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[GarrettJ]

Think this thread is going to be my favourite.

I had a contact for a press in India, will try to dig it out if interested

[Ryan]

Looks very good James, how have you found sourcing the roller??

[hell4leather cricket]

I will look tmw I might have a spare roller I would sell if that helps ?

[Bambooman]

Looks very good James, how have you found sourcing the roller??

No problems at all. It's just a turned component so anyone with the right CNC lathe (if you want a radius, otherwise a manual lathe is fine) should be able to do it, I have a local fabricator doing all the components for me. I purposely designed all the parts so that they could be made as cheaply as possible from the cheapest materials (low carbon steel mostly). The only difference with the roller is that it really needs to be made from stainless steel which is a fairly expensive material. Especially if you have a large diameter, I have kept mine quite small because of this. The only other thing with the roller was making sure it was the correct radius (other than the flat one) which for me meant making a plane with the opposite profile and making sure I could sharpen it at that radius consistently.

[Ryan]

I will look tmw I might have a spare roller I would sell if that helps ?

That would be great Matt, drop me an email or PM please.

[Number 11]

Durston mills used in my trade are very good and really well made. They could easily do the roller profiles you want.
A bat press would probably be an oversize barstard child of their rolling mills and their draw bench.

http://www.durston.co.uk/lan-multi/index.php

[Northern monkey]

How's the presses doing guys?

[Bambooman]

How's the presses doing guys?

Very slowly unfortunately, due to a few redesigns to reduce cost and problems material sourcing, Then my fabricator got ill (ok now thankfully). Still hoping to have it working before Christmas though. If anyone was to ask I would probably suggest sourcing one in its entirety from India or elsewhere as hell4leather also suggests provided your ok with screw compression design. Luckily I enjoy the design process and can deal with the engineering problemsbut I appreciate many wouldn't. It would also be more than likely cheaper even after taxes and import duties etc.
thanks for asking.

[Northern monkey]

Keep at it, and post some pics if possible :-)

[Bambooman]

Keep at it, and post some pics if possible :-)

Cheers, and will do.

[KIPPERS]

Now I know your all bonkers on here

[edge]

The only other thing with the roller was making sure it was the correct radius (other than the flat one) which for me meant making a plane with the opposite profile and making sure I could sharpen it at that radius consistently.

Maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick here but you're planning to sharpen the roller? Good quality stainless shouldn't need a lot of maintenance when being used with willow I wouldn't have thought?

Only just seen this thread, interesting to read through. Would be interested in seeing more shots of the full model if you're willing to post it? Agree that the bearings being mounted on the roller is a much simpler way to go, however if you are doing that then what is the need for the pillow blocks, particularly ones with inbuilt grease ports? Surely a pinch bolt assembly would perform the same job of holding the shaft in place with less complications for lower cost? Any design or stress calculation stuff don't hesitate to drop me a pm if anyone needs a hand, I'm a mechanical engineer by profession and it seems an interesting project! Guessing the major difficulties will be in the moving sled part of the press, how are you going about that?

[Bambooman]

Maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick here but you're planning to sharpen the roller? Good quality stainless shouldn't need a lot of maintenance when being used with willow I wouldn't have thought?

Lol
My fault for poor explanation. Of course there would be no need to sharpen the roller! I was referring to the problem of shaping the blade face profile to match that of the roller so you're not fitting a square peg into a round hole, so to speak. If, unlike me, you are lucky enough to have a profiler then you can simply machine the blade face to match the curve of the roller. Of course if you want a flat face profile, like many modern bats, profiling the face is not a problem, but I feel it's better to offer an option to any customer. For this reason I made my own concave plane so I can manually shape the face of the blade prior to pressing. Which of course means having to maintain a concave cutting edge which can be a bit of a tricky think to do.
Hope this makes sense.
The bat press has been modelled in AutoCAD Inventor so all the stress analysis is done done for you, but thanks for the offer.
The whole thing is designed around an old lathe that was originally used to clean up the inside of wooden barrels apparently and had been sat in the hedge for over 50 years according to the hedge owner. It took days to clean it up and get it moving again but is perfect for using as a slide for the press.

[Bambooman]

Now I know your all bonkers on here

Naturally! Your point being?

[KIPPERS]

I didn't say that like it was a bad thing