Homemade Corrugated Iron Roller (well, nearly!) 

I learned a lot from this build - and went on to build a better one! Check it out here.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lNhEmNsELYo.html

Experiments and learning is never wasted efforts Tim. I really enjoyed your problem solving.

That was NOT a failure! It was a far better result than 99.9% of us would have come up with! The majority of us wouldn't even try it!

You dont need a LARGE MOTOR. You need a small third cog to reduce to. In other words, you need a Gear Ratio, and a motor strong enough to turn that reduced amount of required torque. I think its probably very doable at 4:1 or 5:1. I look forward to seeing updates.

Probably the best video I have seen this year. Definitely not a failure.

Definitely not a failure. This would be one of the best small scale / DIY / home project videos I've seen this year. You learned a lot and we learned with you. This was really great. Thank you.

loving these experiments

Once heard of a famous quote by someone that I can't remember. "Try, fail, try again, fail better." If this is not the perfect inspiration for how to ultimately reach your goal, I don't know what is.

Building a corrugated iron roller has been on my long list of things to do for years now. Thanks for sharing!

All I can say, it's amazing how you love your dog.

That was really ingenious! Really impressed with your engineering and building skills.

Tim, as always, I sincerely respect your 'can do' attitude and willingness/courage to tackle new engineering ideas.

I used to work for Corus in their profiling division. Curved sheets are/were part formed then full formed within the curving press. The change to peak and valley structure holds in the curve and reduces creasing. Lubrication is also key. It reduced deviation, creasing and splitting. Your design is fine... but: A. Make the form 1-2 degrees more extreme than the formed sheet. B. Roll half sheets: even the commercial equipment is cheaper at 1/2 sheet form factor because it's so much easier. C. Use a pre loaded rope drive and a vehicle winch to rotate the rollers. D. Multiple passes at fractional increases are vital. A 180 sheet on our standard hydraulic units was 5 passes. Only the "beast" that used a pre and process heated system formed them in 1 hit.

I love watching your thought process with these projects Tim.

I don’t think failure is a word anyone should ever use ,it is trying to figure something out and it is always improved upon till it works ,and I know you can use a cheap little motor with some pulleys and belts to make a gear reducer then the motor doesn’t need the torque , nice job and that’s what I do too ,take a break from a project until revelation comes !!👍

LOVE your ability to think old school. Back in the day they didn’t always have a metal shop or engineer to go to. I am very impressed and it was a great video. Well done.

Mini fails are just hurdles along the path to success. Love your thinking and work ;-)

You are just a BRILLIANT engineer! I continue to be astounded at what you invent.

We use what is called tank iron for making mining shaft collars, the metal is softer and does not kink if you run it through a few times to get your desired curl. Newer corrugated iron is more tensile and kinks

Maybe not a perfect roller, but I bet it’s a terrific straightener. I need just that on the ranch. All my animal paddocks are covered in corrugated tin and the wind wrecks them, it’s a constant struggle to keep them in good shape. That machine would fit my needs perfectly

Beautiful video mate. Thanks for the taking me on the journey, I love projects like this

To get Curved Corrugated Metal I noted the industry uses two operations....first Form straight Corrugated Sheet...then run the Corrugated Sheet again through a Second adjustable Set of Rollers to obtain required Arch needed!!!! This allows Metal Roofing to obtain/become Free Span Roofs (no Rafters or Roof Structures).....Great Video....Keep Up the Interests

It wasn’t wasted. It was a superbly entertaining video.

So cool to see your last few videos building toward these bigger projects. I think getting a smooth roll without the kinks is probably down to the rigidity of the frame. Rethink that and I think you'd be there. A few more gears and you could get away with using a fairly small motor

Blessings for your hard and honest efforts to invent, and share your success and fails. Ppl like you were part of the industrial revolution.

We love watching your experiments and builds. Been watching for a long time, and enjoy your thought process!

So the best way is to walk away brush off your hands and your injured self worth and do something you know how to.. Then overnight or a few days or weeks take another whack at it..I watched the guys with all the money to buy the correct machinery make some roofing material.It wasn't done in one roll through but several.Keep after it and thanks for showing us all your wit to go ahead with this project...great job..

What I like about you the best is that you “do” things. Good for you!

I am in awe of ALL Tim's projects, working or otherwise!

I work for a company that does this by expensive machines every day. You have done well with minimal equipment.

