Strainers and Buck Rolls

[jwwright]

I was wondering where you other saddle makers get your metal seat strainers. I have purchased them from a couple of places, and am not entirely happy with either.

Also, can you give me a good idea of where to purchase good buck rolls, at reseller's prices? I build an occasional slick fork, and once in a great while have a request for buck rolls. Since this is a fairly rare deal for me, I am not real interested in building them.

Thank You, JW

[bruce johnson]

JW,

I get my strainers from Bill Bean. He sells them direct or Vandy and Luke have them at Sheridan Leather. I take mine over a wire wheel to kind of clean up the burr on the edges. I have bought my bucking rolls in the past from Tips in Winnemucca. At least around here, they have a decent reputation for holding up, and are stuffed pretty well. They don't give resellers prices, but are good enough I figured I could just buy them and hang them on less expensively than the time it would have taken me to work out patterns and techniques on making them. Some of the reseller bucking rolls are pretty iffy - loose packing, wavy welts, and things like that. After this little rush here, I am going to take a couple weeks and work up some new stamp patterns, some new sewing machine feet, and some new products. Bucking rolls are on that list.

[steve mason]

you guys may want to try Jeremiah's watts buck roll inserts, they save you some time, he has a nice pattern, and the roll will be as firm or firmer than the best stuffed buck rolls you have ever seen.

for tin I get them cut from a friend with a band saw to my pattern, then I go to shaping on the anvil.

[Hidemechanic]

When I was doing freight deliveries about a year ago I had several heating and cooling outfits I went to who had scrap sheet metal, some times you can talk them out of some good pieces or get them to give you a deal on pieces they don't want to mess with.

Steve, are JW's buck roll inserts solid?

GH

[steve mason]

When I was doing freight deliveries about a year ago I had several heating and cooling outfits I went to who had scrap sheet metal, some times you can talk them out of some good pieces or get them to give you a deal on pieces they don't want to mess with.

Steve, are JW's buck roll inserts solid?

GH

http://www.ranch2arena.com/buckrollforms.html

[Go2Tex]

Tractor Supply sells small sheets of galvanized tin, various guages. Then just use tin snips and cut out your own. The 2-piece strainer is pretty easy to make.

I feel your pain about the bucking rolls. They take a lot of time if you aren't tooled up to make a bunch of them at once. I just charge enough to pay for my time on them like anything else.

[jwwright]

Bruce, Steve, GH and Tex..........Thank You for your replies and suggestions. ....I just got an order of stuff from Vandy...........should have got a couple of Bean strainers to try. Looks like I'll be calling them again.

Tex, I have never tried using a 2 piece strainer set up. I know everyone has their own way of doing things, and usually with their own good reasons. Is there a particular reason you prefer the 2 piece?

Thanks, JW

[Go2Tex]

Yeah, they're easy to make and adapt to any tree or stirrup set-up. I use a lighter weight metal than most premade strainers which are all one piece. If I need extra strength up front I double the metal and wrap the edges of the bottom piece around the top piece so they are nice and smooth and quite strong. Or, I can use different guage tin for the seat piece and front piece. The seat piece front edge gets folded over for extra strength but the rest of it really doesn't need to be that heavy to work. The front piece gets pretty narrow between the stirrup slot and hand hole and the thinner metal can be weak in that area. So, I double it up right there if needed.

Simply put, the 2 piece gives me more flexiblility of fit and design. Plus, I don't have to go far to get the materials.

The 2 piece strainer is also able to flex where the 1 piece is rigid. Depending on the application, that might be a plus or minus.