Roller Stands - What's the Best?

[Never Enough Money]

These look like good choices:

?c=2&p=50231&cat=1,240,41060Any opinions or other suggestions?

[tom]

That Lee Valley one is pretty nice. I like the fact that it won't feed your stock out of line with the blade, as long as you're doing your part. Tom

[BillyBob]

If its for table saw use, forget the single tube type roller. They tend to 'steer' the wood and make feeding difficult.

I have two of the Rockler ball bearing stands and they really work well. They are extremely heavy duty. One of the nice tricks they don't advertise - the shaft is tapered, so you can gradually loosen the lock screw and it will slowly lower itself controllably by gravity. This makes height adjustment very, very easy. The ball bearings provide a near frictionless movement of wood in any direction. My last use was as outrigger supports for my drill press. I drilled 36 dog holes in a work bench top. It was nice to be able to balance a 100 lb maple slab on the roller stands and easily move it around to position under the drill bit. The rotating feet really work to make quick leveling adjustments, too.

Here is the link:

[Patriarch]

"Never Enough Money" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

?page=10392Often available on special, particularly if you are close to a retail store.

I have some from the Orange BORG, which are less than satisfactory. They are seldom used in my shop.

Patriarch

[Upscale]

Poor answer. Rollers are fine any certain circumstance where the feed bias of the wood is taken into account. Roller balls are good where feed bias is a concern. Roller balls have their problems though, such as when you're cutting thin strips of wood unless you've got dozens of them spaced extremely close together. That's a problem that rollers don't have.

[Mike Marlow]

Correct. I actually don't find rollers to be as bad as most people complain about. I think most people just repeat what they've heard without having experienced the matter themselves. It does take some attention to set up a roller so that it doesn't skew a board, but it's not like you're getting out the micrometer to set it up. I probably don't spend a minute setting mine up. I'd like to have both bearing stands and roller stands, but I've just never gone out and bought bearing stands. So, I make do with my rollers and they just don't cause me that much trouble.

[Tattooed and Dusty]

I have to agree with Mike. I bough a pair of rollers from the orange BORG for around 17 dollars each. While far from the best thing on the market they get the job done, for way less than some of the other sollutions. That said when I add to my lonely pair I will most likely go with a simple stable set of ball bearing supports.

Andrew

[Upscale]

One route I took was in addition to the roller table I bought, I also bought a single roller stand. When crosscutting a long board, to the roller stand I attach a strip of wood with 6 upside down swivel casters on it. Works the same as roller balls with no feed bias except that the castors are cheaper than roller balls.

[Battleax]

Rollers are virtually useless and cause all sorts of problems. The ball bearing is the ticket.

[Jois]

I've been using the box the basement dehumidifier came in - so far, so good. Next time they go on sale I might buy a spare and see how I like the boxes with some weight in them.

Josie

[BillyBob]

For those few times that might be a problem, you really don't need much of a support. I've never encountered it. But if I did, I would just get some quarter inch plywood and a brad gun and whip together a quickie box to put on top of the roller balls and use that as my support stand.

Bob

[Battleax]

I've used rollers for a few years and hated them. For the last 15 years I've used just a simple board. Those useless roller stands gave me tons of grief in the shop and in the field. The LeeValley ball system also has a metal edge to support thin strips.

So it's not just the rollers themselves but the stands as well. Very limited usefulness in my opinion. Unless of course you can set them up permenantly in a big spacious shop. The slightest mis-alignment and the work piece moves. The edge of a 2x4, held by whatever means suits the job is flawless and only costs ...nothing.

[BillyBob]

You're talking pennies if anything. Roller bearings can be had for under $3 each in quantities of 6.

Bob

[Battleax]

The leevalley system solves this problem, but it's still a complicated, heavy, space using contraption. I guess I'm just used to throwing something together to suit each particular job.

[CW]

My outfeed support is toped with a waxed piece of wood. Might notice a bit of drag if handling a 150 pound piece but that doesn't happen often. Odd how outfeed tables are fine but if its a stand, it has to have a roller.

[BillyBob]

Good point, CW. I recently bought some 3S 8/4 maple at the local wood monger's. I am always impressed when they run wood through those industrial grade machines - the ones with the name I never hear of and painted that indescribable pea soup green color. Despite the abundance of motor driven feeders and big dust collectors and 3 phase horsepower, their outfeed stand was a shop built all wood sawhorse affair with a well worn melamine surface on top.

Bob

[Upscale]

Not if you've already got the castors on hand. I usually keep a few sets of cheap castors around in case of an immediate need or if I want to make something mobile. The roller balls on the other hand while certainly being nicely made pieces of machinery, are mostly dedicated to one use only.

[Ron Magen]

Your 'Name' says it all.

The Lee Valley is a nifty item . . . if money & space are no problem {that is MY opinion}. However, for someone who is lacking of both . . . I started with making my own.

From an 'ancient' tip . . . got some old typewriter {that's BP - before printers} rollers and some 'on-sale' ball rollers. With small 'shelf angles' for roller brackets, and the screw holes in the balls, mounted them to chunks of 2x2 stock with a slot on the opposite side. Attached to a scrap of OSB, they could be clamped to any convenient sawhorse, etc.

Later, I drilled a shallow hole in the middle of the slotted side so I could put them on a 'recycled' home fan support. Still later, I picked up two different Harbor Freight 'adjustable' stands at '50 percent off, plus an additional discount' sales - under 10 bucks !!

Regards & Good Luck, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop

[bridgerfafc]

or for soft heavy materials. then the balls leave dimples.

[Ed Clarke]

There's a dirty joke hiding somewhere in this thread...