The Home Machinist!

My current stay sane project is a custom fit sheet metal tool cabinet, one thing I needed were specific height
hat channels for the drawer glides. I could not figure out how to bend them on a standard brake
and had them made from a sheet metal supplier locally.
A buddy owns a press brake but it wasn't in the budget for me to make the forms ( dies ? ) to
use his machine.

Looking at all the sales videos for bead rollers, it looks like such a tool would be able to form hat channels .
Question for those that have done a lot of sheet metal work, would a bead roller work for such an application ?

No replies yet. I just found this and am interested in the answer also.


Jack./

I didn't notice I had posted this in the CNC sub forum !

I'll see if Harold can move it over to the sheet metal sub forum...
But in the meantime I had purchased a inexpensive bead roller and I'm still
getting accustomed to it, so far it'll correct a mistake I made in fabricating
the drawers.

I'm not sure about your project, but I have a shop upgraded HF bead roller. I use it mostly for adding rigidity in flat panels, or flanges for laps, both mostly for automotive scale work (desert/overland/rock-crawler trucks/buggies). One of the biggest problems with it, particularly in the OEM flexy state, is making straight even beads. With a make shift fence and strengthened frame plus potential roller dies made on a lathe, it sounds like it might do the job.

BadDog wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:48 pm I'm not sure about your project, but I have a shop upgraded HF bead roller. I use it mostly for adding rigidity in flat panels, or flanges for laps, both mostly for automotive scale work (desert/overland/rock-crawler trucks/buggies). One of the biggest problems with it, particularly in the OEM flexy state, is making straight even beads. With a make shift fence and strengthened frame plus potential roller dies made on a lathe, it sounds like it might do the job.

Same problems I had with my cheapy Woodward fab. I did the same. I added some square pipe to keep it from flexing, and built a couple different fences.
I can roll beads on 11 gage tubing now. Before, it wouldn't even dent it.

Yep. The basics are mostly there, but the OEM execution on that flat plate frame was a complete bust. Looks like you also added upgraded pillow blocks, and generally an overall nice result. I haven't been sufficiently enthusiastic to go that far once it met my meager needs. However, I have pondered a trans flywheel based auto-feed attachment driven by variable speed 1/2" drill motor...

The one I bought was a JEGS bead roller, probably not far from the HF version which is discontinued
1/2" back plate, 22 mm ID dies, I have some chrom moly rods that I think I may be able to turn some
custom dies if I can figure out where I put them.
With any cheapo new toy I'm probably going to add a stiffener and a motor to it, been looking at DC gear motors.
Making a hat channel I may need tipping dies, based on the videos I've been watching, the offset dies that came
with the roller will cut if I gronk the dies down to get full depth in aluminum, steel it doesn't.

Question that comes to mind is do the dies need a chamfered or rounded edge ?
In the second picture you can see the offset dies are attempting to cut ( scratches ) and truthfully
I was trying to see if I could get a full depth offset in one pass by gronking the dies together as much as I could.

That's a whole world of it's own, depending on materials, finishes, and too much to list. I've seen dies made from inline skate wheels and skateboard wheels, and I've seen dies intended to shear for cutting thin aluminum. Radius and hardness and much more all relate to what is desired.

There is a guy on one of the off-road focused sites (here if you care to review) that I help moderate who started down that rabbit hole a few years back. Now he's got 10s of thousands (maybe another zero?) in equipment, and a thriving business doing nothing else. I don't know the actual details, but I expect he made approaching six digits just leading up to SEMA last year. His skills are rediculous, and his signs and custom panels have become very sought after from the premium builders (with lots of $$$$$).

I've got a bunch of drill sucker rod I planned to make some dies with, but never got a roundtuit. Once you stiffen the frame up, it becomes somewhat effective, and as it turns out, just good enough to make further improvements never find their way onto my short list.

jcfx wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:51 pmQuestion that comes to mind is do the dies need a chamfered or rounded edge ?

I always radius the edges of the dies on both internal and external corners. Some smaller and some larger depending on the type of die needed.

I bought a four foot length of 2 1/2" Stressproof (1144) for making dies soon after I got my bead roller. and it works quite well, as it machines nicely and is quite durable due to it's hardness and toughness.

The other thing is to make dies for the specific material thickness being formed. That way all surfaces are parallel as they are being used so no edges are digging into the material,

BadDog, thanks for that link, been slowly moving thru that thread and he seems to have a great talent
for bead rolling.