TECH:sheet metal Roll made CHEAP/plusDoorBottomRepairHow To

I know its not TECH week and no prizes for me -But here is some small tech I wanna share....
a SLIP ROLL to form curves in metal panels is a great addition to any shop.
this is a tool many of us need but one we can usually not afford.
Here is a version you may not have seen or thought of.
It is low tech and very low priced so anyone can make and use it.
It consists of two equal lengths[60" in this case] of heavy wall 1-1/2" tubing/pipe.
a TRIO of spacers[16 ga] [in this case] are needed to space the gap evenly between the two pipes.
One in middle and one at each end, then weld the two tubes together at each end for about 4" of weld beads.
remove the three spacers.
the fixture is now ready to use.
Place it in the vise with the jaws clamped tightly on the [bottom tube ONLY at its CENTER point].
slip your sheet metal in between the two pipes to the set place you want the tight roll.
then take a length of two by four or light rectangular tubing about same length as your sheet steel.
Clamp it to your peice of sheet and use it to force the sheetmetal into shape-this prevents unevenly distorting the peice.
a sharp crisp radius can be achieved on 16-22 ga sheet in a 40" length so this can be handy to have!
it can also form a cone or say a trans hump easily by moving and forming one end in small increments and keeping the other end of your work peice in the center of the peices width.
Here are a couple pics of the door bottom patch panel I made for a '39 Chev coupe=EMS charges 165.00 each for theirs!!
the end result is shown laying on the door it will be installed on.

 

[2] three spacers set gap till welded...

 

remove spacers and insert work peice...

 

clamp 2x4 or tube to hold evenly.

 

pull upwards and work the peice till desired radius is achieved.

 

A couple other variations would be to make another set with 3/4" heavy tubes to say for example be used to form the rounded bead on a home built short bedside for a bobbed pickup bed. you could do a four feet peice using 22 ga easily. second option would be to use square tubes and use like a small break resulting in sharper squared bends....

 

SWEEET! very useful ideas for us broke asses!!

 

killer job... I'll be using that idea...

 

I suppose it's either one of these or hire a couple Swedish MetalMasters like Boyd....decisions -decisions!
Ill post a pic of the homemade panels installed tomorrow...

 

Now why couldn't I think of something simple and easy like that when I was standing on a piece of pipe on the garage floor trying to align and accuratly bend sheet metal for the fuel tank I made last week??? DOH. I get brainlock sometimes!

 

I nominate this post as the "Tech Winner"...!!!

Show Kenny what he's won..., Vanna..."!!!

"What do you mean this isn't tech week... ???

Hey Ryan..., Could we have a Special Edition Christmas Tech Week...????

 

Great tool to have, I read this and built one the same day...works great for roll pans...

 

Believe it or not I have clean tubing here but it was thinwall. the new clean tubing is a plus as you can spray some WD40 on the peice and shuffle it around easier to form a gradual radius without putting any visible kinks in your finished peice......[WD40 ON -WD40 OFF]-PATIENCE grasshopper

 

good trick!
tp aka zibo

 

thanks a bunch for posting this, great idea!!

 

A great idea for the homebuilder that wouldn't use a professional roll enough to justify owning one. Lets just declare a winner whether it's tech week or not.

Frank

 

That man's got a bag of tricks with no bottom.

 

Killer idea!

 

It's weird how some things seem so obvious after someone shows you! Amazing and soooo simple. If you used two different diameter tubes, you'd have two in one. You could even stack a few different sized tubes and really be versatile. Cooool

 

No STAR'S yet?!

 

Great post. Thanks for sharing with us

 

THIS is why I'm here... Great post.

 

here is that panel installed on the rusty door- took 10 minutes to make and a couple hours later its done!

 

INNER is a seperate peice formed on a break.....

 

Yes good idea and trust me it woks great I have one like it but its made out of 4 inch round, good for pans around bumpers and such, then for smaller radius I just sit and hold a smaller tube down beside it and it forms over the smaller if needed, have done sized from 4 inch to about 5/8 this way

 

Wow.
Very cool.....

this should go in the Tech-O-matic!

 

How about using three different dia. tubes then you could just form around the one that's closest to what your trying to do?

Frank

 

Probably should have explained a little more. I was thinking about a triangular end cap for the tubes with three different diameters on the caps. Then weld three differnd size tubes on the end caps in a fashion that lets you slip the sheetmetal between all three in what ever combination it takes to use the dia. your wanting. You could fashion a mount on each end to grip in the vice and presto, three different roll diameters at your disposal. How about making some simple a-frame stands for the end, mount the end plates with a central hole and drill some indexing holes to rotate it to the desired dia. and pin it in location? Just thinking, I know how dangerous that can be.

Frank

 

OK FRANK.....But I hold the Patent/Copyright!

 

Frank,

Good idea but I think if you group the 3 tubes into a triangle you won't be able to slide the sheetmetal between them ?

If you welded the 3 different tube sizes in a line, it would work though.

Or you could weld threaded plates in the end of the tubes and bolt them onto two end plates in any configuration you wanted