Roller stands

[Weekend_Woodworker]

I am in the process of replacing the edging of our raised beds in the garden. I have bought some new oak sleepers, but decided that wood half the width would be fine to retain the soil. Therefore I am planning to rip the 100x200 sleepers down to 50x200 on my bandsaw. Following advice about ripping on the bandsaw I am going to try kerfing them first with a circular saw so the cuts don’t wander too much.

The sleepers are 3m long so are quite heavy and the bandsaw only has a relatively small table on it, so I was wondering about buying some roller stands. So the questions are:



1) is this a sensible approach in principle or is there a better way of achieving the aim?
2) Are there any recommendations for roller stands which will be used occasionally, so not worth spending a fortune on?

Thanks

Mark

 

[AndyP]

Mark, far be it for me to dissuade from buying a new tool but for very occasional use it is not difficult to make one.
This sits in the workmate and has preset set marks for various tools to gauge the right height.





Alternatively I place piece of polished stair handrail in the Triton workstands.



Not oak admittedly but here they are in action.

 

[9fingers]

For occasional use I would advocate improvised ones. Cheap freestanding ones are too flimsy and will get knocked out of alignment just when you need it most.
Work mate based ones with a ramp are best as if you set the height perfectly on one piece, Sod’s law says the next one will be warped.
Best of all is an assistant to guide the out feed when sh1t happens.
Based on bitter experience!
Bob

 

[MY63]

Those stands are very clever, I bought some work tables from Aldi a couple of weeks ago £16 each I think they are still on the website.

 

[AndyP]

Most definitely a two person job. That oak must be quite heavy. I had my daughter help guide those lumps of douglas fir.

 

[Rezi]

I've got these which I've only used a couple of times in about 4 years and they are great. Easy to set up and they fold away to take up less space when not in use.

 

[Cabinetman]

Plus one on the getting somebody to help front, also suspect those sleepers are air dried so will be still quite wet and even heavier! Ian (like those stands btw.)

 

[spb]

I have what I suspect are from the same factory with a different brand painted on: https://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/section//sn/DRA70273. I've also only used them a handful of times, mostly when running some 50mm by 2m+ long pieces across a surface planer.

As helpful as they are, though, I'd still want another person's help moving pieces that size through machinery in addition to the rollers.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Thanks for all the replies. I will definitely aim to rope someone else in to help me. I like the idea of something to go in the workmate. I think I will also need something for an out feed as well as an in feed, but only have one workmate, so I may still end up buying something.

 

[RogerS]

I'd use the workmate for the outfeed as that's where issues usually happen and you need something very stable at that end since there may not be anyone to help it's progress. But if you have a helper then it doesn't matter IMO.

 

[Eric the Viking]

I've got a cheap set of four from a well known "small county".

Just don't. They have no bearings, the frames are extremely flimsy, and they're not tall enough for many tasks.

Speaking of tasks, high on my list is fixing the wire feed controller on my MIG set. When I've done that, the roller stands are in for a "makeover", probably involving stiffer tubing (certainly taller), and some sort of sensible base.

They're like an inverted "y" and to be honest they're not really stable like that. I intend to put the telescopic section vertical (if I keep it original).

As an aside, I had long things sliding off one sideways when bandsawing. I thought it was inattention on my part, which it certainly was a bit, but mostly it was that the original fabricator didn't fix the downtube square to the roller - quite a bit squiffy, in two axes. When I checked the others in the set, it wasn't the only one.

Buy cheap, buy twice -- I never learn!

E.

 

[markaw]

An aggressive blade will also help if they are damp. A heavier set on the teeth helps prevent it jamming. And the lower TPI will help clear out the damp sawdust which is quite a bit more 'clingy' than dry.