The Model 1 is fairly easy to identify because it has aluminium "shrouds" over the roller springs whereas later models incorperate the springs inside the roller arms. The rollers are held by roller "hooks", 1 for each side of the roller, and all independantly sprung. The later models held the rollers in the pivoting "T" hook - two roller ends per hook.
The Model 2 is similar to the model 3 in terms of the roller arms but the body was a two part casting of the left and right sides bolted together.
The Model 3, as noted above, looks like a model 2, but the body is a single casting.
Roller Dimensions
There's an old saying that if you ask 2 beekeepers a question you'll get 3 different answers.
I have asked a lot of people and measured MANY 8x5 rollers and here are the top results:
Shaft Diameter | Shaft Length | Rubber Width | Rubber Diameter | Runner Diameter, Small | Runner Diameter, Lg |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5/16" | 12 & 1/8" | 9" | 27.5mm | 30.4mm | 31.5mm |
7.7mm | 285mm | 216mm | 27.4mm | 30.2mm | 31.2mm |
7.8 | 285mm | 220mm | 28.4mm | - | - |
I also saw a briarpress post which said the roller diameter was 28mm and that the runner diameters were 31.0mm and 32.3mm but gave no other dimensions. I provide this information with no warranty and am not advocating getting rollers from anyone but Caslon. You could, but you're better off going to the source and getting some nice rubber ones.
In the case of the Runner diameters the runners I have seen all have dual diameters. The WIDTH of the diameter sections is not the same however. The smaller diameter is 10mm long while the larger diameter is only 8mm long. I don't know why this is but it seems to work. With the runner information above you could get any mediocre engineer to turn you some rollers out of nylon or delrin. Do NOT get them to turn them out of metal as there's the potential that they could wear out the roller bearers over time.