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 2x6 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.
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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…