The tracer lathe was a win in itself. This is one of those RU-vid videos that taught me something. Thank you for sharing.

way out guy just made things for me so easy, love you from india

Hi ! From California USA ! I see you have some AMAZING candle stick holders in different sizes with the wood you used for this project. The wood grain design caught my eye right away. Beautiful with some stain or clear lacquer... just no steel center 😃 just cut them to different sizes & hollow out the center for a pillar candle. The bulky candle stick holders could go on a fire place mantel etc... let me know what you think ? They WILL be a hot item in your store.. oh.... maybe engraved with some animals or something ? PRECIOUS 💕🙋🏻

I have a couple of corrugated iron curvers. Both of them motorised. One is a very very old set and one a newer set. One thing worth mentioning is that if you do not use corrugated iron that has been made for curving then you will have major problems. There are two types of corrugated iron. High tensile and soft feed. The high tensile corrugated is much thinner than the curving quality iron. In the old imperial system the gauge for curving quality iron is 24 gauge. The high tensile is 26 gauge. In the new money the curving quality is .65mm and the hi tensile is .42mm. You can curve the hi tensile but you can only slightly curve it. The curving quality iron can be curved down to a 350 radius if you have the correct rolls with very close bottom rolls. So you are on the right track. You should check though that you have the correct material to start with. I am in Australia in Queensland where we have a lot of curved roofs. Not sure if you can get soft feed curving quality corrugated in pommy land though. Hope this helps you in your quest. Personally I think you've done a great job with limited materials and knowledge of the subject. I do think though that you need steel rolls to do what you need. You will also need a very rigid frame.

If you don't try you'll never know, but that was an exceptional attempt!

If you used aquaplate (which they use for water tanks) it would not have kinked. Notwithstanding how bloody clever to make this. Well done.

Good Work. The more you try the more you get better. That is how i got better. Every failure is a step closer to get better at what you are doing. The first version is never the best. You won't notice it but your mind now get more tuned into building better things. After a while you will notice yourself how far better you've gone.

The shelter is a good idea , but you need to turn the corrigations 90° . Go with the flow .

Thanks so much for sharing your efforts. I've been following the channel for a long while and I'm always impressed with your work. Inspiring stuff, in the shop and in the garden.

This is a good start. If you look at commercial rollers the lower pair of wheels are fixed, but jack screw adjustable, in a triangular plate steel frame. Then all you need to do is apply force via bottle jack. It'll take some shimming but you'll get there in no time. As far as input force goes, you simply need a bigger gear reduction. An old compressor motor plus a bit of bike chain and you'll be there in no time. When it's powered you'll be able to make many more cycles thus smaller displacement each cycle. That means even less input torque required.

Corrugated iron stock tanks (cut in half) must cost less than all this effort. Not that the effort goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

Those wood rollers were beautiful, really works of art!

I’m no engineer, but it looks like you can benefit from having a couple of gear ratios, if your arms are hurting and stuff like that I’m pretty sure doing something with ratios and gears would be able to help on that front

Well done Tim. You gave it a good shot.

You certainly did a great job creating this contraption, and it actually works!

Would gearing down the turning handle help? Obviously the total amount of work would be the same, but it might be much less tiring

Well done for the effort, time for a rethink.

And now you see why they cost so much huh? :) Enjoyed and gave a Thumbs Up also

Never, never never never NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!

I had the same idea. I figure wood would work ok. I didn’t have the nerve to go through with the idea. I’m glad to see that somebody did.

I’m subscribing here just because your “failure” video, it’s amazing.

The fun and satisfaction of giving it a go, love how you turned up those wooden rollers, there's a lot of work behind the scenes in this video, you could do another one on some of the details. Could you show more of the turning with the square and round bits, thanks Tim.

The only thing I can think of that might help is heat. You're curving the corrugations across the grain, which is where it's stiffness comes from. You're compressing one ridge, and stretching the opposite valley. The result is many inches difference in length. F'ex, at 36" interior half circle at a 1" ridge/valley will be a total of 6" longer on the outside than on the inside. What you're rolling looks almost 2", which is a whole foot difference. Heat would help ease the expansion and contraction. Though it might damage the rollers...

Absolutely brilliant. Well done.

Gee you put in a great effort. You are so clever to have built the device. Well done.

I don't recall unsubscribing. Glad to find this channel again.

Not sure what exactly you would need in horsepower for your motor, but please don't give up. Maybe you can make a set up and put four horses on it. A 4 horsepower engine, victorian style, would be more than a single man powered on. And that Horse powered engine can be used for other things.

My Good Sir, its never a waste..... iam a trained engineer and i would not have thought of using the wooden rollers, Thank you for that

Yes, most corro these days is high tensile, you need what is called a soft coil feed to successfully get bull nose or tight radius curvature........ 20 out of 10 though for the solid effort getting to where you did. Awesome work.

I suspect that you will come up with what will work for you eventually Tim. I love your prototypes!👍

Fascinating! I would have never thought of wood rollers!

I have often found the ability to do most any shop task can sometimes be a hindrance. Outsourcing some work saves time and money sometimes......GREAT engineering there on a tough build... G>

I immediately thought of the Anderson Shelter.

GOOD GOING TIM

OMG , you went through a lot ,thnx

This is genious! Thank you very much for inspiration! I've never thought about combination of the ring roller and shaped rollers for this purpose! I think you could made the rollers by aluminium casting which can be done in a backyard environment with ease especially for such simple shapes to be cast.

