home made tools and equipment...

This thread gets better and better.

 

Not mine but I thought this press brake was pretty cool........

 

MP&C
My machine broke right after I got it. The upper tool holder cracked away the side with the set screw. I don't know if I overtightened the set screw or it was cracked already. I didn't know to look. I took it all apart and made a sleeve to hold it together. Here's a picture of the repair. That tool holder is tool steel or something. I didn't want to try welding it.

Just make sure you don't over torque the lock bolt.

 

Some pics of the bead roller I built last year....

 

Okay, I need to see more pics of your bead roller, Andy.
Also, did you build it from scratch, or is it based off of any existing parts from somebody else's tool or kit?

-Brad

 

yea. more andy. thats really nice. i like that guide for keepin the line straight. very nice.

 

strecher shrinker stand with foot pedals. on a swivel base to make things go faster.

 

Timely thread, I am in the middle of converting an old tablesaw to a sanding station. I planned on using 11" or so disks in the same position as the sawblade then adddind a modular spindle sander off one side.........be able to install diff sized sanding drums 1",2" 2.5" etc. Then I will use one of the tracks in the bed to run an adjustable carriage that will allow me to fine tune miters on an angle like I need to do on bicycle frames and tubing components on chassis!

I am using a 1750 RPM hazardous duty motor out of a gas pump. FREE!

 

Yeah, built from scratch, way too much work went into it when I should have been working on my truck! Only proprietary parts were phosphor bronze bearings and two reverse gears from a Toyota Celica trans. Main body is made from two 10mm laser cut plates.

 

This is a great thread... keep the idea's coming!

 

That's awesome, Andy. I will be stealing your idea for my guide fence.

 

A homemade roller for making round stuff out of straight.

 

Man, that awesome, I'm going to have to build something like that asap, I need it.

 

Chaz, any specs on that thing.

 

chaz can you provide examples if dia and materials you can bend with this what about a driveshaft loop

 

Chaz, that's a great plan for your roller. Most every one I've seen orients them so the rollers are standing up, which makes for a much more complicated frame. Laying yours down like that really makes construction a lot easier.

Andy: I'm very impressed with the work. But you cheated! I was hoping you whipped that up with something like a hack saw and a hand-held electric drill! Come on! Give a guy some hope!!! You can't post up pics of the thing clamped down on a millling machine, complete with coolant hose running. Jeez.

-Brad

 

Here's a picture of it in operation. You tighten the big crank as you run the material back and forth till you get the desired radius.



We rolled the flatstock in this photo. It will roll round solid, or even tubing, but it does flatten the tubing slightly

 

There's been several rollers posted up, Chaz's is one of the nicer. Look for a post by Brianangus for another example. I'm in the process of building Version 2 of mine and hope to have pics of the build ready in the next couple of weeks.

As a suggestion, start with casters like Chaz and then just figure it out. My first one looks like a POS, but it turned out consistent pieces. You can also do compound curves in square stock by passing them through once, rotating it 90 degrees and rolling again. I'll include pics of the square tube I did for my Model A tub.

 

chaz did you do anything to the surface of the drive wheel for grip?

 

How about some more Home built English Wheel machines? I am starting one since I can`t pay the lump sum for any of the ones I want. I`ve used a few different designs and types over the years....I would be curious to know which Anvils and Top Wheels, quick releases and adjusters guys have used...what about you, Torchman 49...that looks like a neat setup...

 

MP&C, do you have closer pictures of the louver tools?

To punch louvers is one or two step process with your machine? We have a Trumpf (german) machine which is very similar to this, but I actually couldn't make nice louvers with it yet.

 

manoka, the tool was made by Neil Dunder (www.gogitzit.com) and he does make them in the different shank sizes. The aluminum seemed very unforgiving to cracks, we used a 4 step process. The first was to just barely slit the metal, and this is done slightly wider than what you actually want for louver width to help prevent cracking. Then three more incremental steps, and on the final one, the arm is brought around to form the crisp ends. It did take a couple practice runs to get the stroke on the machine dialed in where the tooling marks were virtually non-existent on the soft aluminum.







And this is Neil's photo of the tool:

 

Thanks MP&C! I'm going to try it in more steps.

 

Nope, and I've only had it slip a little on tubular stock.

 

I bet using casters with a soft wheel would keep the tubing from flattening. Or even bigger casters with pneumatic tires.

I'll be building one of these.

-Brad

 

Glad you like it, it is quite versitile, as for the rolling wheel we made it from 4140 heat treated, the anvils are from a Gene on Egay (oklahdw) they are excellent! thay are 4140 as well and all CNC'd with bearings for $49 a piece. I have heard stories of some "soft" anvils getting a mark in them and repeating the mark on the work piece. Go with the quickrelease for sure, the one we made was alot of work, there are easier versions to make. - Torch

 

Torch, can you rotate the rolling wheel/anvil 90 degrees for passing longer sheet through the e-wheel? And do you have problems with the casters moving when using it? Thanks, nice set up.

 

heres my 3"x48" belt grinder i made a few years ago, i use this thing 50 times a day when i'm in the shop, i keep it clamped right to my little work bench. its a 2hp 3500rpm compressor motor, a 3"x5" boat trailer roller as the drive wheel, its a yates brand, i have tried a carslle but it was to soft and would grow at speed and go all funny shaped and the belt would fly off, the pics pretty much tell the story, at the upper wheel you can see how i have it set up to adjust the tracking, it sure is nice to be able use this instead of an angle grinder on small parts, i can really remove alot of metal in a hurry. and just to save more money i buy 6"x48" blets and split them, saves me about $1.00 a belt times 100 a year.

 

MP&C, GMgrunt made a louver cutting tool JUST like that for his Pullmax. we were playing with it a couple weeks ago cause he had'nt used it since i made it (years ago). that was after we hammered some beads in our friend Dan's new floors for his mid-engined Studebaker using the Pullmax.


ANDY P. that bead roller is a work of ART!!! no shit. you should post it on the next friday art show!! i'd LOVE to build on that nice but i'd GMgrunt's help with the machining for sure!!! he is the man with that shit...

what a killer thread. i'm so excited to start building some machines!!! thanks all for your contributions.

 

Homemade bead roller w/ power chain feed. (Yes, I suck at painting, flames, and all that looks good, but it beads like a mother.) It's build up and more pictures can be found in the thread at MetalMeet.com. My inspiration was taken from the mother of all bead roller threads found right here on the HAMB.
Raw steal.


My abortion of a flame job.


Later with a light added


Next up might just be that roller by Chaz. Great idea!