Helpful person wrote:
>notbob wrote:
>> I'm jonesing fer some potstickers and plan to make my own from
>> scratch. This includes the dough, which I plan to roll out the
>> classic way, with a small Asian rolling pin.
>>
>> Since I don't wanna spend $10-20 ona stick, I'm gonna make my own pin
>> outta some hardwood dowls from the hardware store. Here's my
>> question: What is the best diameter?
>>
>> I've seen everything from 3/4" to 1-1/4" dia, usually about 10"-12"
>> long. Anyone have a recommendations on diameter?
>>
>> nb
>
>You will probably find dowels are not strong enough and will bend or break when being used.

Hardwood dowels are plenty strong, they are sold in 36" lengths but no
rolling pin is more than half that length so there'd be no flex
whatsoever, only problem is a 36" X 1 1/4 hardwood dowel will cost
more than a rolling pin.... it's really silly to think about making
ones own wooden rolling pin to save money... quality hardwood rolling
pins are rather inexpensive:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...%2Caps%2C6 77
Plain hardwood dowels cost more, and you still need to make it into a
rolling pin.. without access to a wood lathe you'd probably waste the
first ones:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=sr_1_5&sr=8-5
I'd definitely go for a ready made rolling pin, and they last forever,
I have a couple from my grandmother, that my mother used, they have to
have been used for over 100 years... I bet originally they cost less
than two bits each. With how little ready made rolling pins cost I'd
never consider making one, not unless I was still at work with access
to one of the finast experimental machine shops on the planet, with
all the rare hardwood doweling I could possibly dream about and for
free, even rare rain forest woods from their cabinet shop, and being
paid my hourly rate for what's known as a "government job", and I
could think of lots of better ways to spend my time than making
sawdust. Anyone think I couldn't fabricate a friggin' rolling pin
here, but why bother when I could buy one for under ten bucks:
https://www.bnl.gov/cfs/services.php
https://www.bnl.gov/cfs/heavymachine.php
This facilty is located on more than 5,000 acres.
Working there as a toolmaker for over 25 years I had clearence to
access every facility, it's huge and much is classified Top Secret,
it's where the Manhattan Project was instituted:
https://www.bnl.gov/maps/linkable_fi...ral_campus.pdf
I worked intimately with many of the planet's top physicists, there
were many scientists and designers but ultimately it was the
toolmakers who made the final decision for fabrication, there's a huge
abyss between theory and actual fabrication... the theorists could
barely tie their shoelaces, only the toolmakers know how to build
stuff. No society can exist without toolmakers, so unless the US
brings back the apprenticeship program for toolmakers the US has maybe
10, 15 years to exist because us toolmakers will all be dead... we
toolmakers don't readily share our knowlege and it's not available in
any book, because it's mostly an artform like cooking, we are born
with this innate ability, it cannot be learned from any book. Just
like the alta kraut toolmakers I covered my work... nien schtealin'
mit da eigen. Before I give up what I know about making stuff free
for nothing I'll take it to my grave... and I ain't tawkin' toasters,
I'm tawkin high energy physics machines, I really know how. The only
one I trust right now is Trump, I know he's a loud mouth but he knows
how to get stuff built, he respects toolmakers and that's all I need
to know.