Carpet mill rollers?

[video=youtube;nq7h6nQmKoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq7h6nQmKoM[/video]

roller blade wheels and roller blade bearings.

Carpet mills have evolved from years past. The carpet mills of 'yesteryear' used the PVC piping set ups, even seen them where the carpet slides over a stationery piece of PVC pipe. Others had carpet sliding on sanded plywood. These are very hard to turn by design. They have served their purpose over time and can continue to serve as well.

In time the end rollers, carpet selection and sliding surfaces have changed to 'free' the mills. Once upon a time there were carpet mills and slat mills. I think todays mills (from what I see posted and advertised) are more along the lines of a belt mill. The above mill is on roller blade wheels with a plastic sliding surface. The carpet is light. A dog on this mill can spin it just as fast as most slat mills. One hard hand pull and this mill will make three revolutions. At a walk or slow trot it is driven just like 'old style' carpet mills but it has a lot of top end speed as well. I like it.

My first mill I built some years ago I used a 5/8 steel rod, 3/4 inch black pipe insulation stuffed inside a 2" piece of PCV pipe. The carpet was thick and heavy. It worked but not aw well as I hoped. I then modified the end rollers. I went to a plastic sliding surface. I lightened up the carpet. It took 10-15 modifications to get the mill to match the type of work I was looking to put into the dog. I ended up with a roller blade wheel/roller blade bearing setup attached to a wood end roller.

Best of luck. It takes a little thought, but it falls far short of being brain surgery. LOL> S

 

[video=youtube;qqB1Gb-gjFk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqB1Gb-gjFk[/video]

This is the same roller set up on a different style frame. (sides are different). The female here is coming off some sprint work on the mill. She is winding down/cool down. The mill is free turning and really smooth.

A carpet mill must be smooth operating as well. If a dog pushes back and the carpet or belt bunches up because of the end roller resistance it will not be a good work out and it can also injure the dog. When the dog pushes back the carpet/belt should move in proportion to his effort. It should not bunch or ride up prior to getting to the roller. "Smooth" is a far better characteristic that "free" when referring to a carpet mill (belt mill). S

 

Should be two videos. US1 free spinning carpet mills on youtube. S

 

Looks good K9, makes me wanna built one.

 

As long as it works for the dog. What tends to happen in the 'mill community' is the bells and whistles over shadow what the mill is suppose to do. When I first started selling the mills I 45'ed all the corners, filled the holes with wood putty, sanded, stained, sanded and stained. It was a furniture quality piece of equipment. Really nice to look at. With my time and efforts the price escalated over $300 and sometimes close to $400 for differing hook ups/colors/styles.

Over time I felt like all that was a waste of time. The end of the day I want the dog to be worked on the mill not my buddy telling me how nice it looks. So when it works, that is all that really matters. Bells & whistles can't cut the mustard. S