Slab Roller Shenanigans

Remember how my kiln failed totally a few weeks ago? Well, this week it was the slab roller's turn. Super Helper noticed that it was making uneven slabs, and we could see that one of the cables underneath was suddenly looser than the other one. We tried to tighten it, and the bolt snapped. I had known the cables were near to having to be replaced and had ordered a new set last year, which was very lucky. These were probably the original cables, and this thing has got to be 40+ years old. I bought it 20 years ago from a 75-year-old potter who was retiring and it wasn't new then. He and my husband and the fellow from across the street lifted it into my then-new pickup truck. They said they used Zen to do it! Then we drove home with it and the jolley/jigger and 200 plaster molds in my half-ton. But that's another story.....

The new cables did come with instructions, but still, replacing the cables looked a daunting task.

Step 2 in the instructions said to drill out and enlarge the holes in the frame that the cable end bolts went through. Yikes. A good 3/16 inch of cold steel..... I was quite worried about that, but went and bought a drill bit for the electric drill. I told Long-suffering Spouse about it at dinner, and to my surprise he said he knew how to do it and would in fact do it for me. So after eating (it's always best to attack challenges on a full tumm), we went to the Studio and he drilled all four holes in no time at all! Many, many Husband Points!

Next day, SH and I removed the old cables and attached the new ones. Except for the fact that we got dreadfully dirty from the old belt dressing on the cables and roller it wasn't really too awful a job. I was a bit freaked by it all, but by carefully reading, re-reading and re-re-reading the instructions, we did it. And the roller works better than ever!

The only thing is, they say bad things come in threes, and now I'm afraid to turn anything else on in the Studio.....