snow roller

[mink]

theres a snow roller on new hampshire craigslist , thursday jan 24. lots of pictures of it old and new . i dont know how to post a link. i seen this and said to myself a guy could make this from an old horse dump rake. take a look its kind of neat…mink

[Carl Russell]

@mink 39424 wrote:

…. i dont know how to post a link……

Highlight the URL, then copy and paste it into the text of your post http://nh.craigslist.org/grd/3559537619.html ….. or click on the web-link icon above, and paste it in the URL box in that window…http://nh.craigslist.org/grd/3559537619.html

Carl

[Eli]

Very cool. When i was a kid I remember seeing a roller like that someplace and wondering what it was for. It looked big to be a used to a field roller. Now if I can remember where I saw it. Eli

[NB axemen]

Good find!

I though about doing this for a long time, I seen one before in a Percheron calendar…

I always though if you were to take the rolls the power company use for their cables, put 2 of them together, run a pipe through the center on bearings, and then built it with boards it should do the same trick!!

It would certainly help in building trails in the summer.

[Jonathan Shively]

Man that is cool. Heck with making it a yard ornament, get a team and pack a cross country trail with it! That is neat.

[Andy Carson]

Does anyone know what do for bearings on these designs? Weight and miles would seem to make this a critical point. I can’t tell if that is a modern bearing in the photos, but I see shiny metal.

[mink]

i think it is just solid wood . id imagine the slow speed use it would last indefinately, maybe they squirted it with oil from time to time?
i had a neighbor use round wood blocks for a chain tensioner and they lasted for a very long time

[Michael Low]

I built a snow roller last year. I made the bearings out of ash. I put some bar and chain oil on them from time to time. The old timers around here seem to think they may last longer than metal.
There is a snow roller museum in my town, and it looks like each design is unique to the maker. Some bearings are wood, some metal.
The size I built, 3′ diameter, was actually a common size used in Vermont according to the curator of the roller museum. It works very well and is easy to pull on our steep hill farm.

Michael Low

[Tim Harrigan]

That is pretty cool. Do you know how much it weighs? Does the weight seem about right? What kind of wood did you use for the rest of it?

[CanoeTomah]

This is a great topic, always thought about making one.
Low any other information you could share on the construction or about rollers in general would great.
Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Jonathan Shively]

I could be wrong, typing from the tips of my fingers and not double checking anything, but if I remember correctly, charring the area hardens it for an axle assembly. Does that ring a bell to anyone?

[Michael Low]

The roller weighs around 600lbs. I would like to build a rack so that I can add 200-300 lbs sometimes, to get a little more compacting action. I do like the light weight though for breaking new trails through deep snow heading up hill.

On our regularly rolled farm road the boys only have to work a 3-5 (10 being hardest). Through deep snow uphill it sometimes peaks at a 7-8.

I have tried a 7′ wide V-plow, and also large equipment tires for plowing our farm road with the oxen. The road is 1/2 mile long and has some steep hills on it. The V-plow and the tires would often prove to be very hard, especially on the way back up the hill. I think given the draft, distance and snow levels 3 animal would have made it work. For my team even in hard condition it was a lot to ask them to do.

The roller gets the job done, is not an extreme exertion like the plow sometimes was, and it makes a nice packed road.

The rolls and frame I made out of Tamarack, the tongue and bearings are ash.

Here are some more photos of how I built it.

[Michael Low]

And one last photo.

[near horse]

Here’s a link to one in operation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSGL1F7Cw1U

Michael – some I have seen are nearly 5′ in diameter – possibly for ease in deeper snow?
BTW – you did a great job with your roller. Nice work.

[Michael Low]

Yes the bigger rollers could handle deeper snow. I guess it would not have been practical for them to roll mid-storm (which is what I have to do if it is forecast to be alot) in the past. Our town had multiple rollers of different sizes, and access to the horsepower needed to pull the larger ones.

I’ve never heard of fire hardening the bearings. But I have heard of fire hardening wood in tandem with burnishing (compressing the fibers through rubbing). The bearings on the roller would naturally get burnished in this case with use.
Michael

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