Rollers (Knuckles)

[Thomas D. Seay, III]

>Hi All
>
>I have a set of Rollers which some dopey Tec  has glued the wooden tails
>in to the sockets, It looks like PVA glue.   If is had been animal glue
>it would not be so bad, I would soak them over knight in Meths and they
>would then come out ok. The last person who did the Rollers did not even
>take notice of the direction of the nap they are all over the place.
>
>My question is have anyone used a small circular saw or band saw to cut
>out the groves on the shanks.  I was thinking of the little Drimmel
>craft table saw. As my band saw is a bit vicious for this job.
>
>BTW it is a trade job so new shanks are out.
>
>
>Barrie

Hi Barrie,

I have done the following procedure many times:

Saw the old knuckles off with your bandsaw. If you are careful, you can cut
them off absolutely flush with the shanks.

I use a 1/16" straight cutting router bit chucked into a drill press
running at the fastest possible speed. I made a fixture which locates the
shanks in the same place each time, relative to the cutter. Run the fixture
containing the shank underneath the bit to cut the slot.You might have to
slightly compress the molding in order to fit it into the slot, but this is
not too difficult a task. This method works very well for me and I have
done about a dozen sets of knuckles (rollers) with no problems.

Good luck.


Tom Seay
School of Music
The University of Texas at Austin
t.seay@mail.utexas.edu