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Powering A Bead Roller

13K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  Rip VW 
#1 · (Edited)
I have looked at a million different ways people have powered bead rollers and since I got a bad shoulder cranking the bead roller was not something I was looking forward to. Being as I try to be a frugal as possible I found the garage door opener method and and the rest of the junk to do it.

I had a garage door opener up in the attic of the shop that a friend had given to me maybe 15 years ago. I decided to use the chqin drive opener. I pulled the opener down and crossed some wires and it moved. I thought great when I tore it down It would not work I think the starting cap went poof.

So the wife had been following my plan and she heard me say I think the winch method would be better so she says "You have the small winch for your tractor don't you? I have a old HF 2000Lb winch I have it mounted to a sleeve hitch. I can use it to pull brush and on the tractor to pull small stumps, that is when I can find a good swamper to work for me.

So to keep this on tract I decided to motorize my bead roller with a small 2k winch. ie Horrible fright. Now instead of using my 2000Lb winch the Wife offered to foot the bill for this conversion and use all new parts.

Yeah man, when she is paying the bill I gets the frills.. Well not really she is frugal, sometimes to a fault but not this time:)

So I set about gathering a design and the various parts that I will need. All I have to get now is the sprockets but not having the winch rpm just yet I can't set a gear ratio. I do have a chain, "Thanks Mitch".

So the basic ingredients will be as follows:

Motor Source Badlands 2500Lb 12 volt DC winch. $68.00

Power sourse 9 to 15 volt DC output switching power supply $50.00

Speed control for DC Motor is a DC Pulse Width Modulator speed control. $35.00

1 double poll double throw 12 volt dc relay. Free

1 Double Pole single throw toggle rated 250 vac at 3 amps. Free

1 Horible frieght Foot actuated switch $10.00

This is the basic list of ingredients, I get asked "What is a Pulse Modulator" quite frequently so I have a lectrics 101 lesson.

When you hook a dc motor to a dc source the motor runs and runs at the same speed because of the voltage stays at the same 12 volts

Now put a switch in series with your dc supply. as the motor is running if you turn the switch off and on at say 2000 times a second the motor will slow down because it is no longer getting all of the current because of the time the switch is off compared to the time it is on is longer. If you keep the switch turned on longer there will be more time for current to flow.

This is a better method to control the speed of a DC motor.

Please remember this is boiling it down to a simple layman's terms not 100% explanation.

Parts have arrived so with the equipment list that I have drawn in conjunction with up a rough block diagram of this thing I am on my way.

First order of business is to tear down the winch and remove the winch drum so I can machine the drum for a sprocket.

I will pull the drum and continue on when I figure how to get it apart..:confused::confused::confused: :cool:


To be continued.

Photo op

1 Block Diagram

2 The Pulse Width modulator with LED speed indication

3 9-15 VDC at 30 amps switching power supply.

4 HF Foot control switch.

5 The Winch.
 

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#2 ·
Maybe a clutch

I do not know what kind of power you need but I have worked on sewing machines (manual clutch driven). They can be found used for a song and new they should only be about $150 max. The size of the pulley will determine if the motor has enough power to drive the roller. Look for a motor on Kijiji most are 550 volt but many are 115volt. It's just a thought.
 
#4 ·
A bit of progress on the project. Today I removed the spool from the winch and chucked it up in the lathe. I machined off one shoulder and then turned he center down to 1.125. I also had to replace a roll pin in the clutch rod as I accidentally broke it on disassembly. To get the clutch knob off this bugger it took vice grips and channel lock pliers to un screw the knob. They had used so much thread lock on the knob it had almost welded itself to the shaft.

After machining I put the motor and spool back together and hoked my dc bench supply to the motor and fed the motor 13.6 volts DC. The motor ran smoothly and drew about 10.6 amps unloaded. I checked the RPM of the spool and it is a sprightly 38 RPM. So that is the top speed RPM. The next step is to put the PWM in place and see what I have for adjustment range of rpm and I want to see what the PWM will do with current draw.

