Technical Good RPM’s for motor driven bead roller?

Mine is a harbor freight special that I beefed up and added a motor too. Lots of mods but sometimes the mods are the fun part !!

 

Heck, HF doesn’t carry them anymore, at least I couldn’t find them if they do.
The delivered Eastwood price (probably made in the same factory) was around what it would have cost at HF years back.
The one I got was on sale with free shipping, came to 162 and change to my door. Well, it’s not here yet

 

hh
Harbor Freight winch, spider coupler with a nut welded on to it, Amazon 12V power supply, Amazon PWM module and an old guitar wa-wa pedal

 

Heck, I mentioned I was a sucker for a deal, years back bought two HF winches for 35/40 a pop.
That’s a great start for sure.

 

Okay, I understand most of it, but will it reverse? Does the nut replace the spline drive?
Would a sewing machine speed control pedal work?

 

Thats probably the best way to build one. If I had realized how much work I was getting into, I'd probably have done one like yours. I had some parts left over from something I purchased at auction(shafts and bearings, and most of the steel), so thought I'd build a deep throat version. It was kinda like swimming across a river......getting half way and realizing it was too late to turn back.
(First hand experience at that mis-step too, lucky a boat was coming by)

Anyway, @Budget36, you do need to get down to about 7 rpms and if adjustable, even a little slower for some things. Also be aware that different manufacturers may use dies with different size mounting holes....and you may want some specialty dies that come with a different hole. I think there are some adapter bushings available but I would do some searching for die sets and compare the sizes. You have a lathe, so you can modify some dies for different shapes. Look for someone selling a used bead roller and get it just for the extra dies.....then sell the frame.

 

@ekimneirbo yeah I looked at using different motors but I figured by the time I bought all the different gears, chain, etc I'd be spending more to try and save less.

So a quick look on ebay and I had a motor that was low rpm and reversible. No gears or chains or a bunch of brackets to make.

The switch on top is 3 way, left-off-right.

So I ended up with variable speed and reversible....

....

 

I prefer a slower speed with decent torque. My current setup uses an 1/4 HP AC motor originally speced for a rotisserie. It's 6 RPM with 600 in/lb of torque which is overkill, as is the HP. I wired up a reverse switch and run it through a foot pedal control. It's directly coupled to the roller shaft with a Lovejoy coupling. I found the motor NOS for $30 at an auction selling off the inventory of an old electrical warehouse.

 

Yep...........You are right. It's the old case of having some stuff on hand and figuring it will make a better "whatever" and then having to do way more work and money to get it to work. I like what I have, but if I knew then what I know now, I probably would not have done it. Selection of the gear drive motor to build one is important. Mine didn't reduce the speed enough............hindsight as they say.

 

Sewing machines have potentiometer pedals. Couldn't you wire one of those in?

 

That's what I did....


...

 

harbor freight winch motor.. 100 percent works perfectly

 

Well here is ugly ducky

 

Ugly doesn’t matter if it works!

 

You can buy new , amazon, aprx $20

 

And the bead roller was just dropped off, so time to start getting busy with fitting things up.

 

While out in the shop this evening, I decided to look at the DC motor/reduction drive I used and refresh my memory on its specifications. It was 250 rpm with a 10:1 reduction.....25 rpms. Now that doesn't sound too bad to someone who doesn't know what they are doing (ME).


But think about it again.........to get down to 6 rpms, I still had to reduce it 4 more times. It took me 4 sprockets and 2 chains to get there. I'm pointing this out so others don't do the same thing I did. Make sure what you buy will get you to about 6 (or a little less 3-4) at its minimum rpm before you go that route. May just need 2 sprockets or nothing, but figure it out before you buy something...............

 

That’s the plan. Figure it before hand, and go from there. The sewing machine pedal will be a big plus as well

I may have a pedal, when the Ex left, her machine stayed. I may have tossed though.

 

When piecing together the power control for your roller project check the compatibility of the components. Make sure the foot control has an amperage rating suitable to the motor you are using. The typical sewing machine pedal is rated between 1 and 2 amps.

 

I think right now you have the best solution that I have seen. Where did you get it and was it reasonably priced? There are probably other motors out there, it's just a matter of knowing where to look.

 

I went through a phase trying several DC motors which were typically 10 RPM and about 1/10 HP. They were OK, but I wanted a bit slower. I stumbled onto the current new old stock AC motor at an auction liquidating an old electrical shop. I bought it for $30. If you search the model number they pop up new for $600+. So not practical. But there has to be some used ones out there to rebuild, or someone selling remans. This motor was used in a rotisserie like the chicken rotisserie in almost every grocery store, or a close application.

 

My motor is 1.4 amps so I'm safe... that's why I like these motors, they use gear reduction for torque, they are wired to be reversible, they are 110 volt. And with a foot pedal both hands are free to control the sheet metal.

No need for gears and pulleys or chains, no need for converter boxes for power, no need to keep a car battery around the shop or to keep it charged.

When I need my bead roller, I roll it out, plug into an outlet and flip a switch to control which way it goes and press a pedal and control the speed I want. Ready to go in about 1 minute. When I'm done, Unplug from wall, wrap the cord around the roller along with foot pedal cord and back against the wall, again another minute or two and it's done.

I gave the foot pedal about 7 feet of cord so I have plenty of circumference around the bead roller to do all varying sizes of sheet metal.