Taffy Tubes - Taffy Turner

This four wheel roller is a collaborative design between Griffin Glass Tools and Nikolai of Taffy Tubes. Thank you Nikolai for all of your hard work in bringing this awesome roller to life. Here is what Nikolai has to say about the benefits of working with this roller.
“The simple but effective roller started out as a way to save my shoulders when prepping and pulling tubing. I then started using them to center and shape as I would in the hot shop on a bench with soft glass. The spacing between the two sets of wheels on the Taffy Turner allows for the soft glass “Crawl” technique. They are unlike other rollers that force you to keep your hand open. Using this “crawl” technique, I can work larger pieces of glass for longer periods of time with minimal fatigue. Nothing has improved my boro shaping more than the Taffy Turner!”
The roller is made of anodized aluminum, 2″ brass wheels, stainless steel bearings and hardware. The wheels can be set to three different spacing positions in order to accommodate different diameter tubing.  The overall length is just over 7″ with 5 1/2″ of space in between the two sets of wheels. The height of the work piece is 7″ off the bench when it is rested on the wheels. The Taffy turner also features a flip up metal D- ring, which will allow the tube end of a work piece to be secured to the roller hands free. “Hooking the D -ring” onto the tube handle can be an amazingly useful move if you are adding attachments to the work piece or doing anything that requires both hands and want the work to stay on the roller and in the heat. This technique allows you to build on the Turner just like you would on a lathe. The D- ring also has a slight height adjustment. A final notable detail in the construction of this awesome tool, the unit is held together by the end caps that you see below the logo. This means that you can easily break this tool down into a much smaller foot print for traveling.