So i know there are a bunch of threads with people talking about home mades vs store purchased and all that stuff.

Simply a quick thread to show the Harbor freight bead roller and results


Got it with a 20% off coupon for around 150, comes with bender handle and a bunch of dies.
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-inch...kit-34104.html



PROBLEM IS:
out of the box it works but has some side to side wiggle i didn't like. Quick fix to see how it worked just clamped a piece of 1/4 to the side. It then worked great.


1000 ways to skin a cat here to reineforce it to remove the side to side wiggle. I just did the easy quick fix and it works great.

Just cut two 21" strips of 1/4" and welded it down each side and to each other.






gotta throw in weld pics since its honda-tech


RESULTS:

using the smallest die on normal aluminum boost piping.




piece of .40 wall SS.


a few diff passes with different die's and doing a curved pass.


lastly the big test to me was normal walled steel piping, wasn't near as good as the aluminum and took a couple extra revolutions but ended up good.


still gotta beef up the tensioner bolt and make a stand but overall im very satisfied with it.

 

im drawing something like that in CAD , i hope make a similar tool very soon! do you know what radious has these pieces?

 

very cool thank you for posting the pictures! Nice welds too

 

I have the same one. I was planning something similar to make it stronger. I was also thinking about making a flange or something for the back side of the roller as a guide for bead rolling pipes. I couldn't get as straight of a bead as you did on that pipe

 

Will this tool allow you to make lines in tin work like below?

 

That's what it's designed for. It isn't really meant for pipes

 

pretty cool, thanks for the write up

 

pretty kewl. you gotta get a bead roller like mine, i can bead roll a 5/8 pipe

 

nice, thanks for the review!

 

It's possible to know what radious have it?

this is what i designed.





I will try to fabricate it this week!

 

FML. I may buy one now. I was just looking at this actually! Wish it was a little cheaper though.
Is it easy to keep an even bead on it?

 

You can set the throat on it so it keeps it straight and even

 

I want this for rolling intercooler pipes, but the money isn't there for it to pay for itself really quickly. Wish they had a smaller less expensive one.

 

Looks good. i was debating on to get one or not. My issue is I dont bead roll any more, VANJEN or V-Band is all I seem to do now anyways.

 

Picked one up. At first I thought it was so damn heavy and thick no way it would move, well I was wrong. Now trying to think of a good easy way to stiffen it up. I only have some angle iron sitting around.

 

Welded a piece of angle on the back sides and one connecting the two. I really should have tig welded but I wanted to mig and try out the stick welder. So stick - way too hot, and mig not hot enough. So the welds look like complete crap. But whatever.

So what I've noticed, how do you get it to not leave marks on the intercooler piping?
And anyone have a pic of a fence they made? I need an idea or two.

 

I have the Vibrant perfoance bead roller. Used a couple of time to bead intercooler piping. They came out pretty good.

 

^^Where did you get that????


ANyone have pics of a fence they made?
I got this today but the rest came out like ****


And my half *** fence with scrap metal

 

i dont even wanna know how much that one was

 

the vibrant one is what i have. i love it

 

A quick google search of the vibrant one is 267.00.

 

It seems as the HF one is pretty legit. I think ill try that one.

 

Our hf one looks as if its been through a war. We actually splurged and bought an electric one that we never use because the manual hf one won't back down

 

I had the HF one for years. I basically did the same. I welded a 1/2 inch thick square on the bottom for stability.

 

Can I use this as a ring roller also? Say I needed to curve some metal.