Wooden mangle roller repair

[Patricia2]

Hello all.
I have an old mangle with wooden rollers. Sadly the rollers are in very poor condition and either need replacing or resurfacing. I want to use the mangle to roll slabs of clay, I'm a potter and the mangle would be a great tool. Anyone got any experience of making or refurbishing rollers and are willing to give me some advice. I live in France but know a wood turner. Just wondering if it is possible to get the metal shaft out of the old rollers or if I would need to destroy them to get at the shaft. Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

[Les Symonds]

Making a new pair of rollers is a very simple job, once seasoned wood of the necessary dimensions has been sourced. As for the existing fittings, are you sure that there's a shaft running right through the old roller? If so, then I imagine that you'd have to destroy the old rollers to remove the shafts, but it occurred me that the fittings might not be connected right through the roller by a single shaft, in which case it might be possible to remove and re-use them.
Resurfacing them would be limited to mounting them on the lathe and skimming the outer surface so as to true them up....it's not possible to say whether or not this is an option without knowing how much adjustment you've got in the big hand-screw on top of the mangle. If there's plenty of adjustment available and the surface of the rollers isn't too badly out of true, then I'd skim them.
Best of luck with it...Les

[seventhdevil]

i have bought a couple of mangle rollers that were made of lignum and they were indeed a solid bar all the way through.

the hole through the roller had been squared off (don't ask me where you get a tool to do that) down the length so that it was driven by a square bar.

i reckon some heavy hammering should get the bar out (they got it in there after all) but some wd40 may be needed.

i have some 5"beech and sycamore if you are interested for the rollers.

what size wood does your mangle use?

[Patricia2]

Thanks for the replays so far. All good. I will take some pictures and post them. Not sure how the rollers could be mounted on a lathe with the metalwork attached! I will have a go at trying to bash the rollers off their shafts.
Keep the advice coming.

[seventhdevil]

your wood turner will be the one who work out how to mount it as everyone has their own method depending on the machinery they have available.

one the shafts are in the new timber then they can be turned till the surfaces are true.

[Patricia2]

Thanks "Seventhdevil" I will take the rollers off to the wood turner.

[Bryan Milham]

When I've seen mangles with rollers good enough to recognise the timber, it was Beech.

As for turning a round hole to a square hole its a technique called 'Broaching' and is the same as in metal. Slightly larger, then larger again broaches are pushed though the hole, changing its shape to the one that is needed. Rifles and Gun barrels have their 'Rifling' broached into them.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Of cours the easier method to get a square hole is machine half a hole in two bits and glue them together, see engineers always complicate things.

[malcy]

Just here a word of caution. Some rollers like this are crowned to even pressure across the width. Not sure what yours were like but you should check exactly what is needed before your turner gets to work. Malcolm.

[Jwalmsley4]

I know this is an old thread, but just have a question that's related to the topic.
I've been restoring a mangle recently. I've made the wooden rollers and attached them to the metal that runs through them.

I just wondered what people would suggest for protecting the wood
 I'm concerned that when it's used the rollers may stain clothes etc.

Thanks
J

[bodrighywood]

If the namgle was going to be used to roll clothes you wouldn't do anything toi it as any finish would end up on the clothes. If it is merely an ornamental item then oil is probably your best bet as if you want it to look original you don't want a glossy finish. One I refurbished was actually wire brushed beech making it look used then oiled, I think I used teak oil long time ago.

Pete

[Jwalmsley4]

Thanks Pete.
Okay, that's what I thought. I'll leave it for now then. If they decide to stop using it they can oil it themselves 😅

J

[julcle]

When I was a mere boy I seem to remember my mothers mangle had rollers that were pure white in colour and were as fluffy as hell but it just worked, there was no coating on the rollers,  --  Julian

[bodrighywood]

When I was a mere boy I seem to remember my mothers mangle had rollers that were pure white in colour and were as fluffy as hell but it just worked, there was no coating on the rollers,  --  Julian

They are usually beech and get wet so much the surface becomes raised hence my having to wire brush them.

Pete

[Mike313]

When I was a mere boy I seem to remember my mothers mangle had rollers that were pure white in colour and were as fluffy as hell but it just worked, there was no coating on the rollers,  --  Julian

If memory serves, the one my Mum had (about '58 to '60) also had white rollers. They were rubber and slightly soft to the touch. A strong spring mechanism pressed them together so they did a good job of pressing water out of clothes  but still had enough 'give' to do so without damaging buttons or zips etc.