Wow! I thought I was the only person that does this! I'm having the same issue now with my restoration of two Mellotron machines, or proto-sampling keyboards. I'll watch your video, but what ive been doing is putting a tire on the replacement wheel and putting the wheel in a drill that I have locked in a vice, spinning rather fast, and then I use a dremel drum sander to shape it to a perfectly round shape that is within specs. The rubber I use is from some high pressure hoses, which are high quality rubber, I'd they're not reinforced with nylon threads... and this makes them perfectly round and very "grabby", as they need to be to make the 'Tron effectively playable. After I'm done shaping them, I leave then spinning and clean them off with Naphtha and a cotton shop towel. The Naphtha cleans and conditions them, leaving them very grabby and smooth/shiny. Was curious where you source small roller bearings, as the ones I'm changing out have very small axles and the new rollers are much more open. I'll watch now, thanks. BTW, the rollers I've sourced are actually found on old 8 track tape cartridges. The rollers in those are injection molded neoprene, I believe; and are pretty nicely made. They've lasted 50 or so years with no serious breakdown. And are practically free. Going to see if I can figure something out now.
That is useful. For those of us who do not have a lathe, we can share your instructions with friends who may have one. A gift to them of a drink or meal in exchange for some milling is a very good alternative to spending £200 on eBay.
I was saying that I spin the wheel in a drill and use a Dremel drum sander while it's spinning. This works well and the shape is always perfectly round, with the right technique. Practice makes perfect. I'm on my wife's account, but I'm rebuilding a Mellotron, so I need 70!! So it has to be inexpensive, and not take forever. The originals are RIVETED. NOT FUN! LOL.
Between the fix of the mower, where the going price for clutches was 150 and now learning pinch rollers for 200, I'm beginning to think there's a market for these spare parts that's least "half" the price of that listed on the manufacturers websites. Wowza.
I’m thinking that if people who actually own a lathe would just stick an advert on their local social media, then they might be overwhelmed with little jobs like this one and could retire at 40… 😹 I don’t need one very often, but the number of times I wish I had access to one must be countless
Excellent video, Stumbled across this while looking for a solution for something else, but I think I can use the knowledge you shared on another project. Thank You...
Thanks for sharing. While I have machined a lot off odd things over the years I have never tried rubber. I don't think I have a button insert holder but I'll have to run out to the shop and check.
I gave it a whirl this morning. The glue I used to fix the hose to the aluminum shaft did not hold which caused some problems but for a first try it went OK. Several passes at the final diameter will help to improve the surface finish. A light touch of sandpaper at the end makes for a very nice finish.
@@____________________________.x First try was using super glue, did not hold well. Second try used Silicone RTV, much better. Third try was urethane glue which slid off the shaft as rubber hose slid on. A knurled shaft so as to provide a both a well to hold glue in place and better mechanical bond to the rubber might help.
Thank you very much Jerry! This is a very useful & educational video on this process. One question though: do you have to hone the edge of the button cutter/insert or can you buy them specially made for cutting soft materials like rubber & silicon? I ask because I've never purchased insert tooling & inserts. (I was given one "regular"(?) insert holder with a handful of "diamond-shaped" inserts that I sometimes use for turning aluminum & steel, but I know nothing about the insert specs for what I've got. They're definitely not razon-sharp being "regular" carbide inserts.)
