” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongThe start of the troubleshooting section: what caused each fault and what to do differently next time, starting with the pot that flew out of the chuck.
  • Page 26 of the “Making and Using Pottery Chucks and Chums” printable guide: every chuck, and what it fitted, shown with the sample watermark
    Every chuck, and what it fittedA log to write in: the opening, the wall height, fresh or bisque, the pot it held and what happened. A few rows in and the next chuck starts from a measurement instead of a guess.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Sizes are not something you remember with wet hands

A chuck job is a few measurements and a handful of checks, made with clay on your hands and a wheel turning. Paper suits that.

  • The sizes sit beside the steps

    The opening, the wall height and the wall thickness are each next to the step that needs them, not somewhere in a twenty minute video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you wad a pot with both hands. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind slip.

  • A number to write down

    The log has columns for the opening and the pot it held. The next chuck for that shape starts from a measurement instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the wheel

    The one page summary has which one you need, the numbers, the checks before the first cut and what to look at when it goes wrong. It pins up beside the wheel.

How this one is built

Rebuilt for paper, not printed from a web page

Every guide in the series is set from scratch for print. Here is what that meant for this one.

  • One measurement, made to agree

    The lesson gave the opening as a quarter inch of overlap in one place and a quarter inch narrower across in three. The guide and the free lesson now agree: a quarter inch narrower than the pot, which leaves an eighth of an inch of ledge on each side.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Four notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show. We checked each against the video’s own description and frames, and rewrote them in the guide and in the lesson.

  • Written for any studio

    The Clay Hole’s own bisque policy is named and dated, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole fact and which is a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

  • A page to keep by the wheel

    The one page summary is the whole job on a single sheet: which one you need, the numbers, the checks before the first cut, and what to look at when it goes wrong.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Making and Using Chucks” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A chuck is not a clever tool. It is a seat, made in minutes from clay that was headed for the bucket, and all it does is carry the weight somewhere strong.

The best chuck for the pot on your bench is the one you throw for it, at the size it needs.

You can be wrong about the size once, cheaply, and be right the second time. Write the number down.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Every printable guide in The Clay Hole University series takes one free lesson and rebuilds it for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz with a worked answer key. Each one keeps its number for good, so a guide you buy today is the same guide in the same place next year.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

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Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where this one leaves off

Each one is free to read online, and the codes in the guide take you straight there.

Questions

Good to know

How is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is not going anywhere. The guide is that teaching rebuilt for paper: a learning dashboard at the front, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
What is the difference between a chuck and a chum?
A chuck is hollow and the pot sits down inside it, narrow end first, so the neck and the lip hang in free air. A chum is solid and the pot goes over it, which suits a wide opening with a delicate or uneven rim. Hollow or solid is the only distinction that changes what you do.
Do I need a wheel?
To throw a chuck or a chum, yes. The guide also covers holders that are not clay, such as dense foam, a length of pipe and a bisqued cylinder from your own shelf.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. You need to be able to center, open and pull a wall. The new skills are tap centering a finished pot into a chuck and knowing leather hard by feel, and both come from doing it a few times.
What do I need besides clay?
A wheel, calipers, a needle tool and a sponge, a heat gun or hair dryer, soft clay for a coil and a few wads, a pencil, a wooden tool and a bucket of water if you keep bisqued chucks. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Do I have to bisque a chuck?
No. Plenty of potters throw a fresh chuck for every job and reclaim it afterwards. The guide covers both, and says why a bisqued one has to be soaked before you use it.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is set for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: the text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having by the wheel. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives by email and on the order confirmation page right after checkout, so you can have it printed and beside the wheel the same evening.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Every edition carries its version number on the last page. When we correct or improve one, the new edition replaces the old one in the shop, and we can send the updated link to anybody who already bought it.
Can I share it?
It is licensed for your own use. Print as many copies for yourself as you like, on as many of your own devices as you like. Please do not pass the file on, upload it or use it with a class or a group without asking us first.

Size it once, and write the number down

Make the opening a quarter inch under the pot, keep the base wider than the top, and soak a bisque chuck before you use it. Those three checks take a few minutes and decide whether the pot comes off the wheel in one piece. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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