A new roller hook

My Kelsey 9×13 press was missing one roller hook, and another was pretty bent.

I thought that I might be able to straighten the bent one enough to get it off the roller arms. How hard can it be to unbend a 1/4″ steel rod? With little to leverage it against, pretty darn difficult!

I ended up tapping the bent arm through the roller arm gently with a hammer. As it worked it’s way through the holes, it partially straightened out, and I finished the job in a bench vise.

To make a new hook, I picked up some round steel stock at the hardware store. I bent it in the bench vise, leaving a generous amount on both ends, then created a loop that I crushed in the vise until the inside diameter matched the others. Then I cut both ends to length, and adjusted the angle of the hook end.

I touched up the inside diameter of the hook using a rotary tool, and used a collet to keep the spring in place, since I did not thread the straight end for a nut.

I was missing a spring, and did not find an exact match at the hardware store. I was also having trouble getting the tension right with the original springs, and I suspect the heavy rust on the springs affected their elasticity.

In the end, I replaced all four springs with new matching ones, and used spacers to help get the tension right.