17 Replies

I was in Menard’s a few months ago and" they had these on sale for $10/ea":http://www.harborfreight.com/132-lb-capacity-roller-stand-68898.html. I bought 2, thinking I didn’t have much to lose. They are cheaply made ( the HF ones in the link are identical to the ones i bought) and it’s a little tough to get the feet level, but they really work well. One thing I noticed was that the legs colsed up when I shifted them, so I added this PVC to keep them open (this was a tip in a magazine I copied).

Thanks. How does the height knob work for you? That was one of my issues – the threads stripped.

The bearings in my rollers died. I just cut a couple plugs from plywood, drilled holes and installed them as bearings and the cheap beast is off and running again.

If needed, I can go out and photo them and post them.

That sounds great. Also sounds exactly like my roller issue. There is some kind of rubber wheel that is tore up. I guess that’s what you replaced with plywood.

That’s the animal, Brian. Seems to work well enough I don’t think about it – until you brought it up. After all, I seldom get the rollers up over ninety.

This is the simple of it, Brian.

I’ll give that a try. Looks exactly the same as mine. I’ll let you know if it works out.

You could make one yourself

I got 4 rollers with stands from harborfreight almost 7 years ago and they work fine. I usually trash anything that has to do with harborfreight due to very bad experiences with their electric tools but I must say the rollers are working fine.

I’m going to try Kelly’s suggestion first. It meets my criteria: as close to free as possible. LOL. Plus I took the roller apart last night and figured out how to do it and keep the bearing. We’ll see how that works out.

Also, while I was thinking about it, I came up with an idea for the broken height adjustment knobs using c clamps permanently attached. Maybe I can bring these things back to life after all.

My height knobs are working fine so far, but I can imagine them breaking or stripping out. There’s a meaty spot on the stand where they thread in, probably almost 3/8" thick. I think if one broke/stripped/failed in some manor, I’d drill it out and tap it for a 1/4"-20 thread and use a threaded knob.

We’ll see how this works out. They weren’t easy to make. I don’t have a plug cutter the right size and one broke in half (thickness wise) when I pounded it into the tube. I may have to get new ones after all but I’ll see how long these last before spending any money.

Finally fixed my other problem.

If the threads on the stand strip like they did before, the clamp serves as a backup. :-)

That will definitely hold it in place.

I’d say your stands are much more robust now than they were.

I ended up buying 2 new ones yesterday at harbour freight. My roller repair did not work out so well and I don’t plan to buy a $15 hole saw to repair a roller I can buy new for $15. I can still use the old rollers as backups like I did today while cutting plywood. Nice to have 4 rollers for cutting a full sheet on the table saw.

I used rollers in my early days as woodworker. My contractor style table saw did not have a wide work surface.
With the cabinet saw fitted with an out-feed table, I rarely reach for my roller anymore.
I do when I cut long pieces on the infeed side.

For $15, it makes sense to have few around.