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Converting bead roller to power

78K views 76 replies 14 participants last post by  timothale 
#1 ·
Tonight I won a Craftsman chain drive garage door opener head for 35 dollars on Ebay with free shipping.

It seems to me that it should work well as a power unit for my bead roller.

It has gear reduction, is reversible, and is 110 volts.

I think I should be able to install a sprocket on the roller, eliminate all of the sensors and wire the motor to a spdt switch for forward and reverse and run the power through a foot pedal and make this work.

I don't know yet how many RPM's the drive sprocket turns so I can't order a sprocket yet but I am going to try to have everything lined up when my son in law, Tim, comes for Thanksgiving. Hopefully this will be a fun project while he is here.

I know there are several examples of similar modifications on HomemadeTools.net but if any of you have been down this road or have anything to contribute jump in and share what you think I ought to know.....or know what I ought to think:D

John
 
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#42 ·
Well Tim and I hit the basement today.

Since I was the guy with the camera it looks like only Tim did anything. I promise I helped.

First thing we did was take some good advise and install Zerc fittings in the bearing blocks and yes, mine were galded too. We put the best two on the end with the beading dies since that is where most of the pressure is.



Next we mounted the motor to the pipe frame with some heavy u-bolts.



We wired the forward/reverse switch, installed the Chinese sprocket that was machined so badly I had to take a die grinder to it and we put it together.



And here is the first bead coming off of it. The spead is perfect. Could not be better but I sure would try to find a better source for the sprocket.



 
#45 ·
The bead is done with one pass. If you try to make double passes you will get "shadow" lines where you make a slightly different pass.

The speed is just what I had calculated. About an inch/second. It seems to be just right. I would not want it to be any faster though

As far as radiuses go it is slow enough to turn gentle radiuses just fine, You can cycle the pedal for sharper ones.

With all this said. I had already bought the drive motor before I did a lot of research. The guys that are using the winch drives make some strong arguments for them. The neutral gate would be cool to allow it to be used by hand and you can buy a winch for what I paid for a Chinese sprocket that was so bad I had to grind on it for the chain to fit it.

Harbor Freight has a winch on sale now for 49.95.


Awesome John! Just put a chain guard on that thing. Damn nice work there John!

Brian
Yes. Also need a dust cover for the top of the motor. We just ran out of time.

John
 
#46 · (Edited)
winch

Superwinch 12 Volt Utility Winch — 2000-Lb. Capacity, Model# 1220210 | 1,000 - 2,900 Lb. Capacity Winches| Northern Tool + Equipment
northern tool has a winch that looks like the one I got from HF that has the yellow controller. The yellow controller is like the one Jim Stabe made and I copied to make a foot pedal. 'With the 12 V one you need a battery or the booster pack to run it.
the HF ad doesn't show which type of controll it has.
http://www.harborfreight.com/2000-l...tm_campaign=4813_black_friday&utm_source=1040
their video says 12 fr control cable. I bought the cheapest ATV winch last year for $ 50 to use on my dune buggy and It came with a key fob control, it would be hard to make a foot control for it. HF also has the 110 V winch on sale for $ 150. but I got a 25 % off cupon . so the price discount would mean in the shop I wouldn't need to buy a battery or battery pack
 
#47 · (Edited)
bead roller quick release

I've got some better picts of my quick release. I welded 2 pieces of angle iron up right with a gap for 3/8 bolts, shown in the second pict. in the first pict I welded a piece of bar stock and threaded the hole for the crank , on the bottom of the all thread I welded 2 nuts to move the link up or down,
 

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#57 ·
I've got some better picts of my quick release. I welded 2 pieces of angle iron up right with a gap for 3/8 bolts, shown in the second pict. in the first pict I welded a piece of bar stock and threaded the hole for the crank , on the bottom of the all thread I welded 2 nuts to move the link up or down,
Hey Tim, I just happened to notice that your shafts are mounted on the opposite as mine ,is there a reason for that? left handed?
 
#48 ·
powered bead roller ideas

I used a gear reduction starter from an '02 chevy malibu, gutted it and shortened the housing some. then had the armature turned down on the end so it would be 1/2" to fit my drill. then drilled out the end cap of the starter so that turned down shaft stuck through the end of the starter. i used that to power a 350 chevy flywheel that was fitted to the bead roller shaft using a weld on sprocket hub from princess auto (canadians version of harbour freight). the flywheel fits where the old hand crank used to go. then fabbed up a mount for the drill and a lever arrangement to push the drill trigger with a gas pedal style foot treadle that is rigged up with some bicycle brake cable parts to pull the drill trigger lever. it all works pretty well. i will see if I can get the pics to load. if not I will see if I can figure out how to start my own thread and attach some pics from there.
 

