Bead Roller

Has anybody ever used one of these? how good are they? Since I need to fab new floor pans and flange new wheel well pieces I thought it might come in handy....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LATE...63702QQitemZ4583460702QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
Jay

 

Bead rollers are excellent for making strengthening creases in flat panels and flanging edges of patch panels. They do take some practice and sometimes you need to build jigs to hold the metal (depending on size). If you intend on doing floor panels, make sure the bead roller has a throat deep enough to reacht the center of the panel. Good Luck

 

If you do get one, please report back on it. may be helpful to others looking for such tools.

 

I have one in the shop. I need to do some modification to it to make it work correctly. It flexs really bad when you have 16 ga. in the rollers. I thought about bying a second one and welding it to the back but I think I will just cut one out and do it that way to stiffen it up. One of those thing that you expect to encounter when you by cheap tools. I clamped some box tubing to it and that made a differance but eventually I will do the perminant fix I mentioned above.

 

Eastwood Corporation has one that is pretty good and affordable also. A couple of guys in the body shop here at work have purchased them and they seem to work great. Don't know how thick they've gone, but I know they've done at least 18 gauge with them. YMMV. Nickmil.

Just looked and the Eastwood Unit looks similar, is built on a 1/2" thick plate, and is $129.99 online.

 

I looked at the one at Eastwood, but they don't include the sheering roller, thats $99.00 extra

I have sent an inquiry to the seller on ebay about the plate thickness, if it's less than 1/2 " , I probably will buy Eastwood's

Jay

 

I will have to take a look at mine, but I think it is 1/2". With the depth of the throat it flexes. I've been happy with mine I just need to modify it to make it better.

 

Harbor Freight has one that normally sells for $199, but right now it's on sale for $99. It has an 18 1/4" throat so it should handle a CJ5 rear floor pan. I think it'll handle up to 16 or 18 gauge steel. Try harbor freight.com for a look at the unit.

tommy b

 

It never fails...... I just bought one on ebay, 20 minutes ago.....142.98 with shipping and all....... I just looked on harbor freight, but a search on "bead roller" didn't produce any results.?????

Jay