Make Your Own Bead Roller FROM SCRATCH - Step By Step!! 

Hey Karl, another great tutorial. Always a good thing to know how to make your own tools. The quality of many store bought tools is lacking. Thin metal and cheap parts seem to be the hallmark of today's tools. Building them yourself insures the quality of the final product. And if you build it, you know how to repair it instead of replacing it. Thanks for sharing your expertise and we'll see you next time.

To prevent the chip strand from get too long just pause in your feeding of the bit. This breaks the chip and also gives the cutting edge a chance to cool which will prolong the cutting edge. Also, some coolant made for drilling and lathe work wouldn't be a bad idea either. Another solid video, sir! Like my granddad used to say "I love work. I could watch it all day!"

Seriously cool! So many channels are about the big dollar tools and it's amazingly refreshing to see someone create their own tools but also share the how to so that just us regular guys they have a shot at building them!

Literally building this right now! Salvaging the drive and bushings from the baleigh 24” that wasn’t quite cutting it and fabbing the rest. You’re absolutely THE MAN! So kind of you to share the files and all of you knowledge. Been fabricating and building cars for many years, self-taught and I’ve picked up on so many little things in your videos, whether its a tad different way to think about something, a technique I’ve never used, or even just a couple words that made something click! Keep up the good work!

Just finished building the main body and stand! Drive system and all the gears etc are on the way! BTW people, eastwood is having a sale right now and I also found a 10% off coupon that doesn't seem to get old. It's "bleepinj". With the sale price plus 10% off it was about 425 after tax and another 20 for shipping. Thanks Carl. Your videos are always playing in the background in my shop and they help keep my ADHD in check and me on target. 🤙

I just wanted to point out that the hercus 260 lathe has a power feed clutch knob blow the half nut leaver you were using. Use the half nuts for thread cutting only. Keep the videos coming. Great content.

Appreciate someone who makes their own tools. I've already made my own welding cart, engine stand, and a cherry picker with larger flotation tires. Makes all the difference being able to work on the "heavy" equipment out in the dirt. Nice to see Eastwood already has a motor speed controller available along with the dies. As I now see my next project.

SO impressed with your talent and willingness to share it with others. This is now on my build list :)

Aloha Karl, the long video doesn’t seem long when you teach us so much. It’s unbelievable that you are willing to share those files. You inspire me to try and make things on my own for my projects when I could just buy it off the shelf. Mahalo for sharing you knowledge. 🤙🏼

I like your cheer! I like your positive outreaching motivating charisma! I like your builds!!! I like your content! I like your channel! Keep it up and keep bringing your devoted always smiling great talent! God Bless everyone!!

Hi Karl, When you are drilling holes on your mill, instead of having to line up each hole, use a stop that is consistent, in this instance use a piece of steel across the outer face of the vice jaws as you position the piece you want to drill the hole. That way your holes will be all aligned with a common face. when using the boring head, use the quill power feed rather than the table, will give you a consistent finish too. Regards Dennis

When you modified the Bushings to remove the slop, I 've heard a machinist call the method "swedging" . He said that he used to do it to pistons to make up for "oversized" cylinders walls. Great video you made !!

I can't tell you how rad it is that you shared your DWG files!! I was looking to build one of these instead of going down the path of upgrading a cheap one, and this is just amazing. Thanks man, look forward to seeing whats next

Great build Karl! Thanks for sharing!!! Boring head tips: 1. Snug the dovetail screws so the moving head has resistance & dia. adjust screw needs some wrench torque to move it, then leave them set. Properly set they dont need to be released/locked down hard. 2. boring bar can go in any of those 3 vert holes ( or in the horz hole for big bores). 3. rotate dia adjust screw in the other direction...it's not captive, needs to pull (you were over extended). Then after 1st pass, just crank in next cut...don't have to reverse & remove backlash each pass. Dial in your cut, then auto quill feed down as others mentioned and you'll get satin smooth bores. 5. multi cuts to sneak up on your dia then save a few thou for final pass. Follow these tips and you can hit +/- 1/10 all day, every day. Why bore to a 1/10 you ask? Becuz its what bad asses do :D LOL! Rock on!

The peace between the motor and the tool is a Lovejoy Coupler

I watched the whole way through and was completely fascinated. I had no idea what you were making until the end. Great job. Great mind. Thanks.

