I bought this off shore bead roller for $150 from ebay. it is sold under lots of different names but all appear to be the same one. lets take it out of the box and see how it does. then in part 2 we will make it power and build a stand.
In the 60’s to power it up you take one medium size child (me) and he responded to voice commands - forward, backward and stop. Your “motor” could be switched out to do a lot of other manual tools - jacks, chain hoist, and could even be taught to fetch. “Get me a Phillips screw driver” etc. could even use a medium sized grandchild if previous “motor” got to big and moved out.
I've seen some pretty good setups using this set and a window motor from a car (or wiper motor). They both have a serious gear reduction and are worm drive. Lots of torque, DC, and cheap.
you do NOT want a window motor for sustained loads. they don't have the cooling size for it. now where it's at is Wiper motors, which are specced for 100% Duty for extended periods
Craigslist ad: Looking for someone to turn a handle on a bead roller. Must also be willing to hold a GoPro steady and avoid stepping on old shop dog. Pay will be made in icee-pops. Come to town and ask for a guy named Mustie1... they’ll know who I am.
World of difference with a motor! I couldn't imagine trying to crank mine while I was holding the sheet metal. Well worth the time to set up a motor and remember you can not make it turn too slow.
I used a milling machine Serov motor with a footswitch to control the speed and direction on my Harbor Freight bead roller. Then added adjustable guides into the C part of the frame. Now I can use both hands to help guide on curves or use the C guide for super straight lines.
Use a winch motor. Forward reverse, gear reduction, easy to adapt the drive coupling. Runs off batteries, has a controller. Etc. Make a fence you can clamp/adjust to keep your runs nice and straight.
Mustie1, Being a child of the 60's, we always had rock music as a giant inspiration to who we were. You are truly a rock star to all of us DIYer's from shade tree mechanics to highly skilled craftsmen out there. Every show you do is like a rock concert. Thanks !
Came home today feeling a little sick warmed up my meal from the freezer. Landed on the couch. And what do you know......a midweek release of Mustie. YES right time, right place. Always interesting, educative and foremost cosie. Thanks again mustie. Keep up the good work 😉👍
The longer the mustie video last the happier i get. Even if it's just me sitting there watching you weld or grind or what ever. I've learned a lot from you^^
If you are using the round bead dies, and you want to overlap 2 beads, like if you wanted to make an "X" for example, you can swap out the lower (female) die with a skateboard wheel. You'll still get the shape of the bead, but the skateboard wheel has some give to it so you can cross over the center of the "X" without leaving marks on the first bead.
Hey Mustie...Just wanted to say thanks for your videos, I enjoy them tremendously and learn a ton. I used your techniques for diagnosing and repairing my neighbors pressure washer today(Check spark, a little fuel in the piston, it ran...so knew it was the carb). As it is so often, the carb was dirty with water in the fuel. After watching you rebuild carbs on countless machine, I felt very confident as it took me about an hour. Seeing my neighbors face when the pressure washer was running was priceless.... Thanks again and look forward to the next video.
Any treadmill motor I have would be way to fast. You slow them down over half way and they lose a lot of power. Take a lot of pulleys or sprockets to get them slow enough for a bead roller. 2 of them 5000 rpm other 2 4000 rpm.
It's a great piece of kit that lets pretty much any home restorer have access to kit only the pros used to have. It is very customisable and there are lots of videos about this and the very respectable results that have been achieved from it. I have motorised my one and made loads of accessories like a table,adjustable stop, extra bracing and a adjusting hand wheel. A polyurethane wheel and lots of easily made home made rolls have been added. A floor stand with roller storage was an easy and effective upgrade. Absolutely no regrets buying it,way more capable than price suggests. Plenty practice on scrap metal pays dividends
This is where you need an english wheel to pre-stretch the metal before rolling your bead. Pre-stretching on your lines would have kept it from warping like it did.
I have used one for over 20 years and the one i used to use was on a pedestal and we had a adjustable plate for a glide you place the work piece against to keep it level. the 3rd one you used is great for making 90degree bends on, just hammer over the folded bit on the edge of a bench. Great for spot-welding a lip.
I put a wheelchair motor on mine with a scooter speed controller and a car battery. I rigged up a foot switch so I could use both hands to guide the metal. Works very well
Hi Mustie, I'm really looking forward to seeing how you've powered this, as that's the main reason I haven't bought 1. I'm about to restore a '69 Bug over here in England, where they rot almost beyond recognition, so I'll be fabricating MANY panels! 🤣 Subbed, your content is always excellent. 😎
From other video, they sell almost every part you want to restore bugs, of almost any years. No need to fabricate parts unless you really, really want to.
