jimerickson Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 I know a lot of you aren't interested in my continuing modification of Zelda, my APQS Ult 2 longarm system, but for the few that are, I want to share my latest upgrade. For the last four years, I've been turning Zelda's rollers by gripping the roller itself, and turning it. The rollers are about 1.5 inches in diameter, and don't give you a lot of leverage (Zelda's rollers turn very easily because of the ball bearing pillow blocks they're mounted in) to move the machine and the quilt back and forth, and with the take up and backing rollers unlatched, they want to unroll all by themselves. Gripping the roller themselves, especially the backing roller over the years wore some of the paint off. I got tired of this situation, and decided to try and install a set of hand wheels to turn the rollers with. The Gammill Classic I have came with a set of hand wheels on it. Gammill way over did it. Their hand wheels are about 8 inches in diameter (actually I think the take up roller's hand wheel is 10 ") and made of cast iron. You certainly don't need that kind of leverage to turn the rollers. They are too large to grip with your hand like you would a door knob, so you must grip the rim of the wheel and turn it a portion of a full rotation. So I decided that I wanted smaller hand wheels that I could grip like a door knob. I began searching my catalog references, and found several different sizes offered by Grizzly International, the Washington based tool manufacturer. The shafts on Zelda's rollers are 5/8" diameter, so any hand wheel with a larger bore was dismissed. The other problem I have is that the roller shafts are not long enough to pass through the pillow block mounts, and still provide enough length and clearance to mount hand wheels. I needed to lengthen them. I could have removed the rollers and welded extensions on them, but that seemed like a lot of trouble, and would have required disassembling part of the table, so I decided to simply bolt extensions on. Because I knew it would be very difficult to center everything on thr roller shafts, I decided to make the extensions from 1/2" stock instead. Grizzly has 1/2" bore plastic hand wheels that were 4" in diameter, so I ordered 3 of them (delivered they cost about $20 total) Each hand wheel is also bored and tapped on the rim for hand wheel handles. I passed on the handles figuring that thy would just catch on my clothing as I walked by the end of the table. (my quilting room is a little snug). While I was waiting for the delivery of the hand wheels I built my roller shaft extensions. I cut three 1/2" bolts off using the 1.25" unthreaded shaft as my extension stock. (I think the bolts were probably 3" to begin with) I drilled half inch deep holes in each end of each shaft, and tapped 5/16" threads on both sides. I then cut three 1" pieces of 5/16 threaded stock, screwed each in on end of the extension stock, and wended them secure. Next I drilled and tapped corresponding holes in the ends of the take up roller, the backing roller, and the top roller. I the screwed the extensions on to the roller shafts. My concern about centering the holes in the roller shafts was warranted. In spite of my best effort to center, and starting with a small drill to bore the shaft, none was in exactly the center. However, each is close enough that they will slid through the pillow block without problem. I used thread setting compound to secure the extensions to the shafts. A couple of days later the Grizzly hand wheels arrived. The hand wheels fit perfectly. After using them some I decided that the handles I had passed on might be helpful. But rather that buy them, I set about building myself a set that were both compact and easily removable. They work wonderfully. It is much easier to manipulate a loaded quilt now. When I load a back, I roll roll it from the backing roller to the take up roller, and back to straighten and equalize tension. It's a breeze. I'm adding a photo to show them. BTW, the 4" plastic hand wheels are exactly what the job calls for. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted November 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 When you read this you'll discover that I've made a number of typo's. I usually am very careful about proof reading before I post. Well I was so concerned about posting the photo, I neglected to do so. I apologize. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Jim, those look really nice. I wish my Nolting frame had something like this. I'm not up to any projects right now, but I will have to remember your post and maybe see if I can't make something like this to fit my frame. Thanks so much for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted November 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Bonnie: If your roller shafts stick out an inch or more from the frame, I think you could buy 3 wheels and just put them on with out any real modifications. All you'd need is wheels with the same bore as your roller shafts (probably 5/8") They just slid on, and clamp with a set screw. If you don't have that much shaft sticking out then I'm afraid you'd have to do something like I did. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K. Szymaszek Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Jim, i just have to say i love that quilt top draped over the frame. So very purdy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Jim, mine looks like this. Is it anything like yours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 The third picture shows me sliding out the large "bolt" which usually sits flush against the frame when it is assembled, holding the roller in place with a small screw. It is only protruding as I removed the screw and am sliding it out to take picture #4. Does your handwheel have a brake on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeke Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Jimmy, I like what you have been doing to your UII. I would be tweaking mine if I still had it. Zeke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted November 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Bonnie: I see how the Noltings work now. Instead of having a shaft attached to the roller that turns, the shaft is fixed to the frame and the roller turns on it. Without changing that set up, any hand wheel would have to attach directly to the roller That's a bit more problematic. If you look closely, you'll see 3 vertical brown "sticks", one on each roller. Those are my toggle clamp brakes. Zelda originally had ratchet systems for the rollers. The ratchets would require 1/2 inch travel of the quilt sandwich for each cog. In order to allow infinite adjustment, I built the toggle brakes. The brown are the wooden lever covers i made to replace the plastic ones that originally came with the toggle clamps. The brakes don't clamp as positively as the ratchets did, but they hold the rollers tight enough to keep them from turning when I quilt. The upside of that is that I can't over tighten my quilt sandwich. LOL. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Jim, mine has the ratchets, too. I'd love for Nolting to add a handwheel system to their frames -- overall I think their frame is really great and I love it, but that would just push it up there to being the cat's meow. Every once in a while I get a quilt too tight, and yeah, it's tough to get it released unless I release the belly bar a little first, but mostly that's just me as I have some hand strength problems, arthritis and overuse syndromes. I think you are right that my system would be more problematic to add a handwheel to. I've been thinking about adding one for the longest time but I just haven't figured out the how part. I see your brown vertical "sticks." Interesting. They look like they work a bit like the Nolting channel locks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Jim, have you seen this? http://innovaquilters.wikispaces.com/file/view/3r1.+The+DIY+Handwheels.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted June 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 This is for Jacq1013. Here are my hand wheels. I have since welded extensions on my roller ends be cause I did have one unscrew on me. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted November 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2016 I'm bringing this post forward so Janice can see the hand wheels I fitted to Zelda my Ult2. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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