Today I was looking on an amateur machinists website/forum, and seen what I believe to be the simplest device I have ever seen for rolling a radius into flatbar, and round or square tubing. This is so neat, and the only limit to what you roll is your imagination. As seen in the picture, two rollers are attached to one jaw of a vice, and a single roller with crank arm are attached to the other jaw of the vice. You open the vice, put whatever you need to roll between the rollers, close the vice untill some pressure is felt, then turn the crank and run the peice through, back and forth, untill there is no more resistance, then tighten up the vice and repeat. I suppose that in theory, you could roll a complete circle if you wanted to, similar to the device that Eastwood makes. Yes, you would have to have a lathe to make the rollers, but this is so simple and cheap that I wanted to post it for all to see.---.---The vice shown is unlike any vice I have ever seen either---looks more like a hand powered bending brake for sharp corners in flat stock----I suppose with an old vice and some ingenuity, you could convert it the same way.---Brian <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
thanks Brian, that just what I needed, just when I needed it. I am trying to make some short bends in my nerf bars and this may work better than the ports power set up that I built.
Jim---I don't think that you could roll a tight enough radius to make nerf bars with the device shown. The secret to building a nice set of nerfs is to build them from solid round stock, not tubing. That way, they can not collapse like a tube will. There was an excellent post on building a nerf bar over on Clubhotrod about 3 weeks ago. The fellow who made them found an old 3" or 4" diameter hole saw, which was the correct diameter for the inside dimension of the nerf bend. Then he heated the round stock, (it was either 3/4" or 1" diameter solid mild steel) with a rosebud tip and when it was bright cherry red in the bend area, he just bent it by hand around the holesaw, which he had set up in a vice. It looks excellent, and there is no collapsing or flattening of the bend area. This post was put up by a father and son team who are excellent rod builders. the son posts here on the HAMB under the name "Dodgerodder".
No, the third (single) roller is not on an eccentric---no need for it to be. It rotates on its true center axis, and has a hand crank bolted to it. Eccentricity would do nothing for you there.
Nice looking tool and it will work too. I have a simular tool bought from harbor frieght ($ 69.00). It is called a ring roller and works on the same principal. Ive included a pic. I hope this will help with the planning of making one. Sam
Brian, I must be a little slow today (today ??), but how is the one roller advanced towards the two stationary rollers? At first, I too thought the third roller (with the bar stock "handle") was on an eccentric, which I ***umed, advanced or withdrew it, but you say it isn't the case. The two halves of the fixture look to be together as close as possible (fully advanced ?), at least they look like the are hitting bottom in the dove tail - is that how it's advanced & withdrawn, by sliding the two halves together?
I can only ***ume that the set-up shown was built to roll thicker stock. Yes, you are correct---and now I understand the fellow from the UK who asked if the "third roller was on an eccentric". Obviously (to me anyways) ---if you were going to roll thin stock the rollers would have to be positioned so that the outer diameter of the single roller would impinge on the tangency line between the double rollers, before the vice bottomed out. I don't know the person that built this set-up, and I don't know what thickness of material he was rolling. It appears from the set-up shown, that he closed the vice to take the picture, but in use, the jaws would be considerably farther apart and the stock being rolled would be something along the line of 1 1/2" square thin wall tubing.---Brian
Cool tool. It looks to me like it might be a multi purpose tool. Ring roller on top, then if you removed the single wheel, you could then use the press brake feature. It looks to me like the vise is just a vise, with a ring roller and press brake attachment installed in the jaws.
Matt, That's what I was thinking. You would close the vise to tighten the radius on the single roller
That vise, like all vices, is guided internally. The jaws with the V shape to them are a form of bending die. If you have ever seen a large hydraulic "Break", the bending jaws are formed the same way. those jaws have been added to the vice, not as a giude for closing it, but to enable it to bend bar stock in a sharp V bend with no radius.
Thanks for posting this Brian. Simple, effective and cool. Yes, Dodgerodder sure shows some nice work. You and him have each helped me with a few details, even though I never expect my work to look as good as yours or his. Love the HAMB.
I don't think that any "wheel" that is made of formed sheet metal (like a roller skate wheel) will work. I think the wheel will have to be solid steel, and the axle itself is going to ned to be something pretty stout, probably along the line of a 1/2" diameter shoulder bolt.---I don't think casters with the rubber removed would work particularly well either, because of the axle diameter. There are some very high bending forces placed on both the wheels and axles by the closing of the vice, and they are not static forces, but are dynamic, because of the action of the crank arm.
Shown a similar system at a shop where I worked in the 80s. The "crank" roller was mounted in the quill of the mill, and the two other rollers were mounted via the T slots. Easy to adjust width and depth, plus a low speed power feed. We used it to make 3/4 square tube into the windshield bed on race cars. vic
Yes ring rollers are available a ton of places... I've been eyeing one similar to the Pro Tools one...
Looks like the roller/brake jaws need to be bolted to the vice jaws. Or some kind of block (adjustable maybe) to clamp onto below the rollers. If you tried to roll they would just pivot around the stock you were trying to roll and pop out of the vice. Easy enough to do though. Unbolt the jaws and use the existing holes. Use some "L" stock. The rollers bolt down too it and the other side drops into the jaws of the vice. Every garage needs one
Hahaha When I had a better back, more energy and less years "under my ever expanding belt" I did turn out some decent stuff. Stuff from Porsches to school buses and collision repair stuff. Now I'm teaching computer and having fun instead with cars of trying to make a living from them. Tools like this are a real trip now. If I can get my **** in gear I'll finish my e-wheel soon. Then look out thumbs!
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