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#49 ·
pics explained

ok, the pics came through, now just so you can figure it out, the bead roller was an el cheapo deluxe unit bought at kms tools in calgary. probably the same as your harbour freight units. made in china but not great for anything but thin sheet because it flexxed too much. i needed to roll some 16 ga floor sheet so i re-inforced it with 1/2" steel. then added some pipe nipples to store the extra dies and shims. then tried it but found it hard to roll anything while cranking the hand lever. i had some extra struff laying around the shop so I fabbed up the rest. one pic shows the treadle hanging on the storage pipe nipple, just to keep it off the floor. the treadle is just some extra 16 ga with a cheap hinge on one end and a spring from the junk bin to return the treadle to stopped position., all in all it was a day or so to fix it all but some of that was think time to put together what I had sitting around and make it work. I did have to get the starter shaft turned down but that was $20 cash deal at a local machine shop. bought pizza for the guys prolly, ha ha. anyway, hope it helps somebody for ideas.
dennis
 
#53 · (Edited)
Fence

I have a fence for mine, shown in # 13, Not a good pict , it is reversible one direction the fence is close to the rollers, and switched the opposite direction for more depth. lazze has a fence somewhere in his Youtubes, he also uses a roller fence for making curves. another handy item is a removable plywood support table for doing larger panels by yourself.
a good view of lazze's fence starting at .50

and his 3 rd axis
 
#59 ·
I got my roller skate wheel and giant washer together to make a tipping wheel but I dont see how I can mount the wheel on the roller the wheel has bearings and is mounted on a 1/4" shaft so how do you get it on the bead roller shaft? also if the skate wheel and the tipping wheel are not the same size they'll turn at different speeds so the skate wheel should be free wheeling? with bearings? how about some pics and explainations..on the tipping wheel.
 
#62 ·
I stopped at a skateboard shop in town and didn't find any wheels I liked. I ordered 2 wheels from reid supply. I don't know which is which . Reids part no 1 US-105 and part no 1AU-824.
The orange one is the one I use. It is a tight push on to the harbor freight 22 mm shaft . I was looking at drilling a washer and bolting it in place of the harbor freight cutting die BUT I ordered a V belt pully from Surplus Supply with a 22 mm bore to fit the HF shaft , then turn it down on the lathe. It is shown on the pict in my post 47 when I put it on the shaft for a trial fit. I can't find the invoice from surplus for a part no.
I bought a cheap 8 dollar drill bit from Ebay. I think mine was 22 mm too but don't remember for sure. Ace hardware had bearing shims that were 1/32 thick if I remember and I sandwich the skate board wheel between the shims to keep from moving but like Timothale says, it is a very snug fit and does not try to slip on the shaft. I also bought a couple of collars with set screws at Tractor supply to use as spacers.

You guys know how frugal (favorite word) I am. I bought 4 used skate board wheel on Ebay for 3.85 if I remember.

Mike what are you going to use for a hub for your upper die?

BTW Don't sharpen it to much, It will cut into the metal and make it weak. You don't want the metal to crack there later on.

John
 
#60 · (Edited)
skateboard wheel

I stopped at a skateboard shop in town and didn't find any wheels I liked. I ordered 2 wheels from reid supply. I don't know which is which . Reids part no 1 US-105 and part no 1AU-824.
The orange one is the one I use. It is a tight push on to the harbor freight 22 mm shaft .My skate wheel turns with the shaft, not free wheeling. I was looking at drilling a washer and bolting it in place of the harbor freight cutting die BUT I ordered a V belt pully from Surplus Supply with a 22 mm bore to fit the HF shaft , then turn it down on the lathe. It is shown on the pict in my post 47 when I put it on the shaft for a trial fit. I can't find the invoice from surplus for a part no. I just matched the sizes of the metal tipping wheel made from the pully to be the same as the HF roller dies. , . We are now up North, cutting hay, and building on our smaller retirement home. Most of my metal tools are down south where we spend our winters.
 
#64 ·
I was planning on using a sprocket hub (without the sprocket) from surplus supply and welding the washer to it ,it has the set screws and the right shaft size.
I'm having trouble figuring out how to mount the skate wheel ,I do want it to go on and off easily with set screws like all the other rollers and it has to end up the right size or one roller will spin faster than the other...the more I think on it the more the feed roller sounds like a better way to go...getting the rubber mounted to a steel center piece that fits the shafts should be fairly ez then I just have to turn the whole thing down to the proper size....I stole the kid next doors skate board ....he's a PITA anyways.....little teenage mutants...
I'm just kiddin.....I didnt steel it .....first I ran over the dam thing with my car then waited for him to throw it in the trash....after he got out of the hospital.....He was on it at the time.....:evil:
 
#71 ·
John, I still have my old door operator and am interested in possibly building a bead roller.
A few questions:
Are your shafting, gears, bearings, and frame bracket all "homebrew"?
You mentioned a joggle die, is it a standard die to fit 22mm shaft? Are they pinned or keyed?

Most door motors are capacitor run motors, and are only intermittent rated, do you have any heating issues with extended run times( since you slowed down the die speed) ?
 
#72 ·
John, I still have my old door operator and am interested in possibly building a bead roller.
A few questions:
Are your shafting, gears, bearings, and frame bracket all "homebrew"?

All of the above are Harbor Freight original pieces that came with the bead roller. I mounted the motor with muffler u-bolts if I remember correctly

You mentioned a joggle die, is it a standard die to fit 22mm shaft? Are they pinned or keyed?

The HF bead roller has flats machined on the shafts and set screws hold the roller.

Most door motors are capacitor run motors, and are only intermittent rated, do you have any heating issues with extended run times( since you slowed down the die speed) ?

I have, on two occasions, run into the motor deciding to take a break and cool off. :D but normally you don't run a bead roller for long periods of time. It has never been an issue.

BTW, I did drill my bearing blocks and add Zirk fittings.
Hopefully this helps some.
 
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