Bead Roller Throat Depth

[Peter Miles]

I've been thinking about bead rollers lately and this picture from Ken Kopsky

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/CCWKen/Tools/Bead%20Roller/BeadingFloorpan.jpg
in a thread on powered bead rollers makes me wonder the following:

How deep a throat is needed to be able to do most automotive panels?

[Tin Head]

Peter,

A lot of my metal work has been in building and repalcing floor panels. I built mine with a 26.5" throat depth and haven't made a panel yet that won't fit. I also opened the throat up vertically as much as I could to allow flanged panels to be beaded. Like Ken mentioned, it is really hard to hand crank a panel that big and it is impossible for one man on my bead roller, so it is powered.

Bob

[Ron Naida]

Peter,

I had made a 24" throat bead roller which I used for years. Then found it too restricting to do this Bentley accent line. I made a second frame with a 30" throat that I could bolt a 6"x6" plate to bringing it back to 24" with less spring for normal operations. That was the only time I ever needed more than 24" throat Ron

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3217/medium/86Bentley_alloy_side_2a.JPG

[Peter Miles]

Ron, that is an impressive curved detail line.

Did you do that freehand or did you fab up some sort of guide template?

Peter

[Ron Naida]

Peter,

Freehand. It wasn't that hard to follow a sharpie marked line.
Ron

[Peter Miles]

Ron, do you think that you could have been that accurate doing it on your Pullmax?

[Ron Naida]

Peter,

I have no VFD on my Pullmax so it would run too fast to be accurate. And even then I would want a template or guide of some sort. My bead roller( not the Pexto 622) has a slow gear motor drive with pedal control. It worked well and I did not have the Pullmax when I did the Bentley.
Ron