Bead roller help

[48 Suburban]

Can any body suggest a book that would be helpful to a very  novice bead roller operator? I especially need help with the flanging dies. Dang machine has no relevant instructions.   :?  48 suburban

[Kctom]

Best thing is to get scrap metal qnd have at it. Try the rolling flames in some metal.
TOM

[Sean]

I agree. Doing it is the best way to learn. Being a Sheetmetal Worker, I had to learn how to use a Bead Roller during my apprenticeship(and I haven't used one since). They didn't bother with any written instructions, just pretty much turned us loose and let us learn the hard way.

[phat46]

Can any body suggest a book that would be helpful to a very  novice bead roller operator? I especially need help with the flanging dies. Dang machine has no relevant instructions.   :?  48 suburban

I agree, a friend loaned me his homebuilt roller a couple months ago so i could maked beads on the floor pans for my truck project. I just took a piece of scrap sheet metal, drew some lines with a marker on it and played with the roller.  You just need to get the pressure set and learn to turn the metal at the right time.  
BTW this homebuilt roller was really neat, it used chevy timing gears for the gear drive and a '40 Packard steering wheel to turn the roller. The guy made his own rollers too, quite a talented guy.

[GPster]

Just a few additional ideas. When I used to have time to play with one in a sheetmetal shop the scrap we had was galvanized sheetmetal.  It was oiled and 24ga. or 26ga. and was "lockforming quality".  This is part of the reason that there are no instructions because it depends a lot on the quality of tha metal and the gauge and the design of the dies your trying to use. One thing that you might want to remember is that even though the die is the desired finished shape depending on the metal it may not happen on the first pass. The first pass usually is to establish the center of the design and the direction. Each subsiquent pass will further the design and can be used to make corrections where you may have gone off course or you may want to make a cleaner end of the bead. One main thing that most machines allow for is the thickness of the metal. The rollers should not be set to touch one another. They should be set so they at least allow for the thickness of the metal so that you aren't trying to crush the hetal thinner at the top of the design or shear it at the bottom edges. To make the design truer to form you can run the dies closer to each other an each pass but never to the point where you crush it.  As the metal stretches it will become thinner rather than you trying to crush it so that it will become wider and cover the die. You need to take time to learn the die and the metal you are using. I have a friend that was restoring an old dozer (1924?) and he made some body panels to duplicate the stock bead after he made the dies for the bead to match what he had on a scrap of the original sheetmetal. Nobody new what he was doing till they were done so he just taught himself. This was with 18ga. metal. GPster

[Sean]

Our Metal is oiled too, I had forgotton about that. If you are using dry metal it wouldn't be a bad idea to give it a coat of lightweight oil.

Gpster, you wouldn't have much fun in our shop. Our Duct line is automated. The machine holds three 10,000lb coils of Steel. It shears it, rolls the beads in it, forms the locks and drives, brakes it, then spits finished ductwork out the other end.

The only thing our Duct guys do by hand is fittings, but they are partially automated too. The cut list is put into the computer, the computer arranges the pieces to waste as little steel as possible, then they throw a full sheet on the plasma table. It even cuts little notches to tell you where to brake the metal at.

We still have all the Handforming stuff, but it is only used for stuff that can't be done on the automated equipment. Ornamental Sheetmetal, like you would see on old buildings, odd shaped fittings, etc...

[unklian]

You could get some bead roller help here:< http://groups.yahoo.com/group/metalshapers/ >