Last spring, on trash day, I found a potters wheel that someone had put out on the curb. (Since I was a professional potter many many years ago I knew just what it was.) A heavy, well made unit. I picked it up with a couple of thoughts in mind.
1) I mounted a grinding wheel flat and this allowed me to flatten abalone I cut from shells as part of making inlay material. I could do it with a small stream of water so the pearl stays cool and there is no dust.
2) A pretty critical step in the build process is sanding the rims (sides) so that the top edges are flat and the back edges have a 15-foot radius. I have made some powered contraptions to do this, but they were not entirely satisfactory. So, I mounted the sanding disk (flat on one side, 15-foot radius on the other) to the potters wheel. Reasonable speed and lots of torque. Put the rims in the mould, hold it on the sanding disk, and the job is easily done.
3) I mounted a bit if heavy leather. With a little buffing compound I get a power strop to quickly get those chisel edges really polished and really sharp.