I really want to do some of it myself, I'm aware of the excellent aftermarket of parts, but feel like trying my hand. 😀 Plus, there are cost implications, if I buy every panel required I'll go bankrupt! 🤣
Just a heads up you can pretty much buy a Volkswagen just in panels and assemble it yourself. They reproduce I would guess just about every part for the bug. I’m willing to guess that’s the most produced car of all time Edit: yeah I just read the rest of the comments. If you want to make your own I would say get your welding gear in order first bc you have to attach the things you make. A torch is invaluable as well
G'day Kevin here from Australia. Looks promising especially the electric motor idea. Owe and I'm loving your new security system. (The big hunting knife hanging off your belt) 🤣 ✌ Peace man
Looks near identical to my Woodward Fab I was lucky enough to get for a song. Used it to put beads in the end of boost pipes for silicone couplers. Worked well enough, but I do have one massive issue with it. The hex key grub screws are 100% frozen solid in both the dies and the gear stops. One stop is slightly offset too, so there is tons of slop in the whole system. Really need to figure out how to get those buggers unstuck! I let them soak in penetrant for weeks multiple times. Actually, while writing this, I think I figured it out. Time for a torch!
Only run the bead roller on a single pass. If you go back and forth weird things happen to the metal. We had the exact same bead roller and built a few dozen race car interiors. .
a 12 or 24v windscreen wiper motor geared down to a nice slow speed would have enough torque and work well to power the rollers, and being designed for more continuous use would probably last much longer ! Great video !
Hey Mustie. When you are using the bead dies, I would recommend that you put the die with the groove to the lover shaft. That makes it more easy to follow your pattern.
just weld a piece of steel bar on the bolt, or a bolt across it. surely he has scrap laying around :) ** better yet, just weld an old wrench on at an angle like he was using it :))
And paint one end red, the other end black, to make turns count easier to keep accurate, especially if there are distractions that can lead you astray in mid turn.
If you want to add power to one of these, a heavy-duty garage door opener works. It's already got a sprocket for chain drive, gear reduction for torque and turns slow enough to allow good control. Since most of them are 115 volt, wiring in a foot pedal is easy. A thin coat of grease on the metal and the rollers makes the job a little easier.
I have had one of these for a couple of years now and the first thing I did was to weld in 1" angle iron around the back side of the jaws fully and connected top and bottom at the back of the unit. That strengthened it a LOT. Stock, you can flex the pulleys apart by hand which means your dies will wander instead of track properly. Reinforced they don't deflect and run more true. Replacing the crank handle with a bicycle gear and chain to a low RPM drill motor worked pretty well to have variable speed, but I will likely go with an even slower option to control the feed rate. A foot pedal to control it is very important! You want to have both hands on your work to control it fully.
Very cool. We met a guy that did bead rolling when we were building race cars. This guy could do some amazing work with sheet metal. Nearly any design you would want, he could roll it out. Door panels, dash boards, firewalls, just about anything. He was paid well for his craft also. ATB
You have more patience with that thing than I did. I tried to make a sunroof cover panel for my race car and thought I'd run some beads through it to stiffen it up. It warped the panel too much to use. The beads shrink the panel. The recommendation I got to resolve that was to run an English wheel over the lines beforehand to stretch the metal a little then run the beads. How much to wheel it is a black art. And I wasn't going to spring for an E-wheel.
I think that this item will be a big help when you go to make more panels for the Econoline and other projects that have to have some metal work done. It could even make the patterns in the Bed of the truck. Keep making these videos Darren and teaching us.
I have access to an old industrial bead roller that was used to shape panels in a factory in the early 60's. It has about a 30 inch throat. It is powered by an old electric motor and has a foot pedal, but it runs real fast much like an industrial sewing machine. You have to tap the pedal to control the speed.
GOOD JOB!! I have had one of these for 20 years, did not like the top part rocking/racking back and forth. Watching you gave me an idea on how to use 2-4" or 6" plates w/ 2-bolts clamped to stiffen machine when the full throat is not needed. Another set of rollers are "cutters". With a helper to crank, this would be really a neat tool. Motorizing quickly comes to mind with this tool. A motor/belt w/a foot press control would be good. I've not used mine much, maybe now I will.....thanks.
Very interesting stuff and something I know nothing about. It's kinda nice learning together, instead of watching a master at work. I think I learnt more this way.
The panel is stretching when you roll beads. If you "prestretch" the metal along the bead line before you roll the bead in the opposite way it wont warp.
Hey, unboxing with great Mustie1! 👍👌👏 For that inexpensive price this item is not bad, really not bad at all! I would like to own one too definitely. Now what's next? English wheel probably? Can hardly wait to see how a stabil stand is fabricated. Hope it will be made out of reclaimed material and maybe designed like your fantastic fantasy bikes and scrap art stuff.
