Toilet Roller Bearing

This toilet roll holder greatly enhances the unrolling experience of toilet paper.

A fusion project of a bicycle hub and lavatory paper to enroll in the Modify It Speed Challenge…

Some words on the design: the outer diameter of a bicycle axle flange matches well to the inner diameter of a toilet roll. The ball bearings in the hub make it a high-grade toilet paper holder, indestructible and stylish - especially for bike lovers and bicycle repair(wo)men.

Frankly speaking the smooth unrolling is rather a drawback than an advantage: imagine the bunch of paper on the bathroom floor. To slow the unrolling down a bit the ball bearing nut may be tightened somewhat, resulting a some additional friction inside the ball bearings.

Fixing the spindle can be done easily using a hook iron: preferably a short-sided one to prevent seeing it behind the paper roll. And make sure to leave one side open to change the toilet roll. As there is no standard size for toilet roll dimensions try to find a toilet paper brand that matches the size of your leftover bicycle hub. A tight fit of the toilet roll to the spindle is preferable, to avoid it from running down. Or adapt the hub diameter, see the next step.

The diameter of the axis flange may be reduced by filing. The pictures show how this has been done using the hub's rotating capabilities: a drill is driving the spindle through a rubber coupling sleeve, and a flat file is applied manually (use an old file or perhaps sanding paper). In this way the diameter was easily reduced from 46 mm (1.81 in) to 45 mm (1.77 in), resulting in a tight fit of the toilet roll. Also, the flange was curved a bit to make exchanging the roll smoother.

The time-lapse movie endlessly shows the unrolling of the paper. In reality it runs super smoothly of course.

Wow – this is the 50th Instructable by Openproducts!

Here links to the best ones so far:

• Bike Rim Chandelier
• LED Replacement in Bicycle Headlight
• Easy Cable Clip - Sucker Version
• Colander Effect Lamp Using a Magnifying Glass
• CountClock for kids: intuitively learning to tell the time

If you like to see all then check out the Openproducts Gallery.

Another time lapse movie closes this Toilet Roller Bearing Instructable, published in October 2020 under Creative Commons Attribution by Openproducts.

But wait!

If you like this work then share the info on Twitter (https://twitter.com/openproducts) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/openproductsdesign). Thanks...