Making Rings?

[ChrisB]

I need to make some rings of various sizes. Mostly from flat stock with some round. I really don't have time to make my own ring roller so I'm trying to figure out my options. Should I just use various round objects like pipe and car tire rims? Or break down and get a ring roller? Are the ones on ebay any good?

Sheet Metal Pedestal Band Ring Steel Roller eBay (item 270234630909 end time May-14-08 11:29:47 PDT)

[Glenn]

Usually you can find something about "that" size. Stock size up to 3/8 inch round and 1/4 inch flat bar can be bent cold. With a little heat you can bend most any size.

There are several Blueprints on bending.

[dablacksmith]

i use bolth depends on how big a ring you want to make ...the ring roller is nice for big rings but not so nice for smaller rings (say 12 inch and under) .. if you are going to make smaller rings i would just find the approprate size pipe.... i have a bunch of sizes for this kind of job .. good luck!

[Bentiron1946]

That had better be some wonderful tool for the price plus the shipping cost. I think that I would scout around for a deal in the neighborhood.

[ChrisB]

One of the rings I need to make is about 22" The rest are much smaller.

[Frosty]

A 55gl drum is 23" dia. Form the ring and subtract about 3 3/16" and pull the ends together.

Another option for large dia. rings is to cut a jig from plywood. It doesn't have to go all the way around, a 1/4 turn (pie section) works fine.

I've done both.

Frosty

[ChrisB]

I toyed with the idea of making a "disc" from some lumber. I may try and cheat and hit up a local fabrication shop and see if they have a roller and have them roll me the big ring I need and make it into a jig then just bend around it from then on.

[Jose Gomez]

Time is money. I have the Shop Outfitters version of the same ring roller that you are looking at, and can tell you that even though I paid a heck of a lot more than you are thinking of I wouldn't even consider giving it up. It has easily paid for itself several times over, not only in cold hard cash, but in quality of finished product, time saved, material saved, and labor saved . If you are making just one ring and then giving up iron work forever then a ring roller might not be the best investment. But for the 158.99 that you are looking at I am sure you can whip out a few projects and quickly recover your investment. If concistency, ease, and speed are not a concern then I usually go at it by hand. But when I need more than one ring with a precise measurement of any size over 8" I drag out the roller and save myself the frusration.

[Frostfly]

You could build a roller. I'll bet if you put anything close to 3/8ths by 2 inch steel in that ebay roller the thing would choke and die. For the price of that one you could build this one i'll bet. Then you'll know exactly what you have. It's a neat design, I want to make one myself. It's only flaw is the top roller doesn't come loose. I'm sure the design could be modified to fix that.

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