Any one know how to bead roll flames?

What dies do I use? Step Dies? How do I get the sharp points?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to be able to do something like this.

 

do you have a bead roller?

 

I might guess that the panel in the pic was embossed. You know, make some positive and negative dies and then press everything together.

 

Yes. LOL A 24" Mitler Bros.
I've made several attempts but, I can't seem to get it right.

 

No it's bead rolled.

 

That person is far more handy with a beadroller than I am, then...

 

practice makes perfect...or so they say.

email mittler and ask them what to use.

where'd you get the picture?? can you get ahold of the guy that did that one??

 

www.datinmanjay.com
I have emailed him but, no reply yet.

 

Here are some I did.
I had some solid panels too but I sold them ( or gave them away, can't remember..)
These are beaded first, and then cut aut around the beads with aviation snips.

The way I did them is draw them out with a Sharpy, and follow the line from one tip of a flame to the next.
Loosen the jaws and start again.
Keep the pressure the same so the bead looks even.
At the tips just run over the previous bead...

The last one is a piece of Aluminum that I drew some Flames on, and ground around them with a Diegrinder with a sanding disc.
And then I sharpened them up with a engraver ( the ones they sell to mark your tools with...)

 

Can also be done with a english wheel.

Here is one way to do it.

IF you first cut the flame pattern into a piece of sheeT metal.

Then cut along the line of the pattern.

Now you have 2 pieces.

Take your sheet you want to emboss and place one of the pieces on the top and one on the bottom.

Now clamp or cleco everything together.

Then run the pattern through the bead roller or english wheel and your shape gets embossed into the metal.

 

Experiment a bit with some scrap pieces of sheet...

Dont go exactly over it, but just offset a little.
Come in from one side, stop, loosen the jaws, turn the metal around ( dont flip it over ), tighten the jaws, and start the next one.

I used steprolls...

 

If you are not already familiar with this web site is a good source of info for that stuff.

http://www.allshops.org/

 

I tried it once with step dies, looked pretty bad,figured out to do each side the piece had to be turned around so it was outlined.Anyway it was bad enough I hid it in a Mustang going to the crusher..

 

I was trying today and I kept flipping it over. Maybe that was part of the problem. It just kept stepping and not outlining.

 

There are a few examples in the albums on www.allshops.org
Search for "embossed" and "embossing".

Maybe Hemirambler will share how he did his.

 

Hi Ian, No secrets here...I embossed most of mine. Ewheel with flat rollers with jig saw cut patterns. Line em up and go easy.



I have also used a bead roller and just stopped shy of crossing over and then made a small (couple inches square) piece of flame tip -and just embossed the tip only - much faster than embossing the whole thing, plu sall depending on your flames you can use one or two to emboss all the tips.

Short of handworking them- I dunno how the pro's use the step dies to get those sharp corners - I never could make those look right without additional fanagling.

 

You can tell that this panel was not made embossed on the wheel because some of the lines fade away and the design is multi layered. Your embossing "template" would have to be carved to get that effect.That being said,embossing on the wheel is a great way to do flames. It does have limits though as it is easiest to do it on flat panels unless your cut outs are flexible enough to follow your panel as you shape it. Once you emboss your design it cannot be run through the wheel to become a compound shape for obvious reasons. You were asking how to do it on a beader though. When I do this type of work I use two tipping dies that do not have a sharp edge. I know that mittler bros sell them for your machine, so you can order them if you don't have them now (on harbour freight machines the cutting dies can be unscrewed and replaced with washers). Adjust the dies so that the tips are only slightly apart. Adjusting the pressure will make the bead more or less pronounced and you must remember how many turns you used to make each line uniform. You must hold the metal level as there is no flat part to the dies, as in step dies. If you try this you will see that the bead will be pretty thin and will be able to get into tight spots that the step dies will not even be able to touch without smashing previous lines. It helps to draw out your design on the sheet before you begin as you must carefully plot your order of events to get the right effect. With your roller set this way you can make flames inside of flames, multi level patterns, and drawings without smashing other lines. Also you can do the patterns on curved panels with minimum distortion, Just as long as it fits your beader.

Don't know if anyone cares, but on a side note, I have ran detailed designs through my helve hammer on large panels that were already formed (such as hoods) that would never fit in a beader.

 

Here is Jacin's album on the subject of embossing flames:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/communi...m&albumid=9980120846092&ownerid=9990119631137

Cool stuff!

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

 

I got an email back today from the guy who rolled the image in my first post.
Here's what he said.
"Practice practice practice,,, when you try to do a sharp point, don't overlap the steps. you need to stop them not quite touching, if they actually touch at the end one will force the other outa shape."
Here's another pic of his work.

 

I'm workin on a set of pics and explanation of how to do it,, kinda hard to explain it ,, will post friday evening,, not as hard as it looks.

I know absolutley nuthin about embossing something, I would imagine that I could have blood shooting out my finger tips, faster than the cuss words outa my mouth!

All of my designes are hand drawn, and rolled in on a 24" MB roller using delrin rolls.

 

http://www.datinmanjay.com/howto.html

any questions please email me!!

 

Awesome!

Welcome to the HAMB Tinman.

You get some amazing detail with your beadroller.

I'd have to practice a lot to even hope to get that kind of control...

 

Thanks for the info Jay. I'll be in the garage all day. My problem was I was flipping the piece over. Not turning it. I think it'll take some time to get the right feel but, now I at least know what I'm supposed to be doing.

 

flames inside flames are possible on a normal steproller

http://www.datinmanjay.com/holyshitlookitdaflames.html


bottom pic on 1st page
all pics on second page, save for the last, thats for Cobra fans

 

THAT is a great how-to. Thanks very much. And you've given me another excuse to buy a beadroller!

 

hi tinman, your work is bordering on incredible! as for the ghost lines with the steel dies; if you radius all the edges (1/8 in) of the rollers and clean them up the lines will disappear.


gary

 

I only use the steel ones on steel ,, It won't ghost the steel. I used them for the howto because they give more definition, and they where in the machine, to lazy to change them. The steel rollers are sum HARD stuff our chintzy lathe can't do it I tried it.

 

hi jay,

i don`t knoe how hard the mittler bros wheel are but i tuned my edges up by spinning them in a lathe and then grinding (not cutting) the radius going from a grinding disc and progressively going with finer wheels till it was almost polished.

gary

 

Now that's funny