It's not a failure; it works. It's the Mark I version. If the rollers were turned a bit undersized, you might be able to add a layer or two of fiber glass on them. That might hold them together. If you had some edge rollers, perhaps it will run straight. So, when are you going to put the motor in it? : ) Perhaps you can get some big sprockets and chain from some old farm equipment, to make a reduction drive, or even use an old car transmission, perhaps from something small, or even a big lawn tractor. Doing it by hand, it's not going to be easy to have enough finesse to guide it--while you are using enough strength to turn it.

Thanks for sharing the experiment!

interesting idea using the square pipe and pieces of ply around it , might work whell for making a thickness sander too

Thanks. For the effort and honesty!

Fair play for you Tim I said it before and I say it again,there’s more in your head than you take out with a comb,,

You can buy these sheets for dirt cheap but I love you for engineering a solution. Hats off sir.

Very cool I've actually been looking for somewhere to buy just those rolled corrugated sheets. Well done sir!

Got a lot of ideas from this video. Thank you for sharing

Beautiful patterns on the turned wood rollers. Make more, finish them really nicely with sealant or lacquer or whatever, and sell them as art pieces to fund the project 😀

Wish you lived in America near Tennessee, we’ve got those trees on our land you could use. Even a bunch of Osage orange and black locust.

The old school galvanised iron was much softer than the zincalume or colourbond sheeting we get now. The softer iron would have worked in your machine, but the new stuff is just way to hard. Thanks for sharing, was a good interesting video.

I think you are almost there, don't give up‼️👍👍. Vinny 🇺🇸

I reckon the only way to successfully add the corrugated would be rolling the center then adding left right cogs rolling in the next rounds then adding the next outer cogs and rolling which would prevent streching as you be only pulling from the outside straight as you go since you'd be going from inside to out..it adds one problem though. It would reduce the surface area Big admirer!

Love experimenting, then contemplating the result then trying again and again, not sure how to solve this one but sure you can find a way

genious this is absolutley fantastic fren I was looking into how to corrugate sheet metal for a mini niesen hut / iris hut / ww2 hut

Getting the right profiles is important

I liked your video. I need a Corrugated Iron Roller for my project. So far no luck.

tim you did it

That was an amazing achievement! No mean feat to get to that level of corrugated sheet bending. For what it is worth I'd suggest that - once it is motorized- that you make smaller adjustments for each pass through the machine. Gradual deformation will help reduce the kinks. The video style was fun. The turned ply looked lovely too.

You are one true genius, you made it very easy and affordable thing and thats too in wood. ...👍👌👏👏👏

Time to get onto the AVE community CNC! Reduction gearbox and rollers

I wonder if a "harbor freight" style hydraulic bottlejack style press could work as a basis for DIY metal shaping machines. It might not be much more expensive than the pipes. The restriction of degrees of freedom is simpler with that type of contraption.

As mentioned below I vote for a geared down solution. And perhaps rounding out the rollers that are missing their nice round bits. That may be the source of your ripples in the sheet stock of the ripples are at a regular place in the finished profile. Great job! And thanks for taking the time to make this video. You are much closer to your goal than you think.

I am very impressed!

You can make gears, is there a way to provide a mechanical advantage to the handle via a chain and gear instead of direct drive? You will have to complete more turns, but they will be easier.

Have you tried making multiple lighter passes?

Well I hate to break it to you but fifty years ago we made these Quonset hut type shelters by laying the corrugated tin on a fence post and walking on the area near the post. Mark the straight sides so the sides stay straight. Took about five minutes to curve a single panel and the result looked fine.

Interesting video. The tighter the radius, the more likely to get kinks. The rolling of the flat bar worked well. How about rolling a few pieces of flat bar to make a set of ribs, then covering this with sheet steel or plastic screwed to the ribs. It is much easier to get the tight radius you desire with such a construction. A less expensive method may be to make the ribs from PVC pipe. You would likely need to heat the pipe to get the tight radius, but you could make a template of the shape then heat and bend to the template a lot easier than rolling steel. Dave.

Thanks for posting, as I learned many many things, very interesting!!

Forget about the corrugated. Make it out of flat sheet. Three or four bits of flat bar as ribs and a few rivets.

IMO the problem lies in the lack of rigidity of the whole contraption not for nothing the machines that do this work, even the old manually operated ones, are so heavily built.

I'm proud of your effort bro. Also, I enjoy your style and manner of speaking!!!!

if its exhausting your arms maybe you could hook it up to a bicycle type contraption, legs are stronger than arms and all

I just realised the answer is staring you in the face..well not actually staring but very close by... Instead of doing all the grunt and turning that wheel by yourself..get Henry or Flora or Winnie and hook one of themt up to the wheel somehow and get it to do the pulling/turning !! haha, and naturally compensate said beast with a big bag of oats/carrots for all its efforts !..everybody happy and lots of curved metal !!! :-)