LV roller stand

[Mark Singer]

Does anyone have one of these? They have a reduced price till Dec31 and I am thinking about one....opinions?

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/Woodworking/Assorted/50u0101s3.jpg

[Chris Padilla]

Looks nice...anything coming out of LV is always nice....

[Joe Mioux]

Looks like overkill.

What are the casters made out of? Will they all swivel properly? By that, I mean under a load, will all the casters line up properly to allow the wood to roll over them or could a caster bind up (turn 90 degrees from the intended direction of the wood) and cause drag?
I hope that makes sense to you, Mark.

[Bob Marino]

Mark,

One of the ww mags did a review and gave them top ratings. I am also on the fence about them.

Bob

[Karl Laustrup]

Mark,

I did purchase one of the roller stands. I haven't had the oppotunity to use it yet though. It appears to be very well built and I do believe it will do the job intended.

I am hoping to try in out in the next couple of days. I'll let you know.

Karl

[Karl Laustrup]

Well, I went out to the garage/shop after posting the above message. While I didn't try it cutting wood, I did set it up and look it over closely.

The stand height adjustment is solid. The adjusting knob clamps tight. No slip.

The roller head fine height adjustment is excellent. I could never seem get my old roller stands at the right height. They were always just a little low or just a little high.

I can see where the fine tilt could come in very handy as some of my home dried wood is cupped, torqued, warped etc.

Again, I haven't actually tried it out, but now I think I'm really going to like it.

Karl

[Joseph N. Myers]

Mark,

Of course I can't find the article I read about the stand but do remember that the thing that I liked was the angled piece of metel in front of the rollers. With it, the wood would hit it and "raise" a little till it hit the rollers which then would take over. This would really help if the wood was a little bowed, cupped, etc. And/or help if the planer you were using was one that the "bed" moved up/down thus reducing the number of times you would have to adjusting the stand.

Hard to tell from the picture as it is actually showing the back of the unit, i.e., note the legs, the longer ones would (should) be in the back for best support. I seem to remember the price being in the $70 range which is costly but if you use it a lot, would probably be well worth it.

Trying to think of how many units you would use for say planing. You would want one for the back, maybe two for really long pieces. But could probably get away with a cheaper one for the front.

Regards, Joe

BTW, what is the current price of the unit?

[Karl Laustrup]

Joe, on sale through 12/31 for $65. Reg. $79. The leg length is the same, the picture is an optical illusion. I only plan on one of these. I will use one of my older ones for the front end of my TP or TS.

Karl

[Ken Garlock]

My daughter gave me one of the LV roller stands for Christmas. I think it was very well thought out. The legs are mitered so that when they are fully extended they support the vertical member exactly perpendicular to the floor. If your floor is uneven, one foot has a screw adjustment to keep it from rocking. The roller assembly has the fine adjust to get the rollers exactly where you want them, even with the saw top for example. Also you can adjust the angle/tilt of the rollers with respect to the vertical support. The use of casters allows you to angle the stand to give added support to narrow boards; like the ones that might only touch 2 casters, you can angle the stand with respect to the saw and pick up and additional caster support. The casters don't care since they pivot. If I didn't already have a couple of the borg C&D(cheap and dirty) output stands, I would certainly order another LV stand. I don't see how anyone could be disappointed in it.

If you are on the fence about buying one, fall of on the LV side and order it. :)

[Ken Garlock]

Looks like overkill.

What are the casters made out of? Will they all swivel properly? By that, I mean under a load, will all the casters line up properly to allow the wood to roll over them or could a caster bind up (turn 90 degrees from the intended direction of the wood) and cause drag?
I hope that makes sense to you, Mark.

Hi Joe. The casters appear to be made of hard rubber, but not as hard as a plastic caster. There are 8 casters in a row, and each can only pivot 90 deg. Each caster has approximately 20 ball bearings and the casters swivel very easily. I tried running a 3/4 in. plywood jig over them and there was not the slightest hesitation, the casters immediately followed the direction of the wood. With 8 20 ball casters, I would say that you will be hard put to make it bind.

Regarding over kill, that is a matter of personal opinion. As the directions say, LV has attempted to fix the problems with other output stands, and I think they have done a good job.

Happy New Year :)