New Guy - RoboWheel Questions

[Lee Etterling]

Hi folks, have been on your site nightly since I found it, am learning a lot from reading posts. I had no idea (until I stumbled onto Metalmeet) that there was so much information available about metal shaping in general!

Have been wanting to build an E-Wheel for some time (to make steel and aluminum panels).

1.) Would RoboWheel be considered a good "all-round" use machine? I would use it to work on steel and alum. parts for big and small Austin Healeys.
2.) The EXCELLENT RoboWheel build article (Part 2) from Mr. Pinkerton mentions using a piece of 3" "CR" stock to make anvils. Assuming CR is Cold Rolled - what is hardness rating? A machinist friend of mine has offered to help me build the anvils and want to make sure I buy the correct steel.
3.) Can weld (gas, tig, mig and ARC). NOT an expert at any - but feel most confident w/ ARC welder (Lincoln). Bought a mig recently and found it doesn't feel anywhere near the same as a stick - can't run a bead that "looks right" yet. Glad to have found a place to learn new tricks! LE

[Dutch Comstock]

Hi Tuck, Your engineering of an excellent base Ewheel looks real good.Keep the pictures coming.
A little more info for the newcomer on his questions. Your lower anvils can be made out of cold roll stell and they will work as good as anyone elses.Hoosier pattern makes there anvils out of 4140 unhardened just to make them a little tougher and hardenable if someone wants them done that way. The upper wheel is the important one as to hardness as any scratch or dent you might get on it will mirror image on the finished side of your panel and everytime it rolls over it will reimprint itself. You can get by with 4140 prehard or just go all the way and have it hardened and never worry about it the rest of your life.Your asking the questions that you are asking means your plans are to make one ewheel and use it the rest of your life. Another important thing to think about is the width of the upper wheel as the wider it is to a point the easier it is to finish low crown panels.Also check out Hoosier Pattern for there cost of the upper wheel.You can easily do the rest yourself. Dutch

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Welcome Lee,

...
1.) Would RoboWheel be considered a good "all-round" use machine? I would use it to work on steel and alum. parts for big and small Austin Healeys.

RoboWheel may be be best frame I've ever made. I prefer an upper adjuster but that would be easily done. However, it is also, by a large margin, the most DIFFICULT frame to fabricate of any we've made. It took me the better part of a month, 8+ hours a day, 6 days a week.

If you want a good midsize machine, I'd recommending cloning something like our 26F. This is now made with 3x6x1/4" tubing and is really, really nice. From a cloner standpoint it is straight forward to build and many folks have.

2.) The EXCELLENT RoboWheel build article (Part 2) from Mr. Pinkerton mentions using a piece of 3" "CR" stock to make anvils. Assuming CR is Cold Rolled - what is hardness rating? A machinist friend of mine has offered to help me build the anvils and want to make sure I buy the correct steel.

Thanks for the kind words. Don't call me Mr. (please!) I'm not a metalurgist but I THINK CR generally considered to be in the 10xx class which is not really much harder than the sheet metal you are working. I've learned a lot since I wrote those articles and built about 150 ewheels. Given what I know, I would not attempt to make my own anvils or upper. And I've got 3 lathes and for the most part know how to use them. The simple fact is that Hoosier has this down COLD!!!!! STONE COLD!!!!! Of the 600-700 plus anvils and 100 uppers of theirs we've sold, we had 1 (ONE!!!) with a problem (Which was immediately replaced) Their stuff is just near perfect and it's taken YEARS to get their profiles where they are. Unless you want true radius anvils, your machinist buddy won't know these profiles or have the ability to figure them out and will probably spend more time and money for what will probably be a considerably inferior result. Cutting a sharp edge true radius anvil is pretty easy and if you are a decent machinist, you can hold a thousand or three. Getting the edge relief, support radius, transition to flat, flat, and the other side coming down all just right is a WHOLE DIFFERENT THING!

One other reason is precision. If you build a stiff machine (which I recommend), your rollers have to be very round otherwise you will feel the out of roundness when you are wheeling. More important, you will see thick and thin spots in your panels. The stiffer the machine the less forgiving it is of our of round anvils and uppers. With a loose machine the frame flexes so much it just springs up when it hits a high spot anyway....

This is not to say that it's impossible to make your own anvils and a lot of folks have. But, imho, at the cost that Hoosier charges, it's just not cost effective.

If you find yourself over this way, drop by. Huntsville isn't that far off. We had a metalmeet here a couple months back and may have another this winter and again next summer.

[tdoty]

Have to add my 2 cents here, since I too am infatuated with RoboWheel - and have had the opportunity to use it :D.

RoboWheel is an excellent machine! It has a great feel to it, and handled anything I could throw at it! On top of that, it just looks kewl!

I would have to agree with Kerry about the wheels and anvils from Hoosier as well. I'm still struggling with the anvils I made myself (true radius), until I can talk myself into a set of Hoosier's. "Regular Old Cold Roll" does work for anvils - if you still want to make them yourself (or have them made locally), you just have to be careful with them. 1020 anvils will scratch, and I don't even wanna think about dropping one of mine (lotsa time into those little suckers), but they do work.

Oh, and I guess I'd have to agree with just about everything else Kerry said too. Well, almost :D. My frame is far from super stiff, and I could sure tell when I ate the bearing in my upper - runout went up pretty noticeably. Good, straight wheels are nice no matter how stiff your frame is!

Not sure why Dutch is calling you "Tuck" :lol: . Outside of that he has some great advice there too!

Welcome to MetalMeet! Always glad to see new posters!

Tim D.

[FriarTuck]

Hi Tim, I posted just above Dutch, and he posted, then I tried to "Edit" to change the picture I posted, and messed up and lost the whole thing. Woops

I had posted the Imperial Machine, and the Hoosier web sites for Lee to look at as examples.

(http://wheelingmachines.com/)http://wheelingmachines.com/

http://www.hoosierpattern.com/Inventory/English-Wheels.asp

I have Joes wheels, and agree absolutely with Kerry.

[Lee Etterling]

Like FriarTuck, I wish I was "Re-Tired", (got about 25 to go!). Thanks so much for All your input.
As is "my way", I jump in with both feet and to try to handle whatever "IT" is myself (can't help it - love to learn new things)...I think I will build the RoboWheel, but with a set of Pro-built rollers as Mr. Pinkerton suggests (sorry, "Mr. Pinkerton" can't help myself as Dad kept me well supplied with Louie La'Moure Western novels growing up and one of my favorites is about the Pinkertons - savy group they were). As I live fairly close, I will plan a trip to see your machines in person.
On the subject of Robo's frame, I have a large scrap steel dealer (some of us are just born lucky) within 10 minutes of the plant where I work...whose Maint. Mgr. refers to me as "Buddy" (there is a large 210 welder and matching plasma cutter involved). I have printed out the instructions for Part 1. Are there any modifications I should take heed of BEFORE I start cutting? :grin:.
One more thing: I checked the Bugatti thread - WOW! Now thats a car! As I am new, what is current status? Drivetrain should be retro as well - think Healey or Jaguar. LE