Rolling Pin Rescue

My sister-in-law found a rolling pin at a Salvation Army about 30 years ago - spending the outrageous sum of 50 cents on it. It's grown to be a coveted possession and is critically integral to our Thanksgiving Day feast. It's a key tool for the creation of her magic Pecan Pies. This year, right in the middle of major heavy pie madness, the ol' girl gave out. The handle pin broke at the at the roller. We managed to get through the rest of the pie build, but a fix was needed.

The Problem

Up Close

This thing was old when Howie found it, so I'm sure it's seen it's share of battle pie. From the looks of the remaining pieces, the pin was actually pressed into the end where there are 4 pieces of wood set like wedges to hold the pin. Although that's what it looked like, I wasn't sure and I was unable to do much with it anyway.

I decided to try to get the broken part out first. It measured about 0.5", so I rigged up a way to hold it on my drill press and went at a bit undersize with a 29/64. Just as I was getting to the final depth, VOILA! the broken piece just came out!

Broken piece of handle stuck to the end of the drill bit

- I tried to get the 4 "wedges" out, but got no where. I could have simply made a new wooden pin, but I knew I couldn't match the end of thing. So I decided to create a hidden fix that would be strong enough to stand up to another 30 years of pie making. 

I decided to use a couple of pieces of stainless, one - a shaft to go in the end of the rolling pin and stick out. Then another, thin walled sleeve piece to slip over that and provide the a place to insert the end cap.

Turn the OD of the sleeve

I ordered a couple of bits of 304 Stainless from McMaster-Carr that was close to the sizes I needed. I had to turn a bit off the OD of the sleeve and bore it to 0.510. After a bit of finishing and cutting to size, I had the pieces. 

All the pieces

I decided to simply glue the thing together. I used some JB Weld to join the sleeve to the shaft. I then used some epoxy to glue the shaft into the rolling pin. 

Dry Fit

Glued up

Once the glue had set up I cut the wooden end cap down to about an 1" and then pressed it into the end. 

Looks to me like it's ready for battle!

Ready for Action!