Box? Not exactly. Hollow Form? Well, no....

Kerry Burton

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Orem, Utah
Just for kicks, I thought I would post a (poorly lit) picture of an item I turned several months ago:

A520_0973_MyToiletRollHolder.jpg


The diagram is from the Apr/May 1984 issue of Hands-On magazine, which caters (catered?) to Shopsmith owners. This issue was one of a small stack that was thrown in when I bought my used machine nearly 10 years ago.

For whatever reason, I was flipping through those old back issues and saw this plan for a paper towel holder bar. We didn't happen to need one of those, but I thought it would be fun to make a scaled-down version for a toilet roll holder. As you can see, I scaled down on various lengths but not much on the diameters.

Even though the form is simple, turning such an item to somewhat exacting dimensions was an interesting challenge.

Next time I'll shoot for something closer to the diameter of the metal holder ... but what will I do for the spring? Any ideas?

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I just remembered a related item that might be of interest. I spent 3 weeks in Bangalore India a few years ago for my company, and couldn't help noticing this handmade item in my otherwise upscale hotel bathroom!

DX4330_1107_ToiletRollHolder_TajResidency_Bangalore.jpg
 
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Cool idea, Kerry. I'm sure it was trickier than one might think to get the tolerances just right. You might be able to find a spring at a local Ace or True Value-type hardware store. Even our local Do-It store has a pretty good assortment of miscellaneous springs.
 
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