Mother's Homemade Tubing Roller

(Page 2 of 2)

September/October 1980
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Next, cut the plank in half and glue the two sections together so that—when it dries—you'll have a single piece of wood about 1 1/2 inches thick ... from which you'll cut three 5" X 5" pulley blanks. To do so, set your saw fence 5 inches from the blade and—beginning with a shallow cut and working progressively deeper—pass each blank through the saw, rotating the wood slightly at every pass, until the disks are perfectly round.

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You can use the same method to form the grooves in the pulleys. Tilt the saw blade at a 45° angle, then set your fence 1 1/2 inches from its near side. Raise the blade 1 inch from the table (measured along the toothed disk's side), and pass the edge of the wheels through it. When the incision is complete around the entire circumference, turn the wooden circle over and cut the opposite side of the groove. (WARNING: During all of the foregoing sawing procedures, be extremely careful ... remember, your fingers will be very close to the area being cut!)

Trim the rest of the wooden components from a 76" length of 2 X 4, round the ends of the oak handle arm, and cut half-lap joints in the center of your crosses . . . then refer to the illustration provided for aid in assembling the roller. (NOTE: The critical measurements are [1] the 8-inch center-to-center distance between the two idler pulleys, and [2] the 4 1/2-inch span from the axis of the drive wheel to the midpoint of that 8-inch centerline.)

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. . .

This little gadget can't be beat for bending the support ribs on our "shoestring" greenhouse. What's more, if you take a tip from MOTHER's Emerson Smyers, you can use the tool to perform any number of other tube-shaping chores: "Lengthen the channels in the lower section of each cross," Emerson says, "and slot the 1/4" mounting holes so the drive pulley can be moved closer to or farther from the others but can still be locked in place where desired. You can then produce just about any kind of arc . . . even those required for large parabolic mirror frames!"

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