I tried mine for the 1st time last night with 18ga steel. It flexed so much it wouldn't even start to roll a bead. Has anyone else had this problem or is mine defective?
they are all defective, but its an easy fix. i used 2" thick wall tubing and made a meaty "c" shaped backer for mine and welded it solid. nada flex now. and it works just fine.
I use mine all the time. I even replaced that crank with a steering wheel for better control of the rollin'. I bet that if it was REALLY hard to roll....and you couldn't even get a bead started... I bet you had the dies clamped down on the metal too tight. This was brought up here recently in regards to warpage. I have found that if I just lightly tighten down the rolling dies, That It rolls smoothly and without any warpage of the panel. I took notes the last time I rolled a panel (Monday). Here is what I came up with.... When tightening down the dies on the piece to be rolled, I tighten it down till there is a definite indintation. I then crank a TINY amount (less than 1/4") and if there is a lot of resistance, I back the screw out a few turns till there is less resistance. I keep doing this until I find the right pressure for the dies.... How do you tell if you have the right pressure applied to the dies? If it wont roll---TOO MUCH pressure. If it rolls but you are warping the panels----TOO MUCH pressure. If you are not getting a very defined bead---too little pressure. I noticed when my dies are clamped down right, and everything is rolling smoothly, that the flat areas on either side of the part that makes the bead don't even touch the panel. It doesn't take a gorilla to turn that crank. If you have it set up right, it will roll pretty darn smoothly and with very little effort.... Hope this helps. VT.
I braced it up Saturday and did some work on my floors. It worked great. I'm going to try the steering wheel idea. It was awkward to crank while holding the metal.
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