want to buy a bead form tool used if you know were i can get one please let me know befor i go and spend 400+ on one. thanks wayne

 

Eastwood Company

 

you could always use the welding meathod if u are doing this for charge pipes

 

i found this linked on another forum i go on,

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/arti...ler-pipes.html

i made one up and it does actually work quite well

 

Cheap and effective, I might have to try it. I've been looking at a bead roller for awhile but couldn't bring myself to spend the cash.

 

I was dickin off at H-F the other day and saw this. Thought about getting it, but decided against it due to wife nagging.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93364

 

we have the hf one and then we bought an electric one, ended up getting rid of the elctric one.

way more control with the manual ones and i think they do 10 times better of a job.

we usually just use ours for tin work for tube chassis cars, but have did osme 16g ic tubes as well.

 

That's the 12". I have an older 18", I think... It works well for thin sheet. Anything thicker than 18g and it flexes. I bolted up a chunk of angle iron and it worked really well, but I'll be making a frame out of 2x2 pipe and really take advantage of it at some point. Not a bad tool for the money.

 

vansantent.com

 

I have the 18in bead roller for doing sheet metal it will do a bead on piping but it will be alot cleaner and faster with the bead form but I thought I would check to see if anyone was selling one befor I spent 4xx on one. But thanks for all the info guys.

 

Those harbor freight ones look pretty simple except for the dies. If I were to make the dies on a lathe, what kind of steel would I need to use, and would they need to be heat treated?

I know it's probably more cost effective to buy them, but I want to learn to use the lathe and this seems like a pretty simple project to start with.

 

I bought the HF one years ago and just Mig'd on a triangulated brace out of square tube. It works fine.

There are a couple of threads on this mod on the metalmeet forums.