Like Ben Fuller, I have more boats than trailers to haul them, so when I read his article on the roller cart he built with Joe Liener, I was convinced that I needed one or two to shuffle my boats.
Wooden Roller
I didn’t have a section of an old mast to use for a roller and even if I did, I’ve never had much luck drilling long holes accurately, so I had to take a different approach. I bought an 8′ length of 2×6 and cut four 18″ pieces. I ran two of the four pieces through the table saw, making several passes, to cut a groove that would become a hole for the axle when I glued up the blank for the roller.
After gluing the four pieces together with epoxy, I eight-sided the block on the table saw, bringing the blank down to a size small enough to be mounted in the frame, a rectangle of 2x4s with ash cheek pieces.
To make the blank round I used a technique I was forced into a few years ago when trying to make a few quenas, a type of South American flute. I bought a long ship auger to hollow out the stock for the quena, but I couldn’t keep it from veering off line, so I made extra-large blanks and then drilled the holes though them. Then it was a matter of trimming the wood around the hole to provide a uniform wall thickness. The lathe was out—the hollowed-out softwood was too delicate for that kind of work. I turned instead to my table saw and set up a jig on a sled. With the blade spinning and the quena blank rotating slowly above it, I could gently and accurately trim the wood down to a straight and uniform cylinder. The method worked well for the delicate musical instrument and I figured it would do the job for a roller.
Plastic-pipe Roller
I made a second roller cart using a piece of very stout 7″ PVC pipe I had on hand. I made six disks of 3/4″ plywood with a 13/16” hole in the center.
The 1/2″ pipe I used for axles wasn’t truly round. There was a slight ridge where the edges of the steel strip that form the pipe were welded together. A little dressing with a file smoothed the lump and made the roller rotate more freely when assembled with the frame. The entire frame for the pipe roller was made of scraps of ipe, a dense tropical hardwood. It’s very durable but quite heavy.
I have some inflatable rollers that also work very well for moving boats, but I’ll save them for cruising and let the roller carts do the dirty work of heavy lifting at home and for short outings at the local ramps.
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Comments (3)
What a great idea! Now I know what my winter workshop activity will be. Who needs a stinking lathe, right? Doesn’t mean I still won’t get one though. Thanks for the inspiration!
Very interesting table saw technique for rounding the blank. Looks like it works well for this short piece. I usually 8-side , then round by hand with a plane. Good to know this, though.
My lathe set-up uses twin sets of old inline roller blade wheels. Imagine a set of inline skates without the boots, wheels up, spread apart about 2′ to 3′ shorter than the piece to be rounded (already 16 sided with a hand plane), and supporting the piece from below. It works best if you work closer to the support wheels where you can apply more pressure. 36 grit, then 60 or 80, then 120. I’m able to work through two or three of those grits, and if I recall right, get four 6′ to 8′ oar shafts to a nice smooth finish in about 45 minutes or thereabouts. Everything ends up covered in dust though, and round to the eye but often not round to the touch.
Table saw might be faster, more consistently round and maybe cleaner ie less fine dust everywhere in my garage… but would need to figure out a jig…. a V trough parallel to the blade but offset a half diameter would likely be the place to start…
What a great idea! Now I know what my winter workshop activity will be. Who needs a stinking lathe, right? Doesn’t mean I still won’t get one though. Thanks for the inspiration!
Very interesting table saw technique for rounding the blank. Looks like it works well for this short piece. I usually 8-side , then round by hand with a plane. Good to know this, though.
Ditto on the table-saw technique. Very neat and I may try it. I’ve been using the following method myself for years for oars etc:
http://www.simplicityboats.com/rednecklathe2.jpg
My lathe set-up uses twin sets of old inline roller blade wheels. Imagine a set of inline skates without the boots, wheels up, spread apart about 2′ to 3′ shorter than the piece to be rounded (already 16 sided with a hand plane), and supporting the piece from below. It works best if you work closer to the support wheels where you can apply more pressure. 36 grit, then 60 or 80, then 120. I’m able to work through two or three of those grits, and if I recall right, get four 6′ to 8′ oar shafts to a nice smooth finish in about 45 minutes or thereabouts. Everything ends up covered in dust though, and round to the eye but often not round to the touch.
Table saw might be faster, more consistently round and maybe cleaner ie less fine dust everywhere in my garage… but would need to figure out a jig…. a V trough parallel to the blade but offset a half diameter would likely be the place to start…