The Tarheel Roller & Brayer Composition roller making process.
The extensive process of preparing cores, casting
rollers, and building boxes for shipment is all done by Owner David
Hauser and Alan Wrights.
Composition rollers are made by heating a mixture of hide glue, glycerin, water and orange dye.
Specific amounts of hide glue, and other ingredients are weighed for each batch of rollers.
Molding tubes and core centering stars line one wall of the roller casting shop, with the pressure kettle in the foreground
Tarheel recasts rollers on customer's original cores.
Old roller material is hand cut from cores with a sharp knife.
Cores are scrubbed cleaned by hand with a wire brush under hot water.
Cores are strung with jute twine to ensure composition bonds to surface.
The twine is wound and looped tightly without the use of knots.
Roller boxes are hand made for each set of rollers
Each box is custom built for a specific size roller
Tarheel Roller produces each box according to high quality standars
Core supports are precisely marked to keep rollers from touching.
Holes are drilled to fit specific roller core diameters.
Tarheel Roller manufactures a variety of box sizes for any number of rollers.
Composition rollers are cast in a Gatlin gun casting mold.
Prior to casting, each tube is cleaned with kerosene then swabbed with mold release.
Tarheel Roller uses the original cmposition roller guns from W.F. Isley Company.
Composition ingredients are mixed and melted in the original steam heated, double walled copper kettle.
The Copper kettle can handle a batch of about 150 lbs of material.
After casting, roller ends are trimmed to proper length for core.
Each set of rollers is placed in boxes for shipping.
Rollers are given a final inspection prior to shipment.
Tarheel Roller's logo is now imprinted on all new wooden boxes.
A close up view shows detail of Tarheel Roller box logo.
