Advice on a drive mechanism for a homemade ring roller

Byron, I'm far from an expert - have you looked at the drive mechnism inside a MIG. From memory my monomig 130 has a couple of ~30mm steel rollers, one with a V groove turned in it. They are driven by a motor approximately eqivaltent to an automotive windscreen wiper motor.

Not sure what a "spool gun is" I could guess - others may be able to comment on its suitability for your task.

Interesting setup!

I doubt that you will ever get that drive to work consistently. The poly rollers are too soft and too small in diameter in relation to wire size to make it work consistently. The key to getting consistent drive is forcing the wire solidly against the drive wheel. For that size wire, that means steel against steel. You are depending on the spring action of the wire to force it against the wheel. Of course that means you would need to add a 3rd (or 4th) wheel.

If you are look> Hi all,

Bryon,

If you have the room (shop size, yard size, etc.) here is a method that is simple and straight forward (pardon the pun):

Simply uncoil a length of wire of interest, 30 to 50 feet say.

Anchor one end to a secure base such as a stout tree, fence post, truck bumper, neighbours car bumper....you get the idea. As long as it is quite immovable.

Attach the other end to anything you can use to stretch the wire past its yield point where the wire will take a permanent set. Since you pulled the wire in a straight line it will be straight.

Used this method to salvage 10ga wire from a big transformer and it worked like a charm.

For pulling you could also use a come-along, block-and-tackle, or a lever arrangement propped in a doorway.

Feel free to use your imagination! And let us know how you made out.

Wolfgang

Bry> Hi all,

"Bryon B" wrote: (clip) should I just weld everyplace there is a pair of vice-grips? (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you weld everything, you may get slight distortion, and you won't be able to bring things back to their present delicate balance. If it works after welding, there is still a likelihood that it will wear or go out of adjustment in some other way later, and you will have no way to correct it. I would leave the Vise-grips until you find a better alternative. Wolfgang's suggestion sounds workable and easy to try.

Years ago and I mean "years" someone posted a neat solution to this problem. I seem to connect Teenut with this idea. It was a shaped piece of tubing that you pulled the wire through. It was bent in several planes to force the wire one way then the other. I googled around for it but was not successful. Anyone remember???

Randy

My problem: I fought and fought with getting the feed mechanism (the

It doesn't really show in the pictures, but there are 2 pretty stout springs pulling down on an 12" piece of angle iron bolted/vice-gripped to the top caster to keep it tight. I also realized that industrial casters are not ideal for precision aligning, there is probably about

My question: Is there a better way to force wire through my roller? or should I just weld everyplace there is a pair of vice-grips?

I have a terrible history of doing things the hard way. and maybe someone knows of a better way.

Thanks,

Bryon

Not to answer your question, but to offer an observation (it's the RCM way): your MIG wire *will* rust, even with the copper coating. Even indoors. The rusting can happen quickly enough to cause problems in MIGs that don't get used that much (DAMHIKT).

Hope I haven't ruined your day, Bob

You're a good man Gunga Din! :-)

Most guys would have give up and gone home early.

Have you considered making your life a pile easier and driving the actual rollers instead of driving the wire into them? Even if you drove two and let the other idle, it would save you a pile of tweaking and adjusting. At some point, I see a wire pile-up in your future, if it has not happened already.

The flash of copper will not protect your MIG wire against rust for very long. Propably better to use it for welding with, unless you plan to paint the finished product.

Cheers Trevor Jones

That was Foxeye. It involved a bent tube and an electric drill.

Here's the original text We routinely straighten music wire of all diameters at work. We use it for hinge pins on aircraft. Our music wire comes in large rolls. The way we do it, is to take a piece of tubing and bend it in sort of a relaxed z shape as below.

---------\ \ \-------------

Clamp this in a vise. Cut the wire to length, and insert one end into an air or electric drill. Insert the other end into the opening of the bent tube, and turn on drill, and force wire through the bent tube. Once its through a bit on the other end, then place the ch=uck on this end, and then just run drill and pull the wire through the bent tube.. Push it back and forth a few times, and when it comes out it will be straight. A little oil may make it easier. We have straightened music wire up to .185 this way. foxeye

Paul K. Dickman

Thanks everyone all for your ideas.

In case any of you are curious, here is what I am building with my wire.

I like wolfgang's idea of using my car to pull the wire taught to straighten it, That never occured to me. But I still need rings so for my drive mechanism i think that I am going to try to build something like in your typical mig welder. Something with metal wheels. I found this (

I had considered Trevor's suggestion that i drive the actual rollers instead of forcing wire through them, but I don't think that I can pull it off, I don't have a mill and my precision skills are very lacking. (how precise can you be when your lathe consists of a craftsman drill locked in a vice, with some allthread and a 4" grinder) ;-)

I am very worried about rusting though. I thought the copper clad mig wire would prevent that... I suppose that I could spray it with a layer of clear coat. Maybe patina it before it rusts? any suggestions?

thanks again for all of your input.

Bryon

Think bicycle gears and chain. Two small gears , one chain, positive drive, no machining. Or drive just one wheel. Steal the idea of a drive roller from a MIG, and use a larger center roller with two adjustable outrider rollers in fairly close contact.

Just ideas!

Cheers Trevor Jones