I am making a ghetto roll laminator. I have an apache pouch laminator that i made a set of 4 arms for, which hold 2x 12mm shafts that 2 rolls of laminating film are sitting on. The rolls have 1" core, and i am thinking of using linear motion bushings as roll inserts: Uxcell a12102600ux0463 LMF12LUU 12mm x 21mm x 57mm Bushings (already have in hand). I'll have to build up the bushings OD to match roller ID. What i am looking for are suggestions to add tension control to tension the film as laminator pulls it in. A ghetto way of doing it would be 2 shaft collars on each shaft with a spring between one shaft collar and one of the bushings. The problem i have with this approach is that tension would be controlled by position of the shaft collar next to the spring; which would be hard to fine tune. I am looking for ideas on making some sort of mechanism that lets me essentially turn a knob/nut or a screw that adjust tension and keeps its position.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Any ideas would be appreciated.