Electrically driven potter's wheel

A potter's wheel for working pottery material, comprising:

• a turntable for supporting the pottery material:
• a motor for driving the turntable:
• a manipulation member to be operated by a user:
• a speed signal producer for producing a directive speed signal which changes as a function of an amount of operation of the manipulation member by the user:
• a speed detector for detecting the rotational speed of the motor and generating a detected speed signal representative of the detected speed:
• a speed control signal producer for producing a motor speed control signal as a function of the difference between the directive speed signal and the detected speed signal;
• and
• a motor controller for generating a motor drive signal and feeding the motor drive signal to the motor, the motor controller being capable of controlling the motor drive signal so that the speed control signal becomes zero, wherein the motor controller includes a driving circuit for generating a motor driving current to be fed to the motor, a pulse generator for generating pulse signals for driving the motor, a pulse width controller for controlling the width of the pulse signals, an upper limit memory section for storing an allowable upper limit value of the electric current, a comparator for comparing the detected current with the upper limit value stored in the upper limit memory section, a limiter provided between the pulse width controller and the pulse generator to detect whether the voltage at the pulse signal generator is larger than a predetermined value, and a signal passage controller for allowing passage of the pulse signals as they are when the voltage is not larger than the predetermined value and feeding a signal corresponding to the predetermined value when the voltage is larger than the predetermined value.