Ring Roller

[Ted Ewert]

I decided to make a ring roller for a couple of projects I have planned. I looked on YouTube and found a couple of videos of simple rollers you can use in the vise and decided to go that route.

I used 1" square stock for the frame. I ordered some 1" diameter roller bearings, and 12" of  3/4" axle steel. For the rollers I got some 1.5" inch OD, 1" ID tubing.

I had to clean up the inside of the tubing on the lathe for the bearings to fit (basically just to make it round). Nothing is a press fit, but it's all fairly snug. 

To keep the whole assembly square, I used a length of 1/2" round bar through both ends of the frame. The off center pressure from the vise will cock the rollers out of alignment otherwise. 

Lessons learned... The crank roller needs to be a bit taller than the other rollers so that the handle will clear. Also, the two side by side rollers should be as close together as possible. This allows the ends of the work to be bent as much as possible without getting jammed in the mechanism. 

The 1/4" bar over the back of the two rollers is there to keep them from riding up on the axle. Despite the two alignment bars, the rollers still want to creep up. Pressed fits would take care of this, but my machining skills are not up to it, and I don't have a press. 

I also put a couple of springs in to open the assembly when I back the vise off. This is very handy. 

These are the first two rings I made. I didn't design this roller for big stock since most of the stuff I need is going to be 1/4" square. It takes a little fiddling to get the ends to line up square. After welding and grinding, I run the ring through the rollers again for a final rounding out since the ends don't get completely bent right.

This thing cost me about $80 in parts, the rest of it I had in the shop. It works pretty good, and will be a handy tool for making odd size rings that I don't have a pipe size to bend around. 

 

Ted

 

[Frosty]

Not bad at all, how do you like it?

If you put a spacer to raise the stock closer to the center of the rollers the rollers shouldn't want to creep up. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Ted Ewert]

If I had to do it again, I would make it so that the alignment rods are outside the jaws of the vise. Then I could drop the whole frame down into the vise. That would alleviate a lot of the creeping; having the clamping force closer to the work. It still works fine as is, and I don't think I'll go to all the trouble of rebuilding it. Ran out of 1" square stock anyway.

[Frosty]

Just needs a couple shims, one on each side so they're not in the way. 

The adjustment is the tricky part, I thought of taking an old saw vise apart for the tightening wheel and screw for a similar device. Making the ways without borrowing a mill is a head scratcher. I still have the clamp mechanism on a shelf if I come up with something worth the trouble.

I like your built, I probably would've done it differently but I didn't do it at all so I'm just talking. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[anvil]

Looks good

 

[Ted Ewert]

I got some more 1" square bar so I decided to rebuild this thing. I dropped the frame down between the vise jaws to minimise the spread of the rollers. I used some sheet metal welded to the top to hold the assembly in the jaws. This configuration also puts a lot less stress on the alignment rods, which are located outside of the jaws. I was trying to roll a piece of 3/8" square bar and actually bent these rods in the former design.

Anyway, this configuration works much better than having the frame above the vise.

[Frosty]

WHAT, a version2 ?!! I'm shocked Ted, SHOCKED, I say!  Looks good, I like this one better, it should take care of the stock tracking in the rollers. It should take a lot of the wracking stresses off the guide pins too.

The pins holding the roller bale could be stronger though, that's where I'd watch for upwards creep again rolling heavy stock like 3/8" and up. That'll be an easy peasy V3 mod if it's necessary.

Well done I like it and WILL be watching to potentially adopt one in my kit.  Thank you for sharing your work and ideas. Good stuff!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Ted Ewert]

Thanks Frosty, you know I'm not capable of building one version of anything . The first one is always to figure out how to build the second one (or third, or forth...). 

The 3/4" pin size is about max for the 1" bar, and works fine for the little stuff I'm doing. If I ever go bigger... the only limit is imagination and your pocketbook. If I got a hold of some large roller bearings, the rest is easy. I'm just too cheap to spring for new ones. 

[Frosty]

At my advanced age I've started encouraging other people to do my experimenting for me. Thank you sir. 

What I was talking about maybe being the next thing needing to be stronger is the bale and bolts holding the static rollers. Think roller chain. The forces are pushing away from the single roll against the two static rolls. Yes? The piece of strap stock connecting the top of the static rolls (I'm calling the Bale for lack of the correct term) is thin. It's anchored to the base by a pair of small Dia. bolts and spacers maybe. 

The bolts connecting the ends of the bale are your next weakest link. The whole support structure can be simpler and as rigid as you can make it. So long as the rolls don't rub and the stock being rolled doesn't touch it the end pieces can be as heavy as you like. Same with the bale, it can be much heavier stock.

If the bale were say 1/2" thick, longer and wider it's good so long as it doesn't interfere with the crank roll. Yes?  Cut and fit two pieces of oh say 1" x 2" for the end supports, weld it to the base then drill and tap so you can attach the bale with two bolts on each end.

Now your weakest link would be the base clamped into the vise and that's pretty solidly backed by the vise. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Ted Ewert]

The weakest link is actually the drive roller. It has twice the pressure on it as do the the other two, which share a load. Larger diameter roller bearings would take a lot more to rack than these smaller ones. A press fit on everything is also optimal. 

1.5" ID bearings would be just about right.