I think your idea of the large starter motor off of a tractor, or such like, is great idea. You could have variable speed,with a foot pedal control, reversible and have both hand free to steer the work, Love your videos bro, cheers
Interesting Darren, I have never messed with bending metal so the whole learning process is great for me. I always made everything square and welded it together. Thanks for the video and take care.
BTW if the blue black and yellow are any indicators of anything they might be QC. Wood magazine did some checking into machinery similar to this and they figured out that most of it came from the same factory but the quality control would be different for each manufacturer and then they would get painted their appropriate proprietary color.
The type of motor you need for this is a stepper motor for like a cnc mill there kinda complex wiring but there very precise when they start and stop. Thats how you could get the peddles for forward and reverse for it, and variable speed that is controllable. I would weld a old wrench to the adjuster bolt as well lol Also i have been watching your content for years now and I can say that I love watching you work on anything lol. You have one of the best channels on RU-vid of its type, you really make us feel like we're in the shop with you and taking part in your crazy projects. What I'm saying is keep'em coming. The only other channel I have found that comes close to yours is south main auto Eric O. Is an awesome mechanic that owns his on shop and does diagnostic and works on newer cars.
I had to do a circle once on one of those and found it helpful to drive a long nail with the head removed through the center of the circle. if you keep the nail against the body of the bead roller, it helps keeping it within the circle as all you have to worry about is the rotation. Just an idea. Good video!
Unless those center roller bars can be used for something, I don't understand why they made it so long. Like you said, it's hard to keep your eye on the work with that crank handle way over there.
Thanks @@ruben_balea, I'd totally missed that cutout. Now that length makes sense. The rollers would also provide a bit of support to the piece being worked. I suppose our man, Mustie1, would have done better to feed the piece through the rollers instead of "way outboard" like he did.
Power makes them so much nicer. I used a manual for years, then found a nice powered unit with a ton of dies. Made it so much easier. Mustie hasn't discovered that there is also one of those die sets that is a shear. Or that you can use a lathe to make custom dies
nice to see a grown man enjoying his toys !! I rolled up a two foot ring and welded it to the cranking handle......easier to use, easier to see the line with better control.........poorboys electric conversion!!
I'd put a gear reduction motor on that crank with a foot pedal control...and maybe some dial indicators on the rollers....I love to modify equipment to suit me...and yes t handles on the nuts supposing you can get sufficient torque, good stuff Dave, love your work.
There are a number of RU-vidrs that have modified their bead rollers. TSR Garage did quite a power conversion. Check out his mods and others. There are some clever things out there.
You can buy more rollers for these, but it will require some research. One set I would use gave a fluted edge, but that was when I worked at a custom lighting factory, this is also a very handy tool for tin knocking! And as with all new equipment, practice will help!
On ebay you can find these small geared motors for running tvs , walls up and down. 29$ All kinds of speed ratings. Can also control the speed (AC DC motors). Use one on a 2 ton chain hoist. They have a lot of power. The ones I have you cannot stop them from turning. Reversible
Put an adjustable fence made of plywood with a metal face on the contact edge (the one the metal you're working then touches only that metal side of the plywood). Then you can just measure, set the fence to keep the piece you're working on the exact distance you require for the bead to be where you need it with a measuring tape, then use it all the time. Then there may be no more walking all about by the piece you're working on! Plus, you could make a number of them for each to provide certain ranges of distances you may need.
With heavier material mine seamed to want to push the top and bottom support apart horizontally. I welded some scrap iron to brace the arms right over each other.
lazzemetalshaping Here, metal shaping teacher Lazze, demonstrates how to use a pointer, to help make a straight line in any bead roller when you can't use a guide or fence for support
When I was an apprentice if I'd put a spanner on the Allen key the fitter would have slapped me silly hahaha... I can still hear him shouting 30 years later use the right tool for the job numb nuts!!!
Stu Jobling we had a maintenance Forman at a place I was a production supervisor, I can remember him taking vice grips and channel lock pliers away from mechanics if he ever saw them in a tool box, He demanded they use the proper tool wrench when making adjustments to the machines, He knew those type pliers would round off or deform the adjustment bolts/nuts on the glass making machines,
@@fredhart7904 using adjustable scanners was a big no no and he would go mad seeing them in my tool roll! But it's worked great over the years and I teach my apprentices the same ways as he did. It was even worse for us in the 80s in the uk as we had so many different sizes to contend with as older stuff was still in British standard whitworth and AF size and then metric so my tool box was actually 3 tool boxes with different spanners and sockets! Not much use for them now and ended up selling them to a guy who has vintage British sports cars!
