North Star PortaRoller

North Star’s PortaRoller is a portable, tabletop roller, which is great for both artists’ studios and the classroom! The North Star 18″ PortaRoller combines the 18″ Standard slab roller with a specially designed set of Table Toppers. This model was designed for ceramic arts teachers who move from classroom to classroom and for studio potters who need a fully functional slab roller but have limited space.

Like the 18″ standard slab roller version, the PortaRoller has two rollers, which function like the wringer of an old-fashioned washing machine. Both rollers have a small diamond pattern (“knurling”) machined directly into the metal to grip the canvas. The bottom roller is turned by the slab roller handle, but does not move up and down. As the roller turns, a train of gears drives the upper roller, and as the two rollers turn, slabs are produced. The top roller can be adjusted up and down, creating slabs of variable thicknesses from paper-thin to over 2″. A reference scale allows setting and repeating openings to within 1/100 of an inch. This 18″ Roller will produce clay slabs up to 16″ in width, with length depending on canvas size.

The design of the North Star 18″ PortaRoller allows for great flexibility in making slabs. Very thin, translucent porcelain slabs and thick, heavily textured architectural slabs are equally easy. What we love about this roller is that a wide variety of texturing materials, such as our rubber texture mats, can be passed through the machine along with the clay. Slabs can be rolled either direction or reversed on all North Star machines.