Home made heavy duty bead roller build part 1

Building an electric bead roller using a single phase to 3 phase invertor VFD and 3 phase induction motor.

[@davidbradbury9734]

Elliot, Very nice. Very similar to what I built. Mine has a 26 inch throat. The upper shaft slides 2 inches for and aft. Variable speed forward and reverse. I do wish I would have built it with a wide mouth. Yours is going to be nice and stiff. great job. It will be nice to see what you produce with it. Keep the video's coming. Cheers.

[@elliotaw]

Thanks for the feedback. I might have to build a 2nd wide mouth version eh

[@williamwood1176]

Nice job, Elliot. I will be modifying my 'Metalman' beader by lowering the bottom shaft by way of a chain drive, similar to the Lazze machine. This gives clearance for curved or flanged panels.

[@elliotaw]

I considered making a "wide mouth" type machine like what you want to make. I kinda think it would be nice to have one of each... cant have TOO many tools lol

[@Squintanditsmint]

Cracking looking tool that, look forward to seeing it working.

[@elliotaw]

You and me both!

[@shales73]

So this is what the final result looks like. Good mate, it will be a tool that will last you a life time.

[@elliotaw]

I hope so, thats the plan. Thanks

[@clintonhoines4070]

Very Nice start way over built but can't go wrong with that. Steel must be way cheaper down there than in Canada lol I bought my roller and modded it since it was cheaper to buy a built one than to buy the steel. I run mine between 4-8rpm for 90% of my pieces. Wish I had bought or modded it into a deep throat roller, would be handy for some projects. Look forward to the next parts of the build.

[@elliotaw]

Thanks for the reply. I wish steel was cheap. Ive been making this machine a bit at a time so find spreading the cost out makes it more affordable.

[@rogerpritchard]

Great video

[@elliotaw]

Thanks. Ill do part 2 when i get a chance.. got a lot on at the moment.

[@edwardtaylor4785]

I've thought about a similar project for some time and the issue has always been finding an inexpensive way to go slowly enough. I had occasion to use a Lazze machine and , even on that one, the motor has to run very slowly to achieve appropriate speed for the rollers. An issue with running the motor very slowly is that the cooling fan is ineffective. If the Lazze machine was run for a long time, the motor would overheat and trip the thermal limiter. No permanent damage, but you had to wait for it to cool down before proceeding. May not be an issue for your motor, but something to be aware of it it suddenly stops in the middle of.a big project. Simple solution is a separately powered muffin fan on the motor that runs at full speed regardless of motor speed.

[@elliotaw]

I dont think there will be much load on the motor due to the gearbox ratio.. ive let the motor run at its slowest for a considerable amount of time and the motor still feels cold to touch.. will have to wait to see how it functions in real time though...

[@st170ish]

Certainly going to be rigid, I've got one of those H&F 600mm deep throat BR and it does indeed flex and the motor control jerks at start up on slow speeds... not to mention having to send it back due to keyways having way to much slop due to being assembled by some ham fisted idiot!

[@elliotaw]

You have to start somewhere. I did originally consider buying a cheapy and then look at beefing it up. At least that would have gotten me up and running a lot sooner.

[@movo6690]

very interesting!! when comes part 2 or a demonstration how the bead roller works?

[@elliotaw]

Its coming.. ive been working on the stand recently. Spare time to work on it is thin on the ground at the moment... as always

[@charliemyres5450]

Really nice work! Thank you for your explanation of what a VFD is and how it works. The trusses you made the arms into will work well on the vertical load and the torsional load. I am interested to see how you will stiffen the weakest part of the machine where the throat ends. Are you going to fully weld every seam? Cheers

[@elliotaw]

Im interested to see how much flex there will be in the frame aswell. I do have a bit of a cunning plan but it doesnt involve strengthening the mouth of the machine.. im not going to fully weld it. Im worried it will put too much heat into the frame and potentially shrink and close down on the parts inside that need a sliding fit.

[@seapy2398]

I get most of my heavy steel chunks from a local scrap yard effectively for peanuts. Your design is not over engineered in my book, this sort of machine always better if it's rigid. I built my own English wheel and it's heavy, very heavy! But it responds really well and doesn't flinch. I am interested in how you plan to secure the second side plate and still transfer the forces into it, or are you just planning to use it as a removable lid rather than a stressed member... Having seen your web design which I think is really neat, I would have inserted solid 25 or 30 mm Dia. steel bobbins at each intersection in the web and doweled the lid to the base with 12mm dowels, if you follow me? That would increase the rigidity a lot. Either that or tight fitting bolts. My only slight criticism of your dialogue is you repeated several key points, for example, the inverter can stop the motor without ramp down, this sort of info, once is enough, we are listening! No worries, just saying, NOT getting at you, I know it's not easy to dialogue a video. Robert

[@elliotaw]

Haha.. im shocking at speaking to a microphone, out of my comfort zone 100 percent. The other side plate is now fitted.. fully weld prepped around the perimeter and mig,d to death. I took a template of all the interior webbing, transferred that to the other side plate and drilled 30 or more big diameter holes and hot welded the whole assembly into one rigid piece. Its taken a bit of work with heat and hydraulic pressing to get all back within spec. Working on the stand at the mo.

[@maxakarudy]

I guess you've give it a lot of thought, but I'm guessing anything more than 1.2mm aluminium & you're gonna struggle. Correction 12mm ali 😁, wow that's some bead roller mate 👍

[@elliotaw]

I have a habit of over engineering everything lol..

[@rvarsigfusson6163]

​@@elliotaw Away to strong made NEVER fail.

[@h-j.k.8971]

All talk no fabrication.

[@daos3300]

not that many diy scratch built bead roller vids on the tube. on the other hand there are endless videos of people welding random bits of metal together at high speed with annoying soundtracks, if that's what bakes your cake. great to see the innards, the drawings and some of the thinking behind this build, especially something this well made.