On Sat, 12 May 2012 14:39:00 -0700
"Steve B" wrote:

I'm getting ready to make a pipe roller (weld positioner) to do some pipe.
I'm going to use a motor from a bbq pit, and think I can rheostat that down
to make it work.
snip

My Dad made me/us (me the weldor) a roller device using two wheels of
some sort of plastic/nylon. It looked good, cradled the work pieces
nice and turned smooth just futzing around testing it (rotation by
hand). It was made to cradle maybe 2.5 inch thick walled tube that
needed a bead welded around the circumference. Problem was that by the
time you finished welding all the way around, the metal tube was so hot
that the wheels had melted. Snort! seemed obvious after the first go
and the wheels where a bit mushy

Another problem with this design is that weld splatter has a way of
attaching itself to the wheels and/or the material in the area of the
wheel. Some points to ponder in your design...

The best ones we made/used were from old roller-bearings. Just the
bearing itself, nothing else. Even those would get so hot that the
grease would leak out. But that was easy enough to remedy with a few
squirts of oil now and then. Splatter didn't stick to them so bad either.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email