I can see he is brilliant at what he does. Like his tutorials. I am sure many people don't or can't afford, nor have knowledge of using a milling machine. Making all these machines is beyond me.

Nice video Karl. I'm not a machinist either but worked with some. When you are doing multiple holes in the same place you can put a stop on your mill vice and push the item against it. Saves marking out each item. Drill and tap a thread it the end of the vice jaws to fix a stop to.

Definitely a nice build! I enjoy your videos, because you go into detail about your builds. You also include the oops factor when you have to make an adjustment or have figured a better or easier way to get to the end result. Thanks for sharing the files for this build.

1 hour and 38 minutes of juicy awesomeness. Thanks Karl, well done mate!!

What a great video I’m 70 years old now but what I wouldn’t give to be your age with all your skills and your equipment that you use the things you can make are endless

Well that sure did brighten the day. Great video. Thank you for all the time and effort which you had taken to entertain and teach us.

I have the Eastwood setup for my garage. Im just starting out and didn’t want to make my own. I’m getting a feel for how the machine works and becoming more comfortable using it. Even though I currently won’t be making my own, your video gave me a way better understanding on the setup of this tool and what to look for when operating one. Yes the video is long, but totally worth it! Thanks!

It wasn’t till about two years ago a metal supermarket was built near me. Before that, there was nowhere to get metal from without driving 100 plus miles. Love that place!

I have no desire or need for a bead roller however your videos are so entertaining and educational,I always pick up something I can use,you are a very engaging inspirational guy thanks!

A charm to watch your videos, again and again, you are a source of inspiration, I love the ease you have to build things, to invent simple ways of making tools, a greeting from Spain.

I love how you use different tools to get the job done even when they weren't intended to work for that application. Great Video 📸

Wow this project turned out fantastic. Great design, great application, fantastic workmanship, and welding. you are a true educator the way you explain and show how to build correctly. Just one thing, to keep some of your subscribers happy, paint it pink.

The coupler on the Eastwood is known as a Lovejoy coupler. Lovejoy is actually the brand name, and many other brands are out there. Another great video Karl.

what a great video. I love seeing a young man with so much talent and work ethic sharing his techniques. your parents should be proud.

Gratz on your sorta 1yr anniversary. It has been a lot of fun watching you guys!

Well done! Always great when craftsmen share info like this.

Great episode. Good information. I have the sane Eastwood motor on my rig. 16ga. Seems to push the motor to its limit, but if you start off with a lighter pressure, slowly increase and double up on your passes, it will do the job.

Great channel! Thanks so much for showing all your awesome content! Just a quick tip, when you are hammering/bending on the vise, you should hammer towards the fixed jaw, not the movable jaw. Fixed jaw is much more solid to hammer against. The movable jaw could break if you hammer against it.

Karl, another awesome build... can't wait for more. You my friend are truly inspirational. Thank you for sharing this experience.

This video is well worth the time it came out to. Yes, we all can learn a great deal from your effort here. Thanks!

Amazing class about fabrication and technics to make useful tools,you inspire me so much, legend

Keep up the tool builds, they are so inspiring. Got tons of ideas thanks to Make It Kustom Metal School! Thanks Karl!

I have been wanting to get one a Bead Roller, but I never thought of building one, but now I have no excuse. Awesome

hello Carl, you are not only an amazing humbled guy, but your metal work is also super great. Thank you so much for putting so many great videos on youtube. Learning is fun, especially from a pro like you. You should teach in a vocational school, God bless you and your family

Impressive vid’s, after many years, passion in real life, taking time! Beautiful.

Karl sos un GENIO!!!, Thank you my friend for sharing your craft with such generosity. A big hug for you from Bariloche, Patagonia Argentina

Dude I don’t even plan to build my own bead roller any time soon and for as far as the length of the video it was just fine, I would rather watch you fabricate whatever it is your working on than watch motor trend channel. I am always amazed with your skills, the forethought that goes into the design and the quality of the execution just blows me away! You sir are a bad man!!! Yesterday day I made a plate for my stereo head unit that has been bouncing around in the glove box for years inspired by the one you built for the wife’s ride, I also used some basic metal forming, shaping just with a hammer and bench vice and various pieces of scrap I had laying around as the shape. I needed to bend some exhaust pipe to transition from round to oval shape in order to mate up to the factory exhaust deflectors on my 56 Pontiac. Sorry this is so long winded, just wanted you to know I really appreciate the knowledge you share.