I will have a bit more data tomorrow but it looks like the maximum speed will be 1.6 inches per second. That of course will adjustable down to ? but no faster than.

I dunno what do you think would be a maximum speed for bead rolling?

Here are some Spool photos for you consumption.
 

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#6 ·
Bead Roller Progress.

Ok I have been busy on this bead roller project as all my parts are in and figures made. I have tested the electronics and all works great. The PWM speed controller came with a 3 Led display indicating power settings I presume. I hooked up the winch and confirmed the winch Maximum RPM at 38 RPM.

I then ran the speed control to 50 and checked and had 19 RPM ½ the full speed. I could dial this thing right on down to 1 RPM and it was smooth. So electronics all work.

Using some locally available Sprockets (Tractor Supply) I settled on a 20 tooth for the winch and a 48 tooth for the bead roller shaft. Basically 20T was the lowest number of teeth and 48 was the highest that (TS) had. They are made to weld on to hubs and I selected an 1 1/8” I.D. hub for the winch end, and a 7/8” hub for the top. The Drum in the winch was modified by removing the outer edge of the drum and then I turned the center of the drum down to 1 1/8”.

The upper hub was the big pain. I had assumed that the shaft was 22 mm on the drive end along with the end for the dies. I WAS WRONG. The end of that shaft was 0.985. Imagine my surprise, when I went to slip the 7/8’s hub on the end of the shaft..

That was fixed easily as I had the whole thing apart I just put the drive shaft in the lathe and turned the shaft down to 7/8’s, but only where the hub fits.

This Bead roller is so old it has a harbor freight P/N 304104 or something like that. I tried looking it up through HF and the number is so old it bombs out. I think this one might be heavier than the models I have seen.

While the roller was apart, I did a couple of mods to it and the mount. I added grease Zerks to the bearing blocks. I inspected the shafts and there was NO galling noted.

I bought this 2nd hand many years ago and it looks like the previous owner had never used it.

I changed out the adjustment bolt for a longer one. I also wanted to weld something across the top of the bolt so it could be easily adjusted without a pair of vice grips!! I was digging in the bolt bin when I found the ideal handle to weld on top of the adjustment bolt. It is a cam follower adjuster for an old Honda Motorcycle CB-450. Kind of nostalgic for me..

I was looking at the whole machine and realized when I mounted the bead roller base to my stand I screwed up and mounted it to far right. I would lose a good 3 to 4 inches of capacity by having the stand mount to far over. So I unbolted the roller from the stand and moved everything left about 3 ½” and bolted it back together. I normally would not have thought of this but something in my mind said “What if I want to make me a set of wheel tubs?” So I moved it. Glad I bolted it instead of welding it..

So I need to mount the motor, and electronics tomorrow and I should be in business.

Photo ops are as follows:

1 The shaft after turning.
2 Sprocket mounted up.
3 Moved base mount right about 3 in”.
4 Adjustment Handle and new Zerk fittings.
5 This is the motor mount.
 

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#8 ·
John,

I wish I had a pedal to vary the speed. I would have to build a pedal to control the PWM. that would be a bit longer to do. This one is just turn a knob set the speed and step on the pedal and go. I wanted to stay simple with off the shelf parts this time. I have had some thoughts on some improvements but they are just thoughts at this time.

One of the things I am adding is a couple of safety features. The first is a guarded switch on the top of the roller for emergency stop. The switch will be normally guard up and switch is on. Need to stop now just slap the guard down and the switch kills the ac power.

I will also have a visual indicator to show power on. I am still agonizing over where to mount the forward reverse switch and main power on /off switch and I need to mount the led panel some where it can be easily observed. I am kicking around an idea to incorporate the switches including the emergency off and Led display mount it to the top of the baseplate of the bead roller. I have Lots of "I would really likes" but always there are the trade offs. As I had initially planned this was going to be spartan (Frugal) build but then mama Bucks stepped into the equation and said "Build it as you want (within reason) she is picking up the tab. I am really trying to hold costs down.

