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The Clay Hole University · Hand Building

Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and ShapePrintable pottery guide

The slab roller on paper: why a slab lands under the gauge, a pass plan from block to slab, the quarter turns that keep it square and the nine things that go wrong, with a log for every slab you roll.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 23 printable pages
  • 4 video picks
  • 8-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 Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape printable guide?

It is the free “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” lesson rebuilt for paper: why the setting includes the mats, why a thin slab stretches further with every step, a pass plan with every setting, how to keep a slab square or round, and how to get it off the roller without undoing it. Built to be printed, kept beside the roller and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 4hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 14glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone whose slab came out thinner than the number

The gauge is measuring the gap, not your slab.

Set the roller to half an inch and the slab comes out under it. Roll a square and it comes out a strip. Roll it flat and it curls a week later. None of that is the machine misbehaving.

The guide explains the three things behind almost every surprise at a slab roller: clay keeps its volume, it only grows in the direction it travels, and the mats sit in the gap with it. Three labeled drawings in pencil on graph paper make each one plain, and a pass plan puts the numbers on it.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log for every slab you roll. Write down the last setting and what the slab measured wet, and two or three slabs in, you know exactly what your mats take.

Look inside

Real pages, ready for the roller

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

  • Page 3 of the “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first pass: what you will learn, what you will need, what is worth knowing first, the common pitfalls and what success looks like.
  • Page 12 of the “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” printable guide: off the roller, then what goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Off the roller, then what goes wrongThe last steps of getting a slab off the roller without stretching it, then the first six of nine problems, each with what it means and the fix.
  • Page 13 of the “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” printable guide: questions from the roller, shown with the sample watermark
    Questions from the rollerThe last three problems, then the questions that come up at the machine: wedging, how thick, why the slab comes out thin, how many passes and warping.
  • Page 16 of the “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” printable guide: every slab, and where it landed, shown with the sample watermark
    Every slab, and where it landedA log for every slab you roll: the last setting, what it measured wet, the passes and how it came out, with two questions to answer after a few.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A page that lives beside the roller

Most of this guide is used standing at the machine with clay on your hands. Paper goes there with you.

  • The pass plan at a glance

    Every setting from a block to a half inch slab, how far each step lowers the roller and how much longer the slab gets, on one table.

  • Drawings you can read at the bench

    The mats in the gap, the same step stretching three slabs, and the quarter turn from above, each printed large with its numbered key beside it.

  • A log for your own roller

    Columns for the last setting, what the slab measured wet, the passes and how it came out. A few rows in, you know what your mats take.

  • It does not mind clay

    A page can sit on the table next to a wet slab, and it never locks its screen while your hands are full.

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.

  • Read against our other lessons

    We checked it against our slab roller certification, slab mold, flat tile and slab mug lessons, so the guide says what those pages say about the same machine.

  • The arithmetic, done by hand

    Every stretch on the table and every step on the pass plan was worked out from the thicknesses, so the numbers agree with each other and with the quiz.

  • Drawings checked against the words

    Each labeled drawing was read at full size and corrected where it disagreed with the lesson, so the measuring lines and the shapes show exactly what the text says.

  • Written for a reader in any studio

    The lines about our own rollers and our own certification are written so they make sense to a potter at any slab roller.

  • Video notes that claim no more than the videos

    Each video note was written from the video’s own title, description and chapters, so it promises only what the video says it covers.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we point the address at its new home and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Slab Roller Tips: Thickness, Stretch and Shape” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Clay keeps its volume, so every pass makes it longer, and only in the direction it travels. The thinner it gets, the further each little step stretches it.

Roll one, measure it, and write down what your mats take. Every slab after that lands where you meant it to.

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.

See every printable guide

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Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where the roller 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, the three drawings printed large with their keys, a slab log, a one page reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Will it work on my slab roller?
Yes. The mechanism is the same on every roller: the clay keeps its volume and grows in the direction it travels. The guide also explains why gauges read differently from one roller to the next, and how to measure what your own mats take.
Does it tell me what thickness to roll?
It gives the thicknesses our lessons teach for a mug, a tile and a slab mold, all as wet numbers, and explains why thin slabs warp. What you are making decides the rest.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. It works at any slab roller. The few lines about our own rollers and our certification are written so they make sense to a potter anywhere.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked All levels. Nothing is assumed, and the mats and the stretch catch out experienced hands as often as new ones.
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. The text and the tables are black on white, and the drawings are pencil on pale graph paper, so they print clearly in grey. Color is used for headings, small labels and the numbers on the drawings.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The slab log and the one page reference are the two worth keeping beside the roller. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
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 before your next slab.
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.

Gap, stretch, turn

The setting measures the gap, a thin slab stretches further with every step, and a quarter turn keeps it square. The guide keeps those three in front of you at the roller.

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