Another great one you guys, long but so worth it. Karl buddy you HAVE to get an anvil in your shop. 100 lb. plus anvil with nice sharp edges. So much nicer for getting square bends with a hammer! Thanks for all the info and the DWG files.

Karl, Couldn't agree more with Dave Butcher. I use a 2 litre garden spray bottle (with pressurising pump) filled with whitewater (soluble oil coolant at 5% dilution) - just spray it at the drill to keep the end cool and wet. Otherwise excellent - I particularly like the tab and slot approach. Keep up the excellent work.

Oh....I've been waiting for this! This is the one tool I really need to start building my Restomod street truck. Thanks Karl! Great video.

You need a jack hidrolic bender :) You can weld up right short rods on top of the machine to hold your pieces.

Great episode. Really enjoyed the whole episode. Thanks again Karl for sharing your knowledge with us.

Great job. I use 16g all the time, be great to roll a bead in it now thanks to you. Thank You for sharing

Such a great video! You make it seem so very doable. This project is definitely in my future. 40:20 I'd like to suggest that heat is your friend in these situations. 🔥

WOW !! Watch the whole video !! SWEET Machine !!

Literally building this down in Florida now because of you. Thank you so much! Watching every video

Great tunes makes watching your videos even more pleasurable. Some of the music people play is mind numbing. Chilled lunch hour watching some great work.

As a old time fabricator I see the top shafts having the drive being a bit tough on the spider in the flex coupling due to the movement. Really cool I wish I would have had a motor on mine but my wife did a good job cranking it...lol

Any great job by a man with mad skills. These videos are so educational to me as I am a beginner at this metal working thing. Thank you Karl.

nice video. i don't think i'll be making one as i have a million other jobs on the go but i liked the idea of putting a cut through plate steel to bend it, that ones logged in the brain matter. i also like your workshop. would love it.

This dude is awesome 😎👍 he tries to help others he is a metal genius you can tell he is a really nice guy I don't have but 2 RU-vid creators that I would like to meet and this guy is one of them and the other is Cletus McFarland, Garrett I hope to meet y'all one day

Fantastic tutorial as usual you are by far the best relatable teacher to me on RU-vid Domo Arigatou 😊

Started watching kyle Voss on the fab forums in 18’. Then found Jeb greenstone of cutworm specialties that dude is nuts. Now you’re the next metal shaper that I think their style is just to fucking sick! The raw look 👀

Love all of your videos, especially the budget tool builds. Keep ‘em coming!

I love these long in depth videos. Keep Em coming. Great Job

It’s a love joy coupling! These are very forgiving! Great video!! Keep up the awesome work!

Looks amazing and works great. I'd put a guard over the gears at the motor side to prevent something from falling into the gears. Tools, clothing or fingers, etc. Enjoy

Great news! I’m going to get started on it this weekend. Your videos are the best! Thanks so much.

Great tutorial! I wish I had 1/8 the talent you have! Amazing.

Ok Karl ya did it awesome workmanship great video ya made it happen wow thks for sharing this project with us ya made it easy to understand and workable dont need to be rocket Sciencest to make this Happin so Congrats hats off l,m too old hands dont work great anymore seeing this brings back memories of the old days were the guys wood build stuff and share their plans ya wood make them proud Karl carry on from Canada 🍁 SK later 😊

Awesome, love the elbow grease with customization…. Even tools.

You should weld on some pegs with lips so you can store the dies along the back side of this roller. I've been working with sheetmetal for 28 years and I gotta say your setup is awesome! Badassness all the way boss!

Great video! Looks like I may actually have a beadroller in my future thanks to you. Little tip on your bend line cuts around 39:30 - if you end your slots with a "hole" that's approximately your material thickness (so your slots would look like dumbbells... o-----o ), hand bending will be quite a bit easier. The relief hole allows the material to bend without tearing, while the end of the narrow slit needs to rip the material apart to bend. Home gamer could do the same by drilling the holes along the bend line the slitting the material between holes with a cutoff wheel afterwards. Makes hand-bending stuff over 1/8" thick a lot easier. A little bit more to weld up afterwards but usually still worth it. Thanks for the awesome content!

Howdy Karl! Great video! Thanks for the info. I am restoring motorcycles and want to start building replica vintage race bikes. I think you are the best quality fabricator and instructor on RU-vid. Even on things I won’t use, your techniques are transferable and invoke thoughts. Thanks also for the drawings!

