Home Brew Roll Bender

Here is a roll bender I just funished. It is for making curved rail components for a new deck. The material in the machine is 3/4 x 1-1/2 x 14 ga rectangular tube. Works great.

Nice.

Where do you get your tubing? Is it stainless?

The rollers, they are machined simply to closely fit the tubing?

I'm wondering if one couldn't make a simpler version using a lathe or milling machine to position the middle wheel?

No, its CRS and I got it at a local Metal Supermarket. The rollers were machined to fit the tubing, but a relatively loose fit.

I saw something recently on one of the boards where someone used a large vertical mill for the center wheel, and mounted an assembly with the other two wheels on the table.

No, its CRS and I got it at a local Metal Supermarket. The rollers were machined to fit the tubing, but a relatively loose fit.

I saw something recently on one of the boards where someone used a large vertical mill for the center wheel, and mounted an assembly with the other two wheels on the table.

Nice!

How much 'grunt' do you need > Here is a roll bender I just funished. It is for making curved rail

Very nice work, Ed. Don't be too upset if there's only a few comments-you're not a regular poster, it's on topic, and not much to gas bag about....

I scanned a few pages from the October 2005 issue of the "Journal of Light Construction" about a guy who makes custom steel beams. There's a few pages with pictures of equipment he made posted here:

I'm wondering if you keep the rollers lubed while rolling the stock?

"RoyJ" wrote: The power rollers I've seen used for this application do not need lube on the material. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As a matter of fact, you need friction to drive the material through. Adding lube would just make the drive roller slip.

It's really not too bad. I don't even fasten the machine to the table. I make multiple passes, though, with maybe 1 turn of the top wheel (1/8 inch advance) per pass. I was afraid the drive wheel might slip, but it doesn't.

No--no lube, but the rollers are a loose fit. The drive roller (where the bending happens) has a deep profile--a little over half the depth of the stock. The sides of the profile are slightly tapered because I was concerned about the stock mushrooming on the inside radius and getting stuck.

Looks good.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

ed_h wrote:

I love the steering wheel. If I'd had one around, I probably would have used it.