Just need to make a couple of supports and while a V will do the job it's nice to have wheels. The commercial jobs have rubber bearing wheels. Many homemade use a variety of wheels such as castors, skates, etc. Now I'm thinking of rollers out of wood or cork. Easy enough to cut out with hole saw and then drill out center to fit bearing. What do any of you think, wood or cork?

Among the two choices cork.

Ken,
Although that will work, it is so easy to obtain ball bearing rollers that one may has well buy a few.

A roller that is very inexpensive and works very well is a shower door roller. These are nylon rollers with bearings having a hollow in the outer surface. Then, go to your local hardware store to pick up some O rings of the right size, put them on and you are set.

For example:

[www.lowes.com]|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

If you live in a larger city or town, check out your local surplus stores. I have found nice ball bearing rollers at different times there for less than $1 each.

The nice thing about the shower door rollers is that they come with the roller, bearing and attaching hardware. You may have to get a longer machine screw to attach the roller, depending on your mounting material.

An example of roller rod rests that I made some years ago from such patio door/shower door rollers.


[www.rodbuilding.org]

For the supports, I used aluminum strap.
The base is a piece of plastic cutting board.


Both the aluminum strap as well as the plastic cutting board are very easy to work with.

Use ball bearing rollers - cork center will wear down and wood could mar the blank. As Roger has already noted ball bearing rollers are easy to find from many sources.

Guys, the original poster is talking about a low speed rod dryer, not a high speed wrapper. While it would be nice to have ball bearing rollers it's not mandatory. My multi-rod dryer uses full ball bearing rod supports, but my original rod dryer system used "U" shaped supports cut in a board. I lined the cuts with cork tape. I still use that old grill rotisserie motor and cork tape lined rod support every once in a while and it hasn't caused a problem in over 35 years of use. (I do wrap a single-layer band of masking tape around the blank where it rests on the cork lined support.

If the original poster is a casual or hobbyist builder, what he's proposing will work just fine without all the added expense of purchasing commercially made parts.

All that's really important is that the support doesn't damage the blank, and the rod must rotate smoothly without jumping around in the rod support (jumping around would lead to uneven finish).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2014 12:22PM by John E Powell.

This is what I have built Worked for many years There are many picts of home made units Make it out of Light Weight Materials
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2014 05:21PM by bill boettcher.

Although I didn't say John is correct I am building a rod dryer not a wrapper so cork/wood will be fine. I'm just wondering which is the better that's all.

Roger, I know about the shower screen, window & sliding door rollers. I wasn't thinking when I threw out my old shower screen doors a few months ago and didn't rescue the rollers. Now I want them back for this little project. Whilst I can buy them I'm more interested in seeing what I can build as it's more fun and also I'm cheap. Want to see if I can do it for next to nothing. If parts start to add up then may as well buy a commercial unit but that's not the plan.

Ken, I am planning to use bearings anyway but if not then need to epoxy a sleeve to the cork which will act as a bushing. This will stop the cork from being worn and as wheels don't bear much load bushings will do the job just fine. May actually do this to see how it performs as no need to get bearings then. Easy enough to get brass bushings as the ones that are for shelf support are the right size

Thanks for feedback guys. Keep it coming.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2014 09:19PM by ken khoo.

Ken -
Yep I know all about doing things BY MYSELF / FOR MYSELF. I steered away from the 'non-moving" ( U & V supports because either you have to wrap the blank or you have to line the cut outs. If you want to do this "on the cheap" you can use low grade cork rings with 1/4" holes; slide a piece of rod blank in there as a bushing & put a bolt through the center of the rod blank & it will work well for quite a long time. If, however you decide you want to adapt them to a wrapper as an extra support you will not be happy, Given the cost of the parts I'd just go with rollers & rubber O-rings. I'd rather spend the time designing & assembling one time... There's a saying in Russian "I'm not so rich that I can afford to buy cheap stuff"

Ken Preston Wrote:
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>
> There's a saying in Russian "I'm not so rich that I can afford to buy cheap stuff"
>

I totally agree with this statement and one that I learned a long time ago.