My powered bead roller!

[mark8040]

Mix a little Harbor Freight, eBay, Grainger etc....

The speed seems slow when doing straight lines and a little fast when doing corners so I guess the speed is about right. The foot controlled switch makes it alot easier to control.

--Mark

[Tisdelski]

hi mark,
i saw your pics and was wondering if you can be a bit more specific on the motor (speed, ac , dc, universal , reversible ?), and the footpedal ?

thanks, gary

[mark8040]

Sure Gary.

I picked the motor and switch up on eBay. The motor is a 1/3 hp Dayton Max-Torq Gearmotor model 2Z842. It had a brake on it that I took off. It may have been a good idea to leave it on. It is a split phase AC motor that is reversible. It turns at 40 rpm. The switch is a Cutler-Hammer Type DB1 motor direction controller.

I bought the pulleys, belt and foot switch at Grainger. The pulleys are 8" on the roller and 2" on the gear motor with a 1/2" belt. The foot control switch is part number 5X361.

I welded a backbone on the Harbor Freight bead roller based on what I had read here about flexing.

It needs wheels because it's heavy!!

[Peter Miles]

Mark,

Nice project, nice pictures, nice post, good explanation!

[1969robinhood]

Great work Mark!!

Thank you for sharing with us!

as peter said...nice pics and info...

[roger n cindy]

really nice information. really easy to follow post. good clear pictures. are you one of us or one of the other guys ( u know the ones we steal from guys ) ?
sometimes things look so good they blind my judgment.

roger , president and ceo Bugly tools and Services


Bugly tools we steal from the other guy and pass the savings on to you

[Tisdelski]

hi mark ,
thanks for your explanations, is the footpedal a variable speed type?

thanks, gary

[CCWKen]

Nice Job!

The design looks vaguely familiar. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/CCWKen/Tools/Bead%20Roller/2005_0814BeadRoller0011.jpg

[FriarTuck]

Nice work Mark, what guage metal can you work OK with it. You trussed up the plate pretty good, so much be really stout, no flex. I would have thought that it would go a little faster straight, and a little slower on curves, just because you would be driving harder in a curve (more drag) than on a straight run.
Thanks for sharing the pictures and the info.

Tuck

[Boogiemanz1]

Rick, I think he means that the speed it travels seems slow on a straight run and is a bit fast for doing corners, I don't think the motor actually changes speeds.............john

[87gtmustang]

Ive gotten my beadroller project almost done, working out wiring and pedal (trying different ones), and have to reinforce b-roller, sandblast and paint, but i will give more pics and specs a little later, this pic is from my phone =). It doesn't show the foot pedal, reverse switch or extra wiring. The motor I am trying is a freebie from a farmer 1/8 hp 1660 rpm with attached gears to make it 31 rpm. I am using a 11" pulley on b-roller, and 2" on gear motor. I have an 8" to try possibly instead of 11" for higher top speed if foot control works well to slow it down when needed. Trying to use a sewing machine pedal, but either the pedal or motor doesn't seem to want to control the speed too well, and working on reversing as well (seams to want to turn whichever way you have pressure on the motor when it is supposed to be reverseing, still tinkering, may be oddball motor, was used on a hog confinement building to automatically open and close venting curtains via thermostat?) Only thing bought so far, is 2 pulleys. The stand is from a very big and heavy brake drum, like approx 20" diameter, and up tube is 1/4" wall 3 1/2" round. It was all scrap that wasn't needed for anything else.

I will leave more info and pics later when its done or closer to done. Started monday, but have many things to take up my time, so i have limited time to work on it.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/medium/beadroller1.jpg

[mark8040]

Thanks for the responses.

Ken - I did get a bit of inspiration from your bead roller!

The foot control is a switch not a rheostat. I think the switch will work fine for now.

I'm having a rat rod built and was at the shop the day they were putting the floor pans in. One of the guys was using a manual bead roller on several of the pieces. He asked if I would turn the handle for him. I immediately thought that there must be a better way. Seemed like we were working against each other! So, I started looking around and that is how I found this forum!

I built my bead roller because I want to build a set of bomber seats for the rat rod. I'm having varying degrees of success. I'm able to successfully put some pretty nice beads in the 20 ga. sheets that I'm using. I'm still trying to learn how to deal with the warping that is occuring. From poking around here I've found that I need to pre-shrink the area that I'm about to bead. Not sure how to do this with the limited tools I'm working with. Any ideas???

Also, I started by trying to put a wire edge around the seat back. I haven't been very successful in this area. My first attempt was pretty bad because I had a couple of pretty sharp turns that didn't fold very well. I've kind of modified my design and I'm going to try again tonight.

--Mark

[Avalonjr]

I think you meant to say "prestretch" the area you are going to bead roll. This is true when you are beading a "box". Things get hinky when it is trying to gather the metal to push up into the bead and you approach a corner. This creates a pie shaped area where there is more metal than on the straight runs.


On the straight runs, the metal is pulled in from the sides as the bead forms and the piece gets narrower by a slight amount. The bead roller tries to do this equally on both sides of the bead, but if you're doing a box, the corner ends up being trapped by the other bead. It can't draw material from the inside of the box, so it takes it all from the outside of the sheet. At the corner there is a "pucker" because each side of the corner is shorter, while the corner itself is the original size... or bigger.

To avoid this warping or pucker, you need to provide enough metal in the bead zone to produce a bead without drawing in the sides. Doing this is a hit or miss process.... errr, I mean, "a matter of experience".

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/Bead_Rolled_box.jpg

If you only put in parallel beads, you can eliminate the twisting of the sheet, since the sheet only gets shorter. Putting a wire edge or flange on the sheet after the beads have been put in will lock the dimensions of the sheet and keep it flat.

I see that some people will bead right to the edge and then shrink back the bead a few inches from the edge.

[mark8040]

Ooops. I did mean to say "pre-stretch".

I'm putting in two parallel beads about 6" apart but as you're aware, it starts to kink after the first bead. Is a possible fix to stretch the area between the ends of the beads and the edge of the sheet? Is that as simple as hammering it out?

I think the easiest may be just beading all the way across the sheet and hammer down the ends as you described.

Sorry for the elementary questions...