Today was not a progressive day in the amount of work done but I finally figured out how to mount the winch and have adjustment for chain stretch. I have the winch mounted and if I could find my chain breaker that would be on also. Tomorrow is electronics and and such and maybe be able to wrap this thing.:cool:
 
#9 ·
You will be fine. The variable speed pedal would be cool but I get along just fine with nothing but an on/off pedal and only one speed. Your unit will far surpass mine. Carry on. I was just being nosey! ::thumbup:

BTW, I have learned to slow mine down around tight radiuses by gently tapping the pedal and cycling the motor...... A bit crude maybe but nothing succeeds like success...................

John
 
#10 ·
Time for an update on this project.

I have been a bit laid up for the last week or so but I still managed to get more progress done on the bead roller.

I took the electronics and found a box in my electronics lab and proceeded to stuff 14 lbs of components into a 1 Lb bag. I had previously tested the major components in the system and they were good. I however had not included the switches, and relays. When the box was finally stuffed it would not work. I scratched my head and tried to find the problem. I finally found 1 of my relays was bad from stock. After fixing that and working through a couple of minor issues the box is done and ready to be mounted on the roller.

I then moved on to mounting the motor assembly and finally settled on a mount method that allows for easy removal and simple adjustment for chain tension. I mounted a cut down hinge to the bottom of the motor assembly on one side and on the other side I used a couple of 1/4-20 nutserts into the lower mount plate. I then put about 1/4 to 3/8 stack of body shims under the motor and a couple of bolts through the plate and stack to tighten the whole thing up. If the chain stretches I can remove shims to keep it at the proper tension.

I needed something to protect the power supply from dust dirt and chips and also the enclosure needed to allow for airflow to keep the power supply cool. The power supply has it's own fan to cool it so I needed to allow for fan airflow. I finally threw together a crude aluminum box to shield the power supply.

So depending on how long I last in the shop today I should have the roller up and running today. I need to mount the control panel and hook up the wires and I will then be ready to test.

So a few photos and I hope the next post will be of me announcing the completion of the "Bead Roller Power Project"

Stay tuned, Films at 11. :cool:

Pic 1 Stuffin the control box
Pic 2 Power supply box mounted
Pic 3 Control Box mount
Pic 4 End view of drive assembly
Pic 5 Chain adjustment / motor mount
 

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#11 ·
It's Alive!!!!!

I bolted the control box on today and hooked up the wires temporally. It works as advertised. I ran a few tests and ran it through some functions. It goes forward and backward. The speed controller works great and is easy to use. Sprockets run true and the chain drive works great.

I need to disconnect the wiring and put some sleeving over the wires and add a couple of clamps. I also need to finish the cover for the sprocket. I might get that done over the weekend and be ready to start bending some tin the middle of next week.

Some test photos enclosed!:cool:

#1 The roller almost done.
#2 Power On in Standby.
#3 Power on Motor On.
#4 Power on speed dialed in to 56% motor On.

Besides adding the chain guard and prettying up the wires I call this a wrap. Only time will tell how this turns out but I am optimistic and believe I have a winner now.

Now it's time to get back to deck lid project lets see what happens:cool:
 

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#12 · (Edited)
I'm working on my own beadroller project now and am using a Sears garage door opener that I salvaged about 6 years ago.

I have a 72-tooth sprocket sourced from a go-kart site as well as a hub that fits the sprocket and the 1" shaft of the beadroller (after some easy modification) and the opener has an 8-spoke sprocket. I'll fab up a mount and see if that combination will run the beadroller at a usable speed. I might need to locate a 6-tooth sprocket or find a way to control the speed of the motor.

The model # on mine is also 34104. I purchased it 12 years and am just now getting around to it.
 
#16 ·
That is looking good. Like john said I think you will have a good working ratio. Mine I can slow the motor down so slow I can take a nap while it rolling. I actually could use a little bit more speed in the top end if i was running a really long bead simple bead, However I have much much more practice needed before I feel comfortable even at a slow speed!!!

Good Luck and keep them pictures flowing.:cool:
 
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