BEAD ROLLER, Customized

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TexA

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Messages
57
Location
Estherville, IOWA
Recently, I bought a BASIC/CHEAPIE Bead Roller. (EASTWOOD, I might add)
It is/was one of the "clamp-in-the-vise types.

I found that it would flex, under load, so I added some braceing made of 2 x 2 x 3/16" square tubing that follows the basic frame and that not only added more weight to the unit but also more strength to the frame of the tool.

Instead of putting it into my vise every time i wanted to use it, I found a 40" hunk of 3.5" x 3/16" steel pipe on which I mounted the Bead Roller using a short piece of 1/4" angle iron to connect/weld the two pieces together.

For a "stand or base", I found an old truck wheel-rim. Using a 8 x8" piece of 1/4" flat, I welded the plate to the center of the rim and the 3.5" pipe to the other side of the plate. There I now had a (heavy) moveable stand that I could use and roll out of the way (in my small shop) when I wasn't using it.

After "attempting" to use the unit to put some beads on my new floorboards of my 30 FORD Coupe, I realized "there had to be a better-way" of powering the unit than with the origional CRANK that came with it.

I bought a 10' piece of 1/2" galvanized steel conduit, cut out a 18" round piece of 3/4" plywood and use that as the form to bend the conduit into a circle/wheel shape. After getting a complete "O" bent, I cut off the remainder of the piece and bent/formed my "O" to as near-as I could and welded the two ends together, completeing the "O". It ended-up being 19" across, which was just fine.

I measured the distance across the inside of the "O", cut it off and filed the ends to match the inner contour of the "O" and Oxy-welded it in place on both ends.

Two more (the rest of the 10'-piece of couduit was cut into two pieces and I formed two more "spokes of the wheel, filed/ground them to fit inside the "O", also using the Oxy-weld and a piece of #11 black wire as a filler, to join the pieces together.

It turned out GREAT !!!!!!!!

I'm going to take a piece of 3/16" flat, about 3" on-a-side and weld that to the center portion ( x )of the 4 spokes , then take a piece of 1" (heavy walled) tubing and weld it in the center, crossing points of the spokes, add a locking bolt/nut to lock it in-place on the driving shaft of the roller with a 3/16" bolt/thread and complete the build of my "Specialized" BEADROLLER...

SORRY, I don't have any pix but I hope the explination is enough for someone to decipher and "build" your own CUSTOMIZED BEADROLLER for your shop.

Look-out sheet metal, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Sounds pretty beefy, we would love some pics. Hope fully you were wearing some sort of mask when welding that galv....... when it gases off as you weld it can be deadly.......
 
With the EXHAUST FAN running in the shop, there is little chance of any harmful effects considering the small amount of welding of the galvanized pipe required.....

I have built/welded-up a complete trailer, using galvanized water pipe,
and never had any problems :) You just have to get accustomed to the sparks and splatter as the galv burns off.

THANKS ANYWAY for the caution.
 
i drank a quart of milk after i cut some guard rail at work . i still got sick as a dog. it felt like a bad case of the flu . let see some pics . i am planning on doing the same sort of thing.
icebox
 
Heres mine in the process.
 

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Nice job. I bought mine from Harbor Freight years ago and beefed it up the same way. There was a thread on that other site where several guys did various versions of stiffening, a necessary mod. Lots of them just use an old steering wheel but I still crank mine because I use it so seldom. If I have a long straight run, I have a helper crank it. I have a few things on old truck wheels which work pretty good but I'm always rolling my big vise out to get something that fell through the holes in that Bud wheel.
 
Thats a cool idea. I have a Woodward Fab. bead roller with a hand crank that works decently well. The electric motor is a great idea though, makes it far easier to maneuver panels by yourself.

-Chris
 
I got the electric motor from an auction some time back. The speed controller and coupler come from Surpluscenter. The foot pedal is a HF switch (on/off) but the speed controller can adjust the speed.
 
I've seen a kit for putting a steering wheel on a bead roller, we've got a "high-dollar" Garbage Freight one in the shop I work at, and its hell cranking on that thing!!!! I think I'm gonna try beefing it up and adding the wheel set-up on ours, other than that it actually works pretty good!! We beaded some floor patches on a 56 Chevy recently, and I've used for a few small projects with thin metal and aluminum, worked pretty good!!
 
I used go-cart chain and sprockets with gearmotor with a rev switch and foot pedal and beefed the frame.

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I used go-cart chain and sprockets with gearmotor with a rev switch and foot pedal and beefed the frame.

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Nice job stiffening it. I need to do the same.
Is that a guide I see on that bead roller? I think I like the idea. Shouldn't be too hard to fabricate.
 
I don't do a ton of bead rolling....

mostly just straight stuff....but got plenty tired of trying to keep material steady while hand cranking it....and never anyone around when I needed them...so I did this to mine....works great for me....foot pedal with a cable that works a bell crank that does the trigger on a 1/2" variable speed drill....only pic I can find of it
 

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Nice job stiffening it. I need to do the same.
Is that a guide I see on that bead roller? I think I like the idea. Shouldn't be too hard to fabricate.

Mine came with the guide,but wouldn't be hard to build.
 

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