My forward keel roller had become badly grooved, and was obviously not rotating properly.
There is a set of photos at this link
https://www.dropbox.com/...XTWvJlAOTj9W24_vlya?dl=0
The axle was obviously a very loose fit in the mounting before it had been tack welded to secure it. The whole assembly is very much “as-welded”, with a lot of weld distortion, so the axle support brackets are not parallel.
The first two photos show the roller re-assembled after the tack welds have been cut away with a Dremel tool, and the axle punched out. The couple of millimetre clearance between the axle and the support can be seen. The holes were dressed to be reasonably round using a small grindstone in a Dremel tool.
I machined a new axle from some 18mm diameter 316 Stainless steel. This is a tight fit into the axle supports at each side. The axle OD is about 17.5mm. The port side hole is the largest, so the axle is inserted from that side. I machined a groove in the axle just on the inside of the port-side support. The “C” shaped retaining clip is made from a S/S penny washer for a 10mm bolt. This is fixed with a 3mm countersunk head machine screw through the support.
The new roller is machined from Acetal. The outer part of each end is cut back by about 1mm, leaving a bearing shoulder around the axle, so that the roller will not be so prone to binding up on the [not very parallel] supports. The ID is just enough for it to run freely on the axle.
We'll see if it works in the coming season!
Dick
Dark Star P275 No 36