Brilliantly rubbish ring roller

[Joel OF]

Hi folks, just thought I'd share a couple pics of a small badly made ring roller I constructed from a busted vice.

It's a pain in the proverbial to use & there's a million and one possible improvements but I thought I'd share a pic nonetheless as it's a good idea in principal & people can run with the idea as they see fit. As you can probably tell I tried making it one way, which didn't work, so I re-butchered it into another setup.

With a fair bit of heave-ho I've used it to bend some fluid S curves out of 25mm x 8mm bar & even tweaked a bit of 25mm x 10mm bar, but it's happiest on the thinner stuff.

The rollers & are on M16 threaded bar pins, the single roller with attached handle lifts off. The angle iron backrests are to stop the pins/rollers tilting back when bending thicker stuff. As and when I make it's bigger brother I'll use M24 threaded bar for the pins.

As per the lyrics to a Down song; "learn from my mistake".

[jeremy k]

I think instead of the backstops which will stop the roller movements - you should put more of a gap between the 2 rollers for increased leverage for bending. Once the rollers bend to touch the angle - they will stop turning - which will prohibit the use of the tool.

[Frosty]

Not bad Joel, a little tweaking and it'll do the trick. Jeremy's right, the back stops are going to become friction braes as soon as you apply pressure. If you make the section the bolt passes through thicker than the angle iron it will have better support and not jam.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Joel OF]

Yep, the perils of making stuff up as you go, on a whim, using only scrap stuff you've got to hand!

[forgemaster]

I find that that sort of ring roller works better it you can link the twin rollers with something like a bike chain and sprockets, then put the turning handle on one of the linked rollers.  I've found that the single drive roller will tend to slip on the material being rolled, using 2 drive rolls stops this problem.

[Alan Evans]

Fun tool Joel. If it did the job then you know you got it right! Very easy to move the rollers apart for thicker stuff / slower curves.

It has obviously fired the imagination though with ways to improve it. I use a three bar tool under the press for bending and you could almost do the same thing with yours…in fact that is what I thought you had made when I saw your first photo because it excludes the rotation handle…it would be very slow but you could use your tool in the same way with a series of nips with the vice screw.

The sketch below is a simple solution to supporting the roller spindles and puts a slightly less eccentric pressure on the vice. With thin stuff  you could almost use it by pushing and pulling the stuff through like a wheeling machine.

I was just about to post this sketch up when I found forgemaster's post…I agree two or three wheel drive is far better, it will enable you to make fine tweaks to the curve where the pressure is not enough to enable drive. Bike chain and sprockets sounds a great idea. Some of the old wheelwrights tyre rollers had fine splines across the central drive roller to aid grip…straight knurled. My silversmiths rolls which are just two rollers with gap adjustment are linked with coarse gear wheels which still operate over the 10 mm variation.

I do have a huge old powered three roller machine that I bought at auction if you wanted to get into it more…I have never had a job that made it worth setting up. Each time it was easier to pick up the phone to Barnshaws or Anglering  and have them delivered!

[Joel OF]

I find that that sort of ring roller works better it you can link the twin rollers with something like a bike chain and sprockets, then put the turning handle on one of the linked rollers.  I've found that the single drive roller will tend to slip on the material being rolled, using 2 drive rolls stops this problem.

If I'm understanding you correctly you've hit the nail on the head with one of the reasons it's a pain to use - the material you're rolling rides up the roller. Twinned with the fact the rollers lean backwards at the top (due to no support at the top) if the material rides up the rollers, you can get uneven curves if you're not careful. This usually requires pausing, knocking the material back down to the bottom of the roller, then continuing.

To be honest it's a heap of junk but I kinda like it because I'm new to all this metalworking malarky & I'm learning as I go.

[jeremy k]

If I'm understanding you correctly you've hit the nail on the head with one of the reasons it's a pain to use - the material you're rolling rides up the roller. Twinned with the fact the rollers lean backwards at the top (due to no support at the top) if the material rides up the rollers, you can get uneven curves if you're not careful. This usually requires pausing, knocking the material back down to the bottom of the roller, then continuing.

To be honest it's a heap of junk but I kinda like it because I'm new to all this metalworking malarky & I'm learning as I go.

​No, Forgemaster is talking about a chain on 2 rollers so as to drive 2 rollers so the metal goes threw the rollers without slipping. The chain does not have anything to do with keeping the rollers from tipping to the side - it just keeps the metal moving as it is rolled between the rollers.

[ThomasPowers]

Build those rollers into heavy wall channel and then put struts on the back to provide more support?