What a cool collaboration! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Karl...you are awesome...and a hell of a fabricator ...that bead roll turned out great....love your channel... Keep coming bro ..

Yay!!! my chows woke me up from a dead sleep at 4am (c).. and come to find out you just released a hour ago.. Wish my older brother (51) was as cool as you are (he's on one of his "hate the world and everyone in it moods".. lol)

Привет! Я из России, вы большой молодец что выкладываете процесс изготовления различных приспособлений для кастомайзмнга, тем самым подымаете эту культуру в мире! Спасибо!

Such a cool video. A thoughtful design, actually making it with a CNC plasma, and a great videography and editing. No wonder it has so many views.

In applications where something is welded to the end of a shaft it may be beneficial to center-drill the shaft with 1/4" bit. This hole will serve as a guide and allow a regular hole saw to be used to easily cut out the welds. In places where center drilling is not advisable, a small part of the shaft sticking out will work just as well, the hole saw would just have to be used without the guide drill bit in the center. As for speed controlling an AC motor, there are cheap VFDs out there for 20-30USD, they are commonly used for slowing down routers and such. Not very powerful, but will work on a motor that is geared down a bunch anyway.

great build, Karl. I look forward to seeing you use it on what you have going on in the shop! Pretty awesome, my man!

Took me all day to watch this, I got a good bit in before work then a tease at dinner break, then Finally got to finish it up to cap off my Friday evening 👍

Awesome! You hinted at this around a year ago, been anxiously waiting for this video!!!

The Florida pool pump motor bearing repair guy When Service Calls Longwood approved ! that was good info, MIK

I will never need such a machine but DUDE I sure enjoy watching your creativity .... awesome.

on the bottom of the new machine mount on some plates over the wheels and put some heavy old car batteries to add weight and stabilise it.did it on mine and does wonders to the stability.

What a great build tutorial! Pure quality.

My only criticism is that you should have a foot activated reverse. If you get your fingers caught you won't be able to reach the reverse. This happened to a friend of mine who had his hand stuck in a rolling machine for several hours when working in a workshop by himself. He could stop the machine but not reverse it. Great work as always.

Great stuff Karl Think I’ll grab a motor drive from Eastwood like this and just use it in a harbor freight bead roller for now . Your machine is exciting as it’s a rugged tool Looking for your pull max build Cool stuff !

Good job dude! Very smart, accurate and simple! All the best in your metalworking endeavours!!!!👍

To bend those plates you need my lead headed hammer. It came in a box of stuff that I traded some labor for.

Hell for stout! This has me looking at my scrap pile and wondering what I could make work with old snowblower parts. If you want more torque, you could swap the coupler for reduction gears or chain sprockets. Little gear on the motor, big gear on the end of the shaft. This would also let you flip the motor around so it's tight to the side of the machine instead of hanging out the back.

Great video 👍 I think you was having too much fun bending that mount bracket,but demonstrating "Getting it done".For a home builder just use more frame plates to get heavyer gauge and ease of build😊

Man this is the kind of stuff that inspires me to want to learn new trades you sir are truly a great artist at what you do and I thank you for all the informational videos and keep up all the great work 👍

Loved the build, I think I would have drilled the gears and shaft together on the mill and used a roll pin instead of welding, that way everything can be disassembled if something needs servicing.

Awesome awesome and enjoyable video! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video Karl.

Great job Karl I definitely think I will be building 1 of these class. Thanks for the video.

Awesome - couldn't stop thinking it looked like Star wars Millennium falcon sitting there on its side on the bench 😊

Absolutely awesome video, who knew your channel could give even more than it already does! Thanks for the cool future project Karl.

Wow that was definitely one of the best detailed videos you've done yet and the over all project turned out amazing, I lean something everytime I watch one of your videos. That would be a awesome tool an looks kool as well. Thanks for all your work, an keep them coming.

Nice film and that roller works solid . Nice to create with your friends and family ! Keep em comin’

Great video! Always a joy to take part of your projects, tutorials and knowledge :) Keep up the good work!

I’d build the frame out of wide flange, one piece less work, more beef, less portable, heavier, would require anchor to floor tor compactness. No cnc, no problem. Great work out of Langley!

Great video so enjoy hand made stuff and the more complicated. Thanks for showing both ways.