Abstract: A roll for use in calenders and like machines has a non-rotatable shaft which is surrounded by a radially movable rotary shell whose end portions carry sleeves. When the shell is to float relative to the shaft, the sleeves have freedom of limited movement with reference to the shaft in the radial direction of the shell in parallelism with a plane which includes the axis of the shell and the nip which the shell defines with the shell of a neighboring roll. Arcuate inserts are introduced between the sleeves and the adjacent portions of the external surface of the shaft to hold the shell against floating so that the movements of the shell are then confined to rotation about a fixed axis.