Bead roller stand

[beetlejac]

Hi l made this stand to hold my bead roller and die's

 

[bigbadbugga]

I like that

How do you get on with the roller?

I sort of have a hankering for one just now, seen them on ebay for just under £200 with 8 pairs of rolls.

How capable is it? is it ok with 18 gauge steel? do you reckon it would handle 20 gauge stainless?

 

[grandads_shed]

seen the same one on ebay going for less than £100 + £20 p&p
any one know of a place where i could get one in norfolk ??

is it possible to get one cheaper than this ??

 

[Tupers]

Beetlejac, have you experienced any problems with the frame of your bead roller twisting at the dies when rolling 18 and 20 gauge steel.

I've found with our bead roller (same design as yours) that the two tongues start deflecting when I'm trying to get a good crisp bead. I'm thinking about reinforcing the frames with some strips of 10MM steel plate to try and remedy this. I've tried doing more runs at a lighter pressure but it seems that without a decent starting pressure on the dies it's hard to get a straight bead.

Any thoughts??

 

[Jake]

Very good

 

[german8rcoupe]

The Harbor Freight style imported rollers are very weak. The shafts are machined slightly off centre and you may find with the offset beading dies you actually have a rotary shear action going on as the dies close up totally at points.
The price reflects the quality.
I sold mine and bought a proper old Edwards one.

 

[ghound]

i bought one of these machines, it was delivered the other day. If you wan't to fanny about with .2mm sheet steel your laughing, anything over that your going to have to think about strengthening it!
I welded it to an old cast iron base, put a piece of 1.mm sheet through and all i got was deflection of the dies, and a poor bead! pure crap!
I payed less than £100 for this machine, and oddly enough i'm happy with that, cos i can easily sort the deflecting prob, the dies and shafts are easily capable of handling more than stated when properly sorted.
I guess buyer beware, but there's plenty of good souls to help on here
I'll keep you posted

 

[grandads_shed]

i bought one of these machines, it was delivered the other day. If you wan't to fanny about with .2mm sheet steel your laughing, anything over that your going to have to think about strengthening it!
I welded it to an old cast iron base, put a piece of 1.mm sheet through and all i got was deflection of the dies, and a **** e bead! pure crap!

thanks m8, i was bidding on one of these on fleebay ,, dont think i will bother now

 

[ghound]

Don't get me wrong, stiffen the thing up and it will work ok. I payed £95 and i'm happy with that! I think it's a steal for anyone on here, cos you can sort it so easily.

 

[keithski122]

I've got a similar machine and for what I use it for I'm happy.The best modification I made to it was to take the operating lever of it and replace with a car steering wheel, this makes for a lot smoother action than pumping the lever up and down.
I haven't used it much but find trying to keep a straight line more of a problem than any flexing of the support.Need to make some sort of guide for it next.

 

[OzGecko]

There's quite a few threads on various boards about strengthening the frames on these rollers. Here's a few to get started with and give some idea of what to search for to find others:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118726&&showall=1
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100759&&showall=1
http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1295
http://www.metalshapers.org/101/bead-roller-mods/

Hope this is helpful,

Dominic

 

[breezer]

That first one is amazing.

 

[ghound]

So i strengthened it, not pretty but it works real well, zero flex on 1mm steel sheet. Here's my first few attempts, a piece of 1mm galved tin, and the other on a bit of alu.

 

[grandads_shed]

I've got a similar machine and for what I use it for I'm happy.The best modification I made to it was to take the operating lever of it and replace with a car steering wheel, this makes for a lot smoother action than pumping the lever up and down.
I haven't used it much but find trying to keep a straight line more of a problem than any flexing of the support.Need to make some sort of guide for it next.

i saw a picture of one that had a table built around it .. great idea as the sheet layed on the table making it easier to control