HiFi Rollers

**Hazeey** · 04-19-2012, 10:54 PM

Thought I'd post up a pic of a new use I found for those old VCR's you see in the trash. I had a random thought about the size and smooth action of the heads in a VCR one day when I was brainstorming about how to make myself a decent pair of rollers. I waited and watched for a couple VCR's in the recycle pile at work and did just that, recycled 'em into these beauties.

I made a bracket to mount them on from part of an electrical box cover I found also in the recycling,and cut away the area on the back of the heads where I wanted to roll so it doesn't drag on the glass. Then I used the conduit mount from the box that the mounting plate came from and cut a slit to fit the bracket.

Welded that on and then dug some conduit of two diff sizes out of the dumpster for an adjustable stand, drilled a hole for a thumb screw in the outer tube, and found an old cast plumbing cap of some sort for a good heavy base. They glide so smooth and they're nice and wide which helps keep the tube/rod level when need be.

These aren't adjustable for roller width, I just mounted them far enough apart to accomodate about 6 mil at the smallest which puts the top far enough out to handle some pretty big stuff. The next ones I might try to make adjustable though. I'll try and post more detail pics if anyone wants to see others.

**Icarus** · 04-20-2012, 02:18 AM

Awesome work man! Great use of found items!

**Bo Diddles** · 04-20-2012, 03:27 AM

That kicks ass.
Great job!

**mark206nj** · 04-20-2012, 04:50 AM

Ok, they aren't adjustable......but they were FREE and only required some brain power and a little work to assemble. Bravo sir!

**B.C. Creations** · 04-20-2012, 05:52 AM

nice!

**Swampy** · 04-20-2012, 06:20 AM

Ingenious :o)

**LTD** · 04-20-2012, 08:10 AM

Great low cost build! If you mount the narrower piece off conduit to the base and have the larger piece as the sleeve you can loosen thumb screw and raise or lower rollers one handed

**blazemaster83** · 04-20-2012, 09:33 AM

Nice work! i always wondered what you could do with a vcr head. Thanks for sharing!

**Hazeey** · 04-20-2012, 11:10 AM

Thanx for the comments all. LTD that is a great thought and one I will add on the next pair, especially after an on the fly adjustment I needed to do when stick stacking the first time I used 'em.

Well worth the time and effort to get some free rollers that seem pretty sweet so far, keep your eyes peeled. Please share if you make a pair, I'd like to see what someone else comes up with. I'll post up pix of the kiln I just finished this weekend sometime, and maybe a few other handmade shop things I came up with from the work trash.