2018 - Volume #BFS, Issue #18, Page #48
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“Roller” Smoothes Out Jagged Barrel Rims
Barrel rims are smooth when Steve Morin finishes processing them with his barrel rim roller. Cutting a top off a steel barrel can leave rough and even jagged edges. The hand-crank roller rides the rim and leaves a smooth edge behind.
  “We open about 15 barrels a month with a device like a giant P-38, and it leaves a jagged edge on the rim,” says Morin. “The guys in the shop don’t like wearing gloves just to roll barrels around, so I needed a way to smooth out the rim. I could have pounded on the rims with a hammer for 15 min., but I came up with my roller instead.”
  The roller consists of a 1-in. sq. steel tube with 2 steel rollers. One mounts on a shaft with a Thomson bearing. The shaft extends through the steel tube to a hand crank. A second roller (just above the first) is mounted on a bearing through a slot in the side of the steel tube. Inside the tube, it is fastened to a steel block at the end of a threaded rod. The rod extends through another threaded steel block welded to the end of the tube and is topped by a knob.
  “I added a short length of 3/4-in. pipe to the other end of the tube to give me more leverage,” says Morin. “I can hold it in one hand while turning the crank with the other.”
  Turning the threaded rod lets Morin adjust the space between the 2 rollers to fit them over the rim and make an initial pass.
  “I knurled the roller on the crank to give it some grip,” says Morin. “When I get to a seam in the barrel, the threaded rod lets me back off on the pressure to go over it. I can go around the rim once, tighten it down, and make a second or third pass to leave a smooth rim.”
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steven Morin, 448 Belanger Rd., Caribou, Maine 04236 (ph 207 227-5836; smorinmay10@gmail.com).


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2018 - Volume #BFS, Issue #18