I wasn't aware that Jeg's sold store brand English wheel roller dies and was curious if anyone had any experience with them. They're a lot less expensive than Harbor Freight and anything else on Amazon.
I wasn't aware that you could get english wheel dies at harbor freight again. When I brought mine they were included but the last I knew when you ordered a harbor freight english wheel it didn't come with the set of dies(except the 1 upper and 1 lower) and they didn't offer any for sale.
One of the reviews says they are chrome plated one says they are not so who knows. If that is the case you don't want chrome on an English wheel anvil. The surface quality looks pretty suspect in their picture as well and is mentioned in numerous reviews even one that gave them 4 stars. They also look like they have very sharp edges which is not a great feature on a anvil wheel as it can dig into the metal and leave marks. Will they work? Yes. Will they produce a nice mirror finish blemish free panel? Probably not. Personally if I am buying a tool it's not worth it to me to save a few bucks if I have to waste time "fixing" the tool before I can use it properly.
Hoosier Profiles. Get a couple and add as you need. If you're like me you probably only use three most of the time anyway.
Just found @TrailerTrashToo 's thread titled " PROBLEM RESOLUTION - JEGS 81517 LOWER ANVIL SET FOR ENGLISH WHEELS AND USE ON A HF ENGLISH WHEEL ", from March 10, 2019. Very detailed account of his problems and fixes. I can understand the frustration he had with a less expensive product, and I understand where those who have posted suggesting that I buy the premium quality anvils are coming from. Taking into consideration that I'm an old guy and I may only get one use out of the tool, I believe I can live with the results using the less expensive anvils. Then, there is the other problem of what happens to my tools, projects and parts inventory when I croak. My wife doesn't have a clue and my kids and grandchildren all live considerable distances from me. With the exception of my " Gofer ", my youngest daughter, none of them are interested in the least about what I do. I suppose if there was a completed, running and titled vehicle involved they might show some interest but only to the extent of what dollar amount it would bring. My apologies, I didn't intend to get so far off direction with this post. I'm just stating facts. I can justify buying the less expensive anvils and never using them after the one project is done, but I can't see buying a few thousand dollars worth of tools for a one time use.
I bought a Jegs English wheel about 6 months ago, it came with all the dies. They have a nice polished finish, works great. I assume these would be the same dies(anvils?) offered separately?
My biggest fear is I croak an my wife sells my stuff for what I told her I paid for it..... I can sympathize. As an alternative I might mention used HF wheels come up on Marketplace pretty regularly around here as guys tend to start with them and move up. I've seen entire wheels go for as little as $50.00 including upper and lower anvils. Worth a look.
Back when I bought my HF english wheel as a retired floor model I had to go back and ask for (and pay for) the dies by part number. They had three sets on the shelf in the back room but never had any out front. No sign on the floor model that extra dies were 70 something bucks at the time either. They aren't in the online catalog now though. The ones from Jegs look just enough different to be different https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/81517/10002/-1?_br_psugg_q=english+wheel The ones on Ebay are a bit spendy
Took @Koz 's suggestion and looked for lower anvils. Couldn't find them but I did find a HF floor model that a guy bought two years ago and never used. $200 plus the hour and a half trip to pick it up. Even a blind pig finds an acorn every once in awhile.
OOPS - The text in the above reply got buried... I am the "much disrespected" TrailerTrashToo. The Jegs lower anvils in the link are different. They are 2 inch diameter. Harbor Freight and most the others are 3 inch diameter. A direct quote from the Jegs link above: "Bottom Anvil Dies Note: May Arrive Black or Polished. Specifications: Replacement Part For 555-81516 Shipping Weight: 23.7 Package Height: 19.3 Package Depth: 5.9 Package Width: 4.3" Translation: The disclaimer: "May Arrive Black or Polished." means that Jegs may deliver unfinished lower anvils - Thereby absolving them from any quality control issues. Ending on a positive note: My cardboard box box of 6 Jegs lower anvils is very useful as a weight when tracing patterns onto sheet metal Russ
More power to the squirrel if he finds one but the pigs in Eastern Oklahoma, blind or otherwise, aren't too particular about what they eat.
I bit the bullet and went ahead and ordered the Jegs lower anvils. So far, the only problems I've seen are the packaging from Jegs, no packing peanuts to fill the gaps between the plywood box the manufacturer shipped the anvils in and the sides of the cardboard box that Jegs packed it in. With all the handling, the weight of the anvils knocked the top of the box off (could have used a little bit of glue on the edges) and the anvils were loose in the cardboard box. Fortunately, I've only found a couple of very small nicks on the outside edges of two anvils and they'll clean up when I radius the edges. They are 3" diameter and weren't polished but come with a good finish. The lighting wasn't the greatest when I took the pictures but the anvils are not black. All in all, they look like they are going to do what I want.
Alan, those HF English wheels are like the T-Bucket bodies were in the 60's, many guys bought them with intentions of building a car, but never got around to it. You will be amazed at what you can do with it, I learned a lot with mine, before ordering a Quick Tools kit, and built my own.
The Jegs anvils in my write-up were 2" diameter. Your 3" anvils are a different lot, hopefully, with better quality control. I would test each anvil using a scrap piece of sheet metal. If the metal pulls smoothly through the anvils, the lower anvil is concentric. Russ
Northern Tool sells the same english wheel as Harbor Freight, but in a different color and higher price. I bought my anvil set through them, and it was a direct fit. The down side was that they were around $160, where Harbor used to have them for about $70.
The first thing I learned about my new HF English wheel is that it is nose heavy. Any attempt to run a piece of metal through it resulted in it tipping forward. I am going to have to add some weight to the back leg of the frame or extend the front foot. I don't want to anchor bolt it into the floor and then find out that it is in the way of something I didn't foresee.
Here's one I built a while ago using upper and lowers I sourced off Ebay. I believe they are the same as HF tooling. I needed to true and polish them but they weren't bad at all. The biggest problem was the upper wheel was not hardened and if you picked up a burr or accidentally nailed a weld it left a mark in the wheel which transferred to your work so it was back to dress and polish. I learned to be more observant quickly. It is a bit of a problem for me as I sometimes lightly wipe my steel with some machine oil mixed with a bit of solvent as a lube on the finish side. Building a stiff frame and using the offshore wheels is most certainly a viable option as your skills improve. A nice tight lifter mechanism is critical if you want to shape accurately a keep the track marks out. Enjoy! Metal shaping is always fun.
What is causing it to tip forward? There really shouldn't be much force pulling it forward. You shouldn't have so much pressure on the wheels that it is a fight to get the metal through them it is a very gradual process.
It doesn't take very much effort at all to tip it. I was trying it out using some scrap 20 ga. I had. Didn't have a lot of pressure on the anvils and the back legs started scooting sideways as I moved the 20 ga through the machine. If I'm forward of the centers of the anvils, pulling the material to me will bring the whole thing tipping toward me. I would have filled the back leg with sand but there's no access without cutting a hole in that shiny new paint. Think I'll attach a box to the back side of the tool by hanging it off the back frame bolts.
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