Toilet paper has become a hot button issue over the last month or so, and the pandemic prompted panic buying, and consequent shortages. Now there are adequate supplies, at least where this is being written, but sometimes one’s rolls aren’t the domestic items we’re all used to. This happened to [Ebenezer], who had some of the large size rolls suitable for toilet roll dispensers rather than a domestic bathroom. To solve this problem he made a makeshift toilet roll winder.
The adventures of small dogs aside, we all know that toilet rolls unroll themselves very easily indeed but are a significant pain to get back on the roll once they have done so. Rolling toilet paper must therefore be an exact science of velocity and tension, which he approached with a 3D printed shaft that mounts a toilet roll tube in a Ryobi drill. Getting the tension right was a bit tricky, but we’re extremely impressed with the result. Like him we’d have expected some side-to-side movement, but there was very little and a near perfect toilet roll was the result.
This is a simple hack, but one extremely well executed, and that it does something we might normally consider near-impossible is a bonus. Of course, should you wish to ration your toilet paper, you can always print it.
Nice, a slightly different design could have been to make the 3D printed core slightly smaller in diameter than a cardboard loo roll and then you put the cardboard roll over the top of the plastic core, that way when you have finished adding all of the toilet paper to the cardboard you can pull it off the plastic core and then move to the next empty cardboard roll, instead of having to use all the toilet roll before getting access to the plastic core.
That possibility is discussed in the linked post.
Time to kill. Why not over engineer?
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Toilet%20paper&geo=US
More like two months, everyone’s sense of time if really out.
We still have no toilet paper in Georgia.
“extremely well executed, and that it does something we might normally consider near-impossible”
A bit heavy on the hyperbole there maybe?
I mean… really? There’s someone on here that is surprised you can roll something up with a power drill?
who hasn’t wound their own coil on a power drill? or loaded their fishing reel, or balled twine. and on and on and on. ive even used mine as a po’ mans lathe.
Need to get a patent on this.
What about this revolutionary idea where you use… water ?
While we’re at it… save the manual tedium of wiping by rotating the roll with the drill at the point of use. Vary the speed of the drill according to requirements, and for really difficult situations switch to Hammer.
You know people used to wipe with corncobs, maybe you could consult with this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk1s45JTtmo
Nah, take inspiration from the belt path of a large bandsaw and have 20ft of heavy duty canvas sewn in a loop, running it through the tank to clean and hot air drying on the return path. You kind of have to climb inside the device and strap in, but it’s gonna polish your pucker like nothing else…
I’m not sure you’ve adequately addressed the entanglement hazard for approximately 50% of users.
Hah, well at least the # of possible entanglements will drop sharply with use…
That’s not all that would drop
Friends have asked me if I could 3D print some kind of brush. Think of the time saving every single day if it had a drill attachment!