Ring Roller

[Brian Rupnow]

I'm a bit bored this morning--Was supposed to go across town on a design job, but it got delayed until 1:00 this afternoon. So---Time to play!!! This is an idea I seen somewhere, and the beauty and utility of it just dazzled me. Many times over the years, I have wanted a ring roller. I never bought one nor made one, but check this out for a nifty idea. Keep in mind, we are machinists here, so the red rollers could be just about any shape you could turn on a lathe. Please excuse the rather cheesy looking vice--I just made it up out of my head after a quick trip out to my main garage to look at my own vice. This idea is a concept only. If you make one, it`s up to you to figure out the details. The beauty in this is that you can vary the size of ring that is rolled by simply opening or closing the vice a bit. This is the neatest thing I have seen in a long time.---Brian

 

[tomrux]

Brian
Really neat idea and thanks for showing, I will stick this in the memory bank/to do list.
But not to rain on your parade and all but I think the way to vary the produced curve also requires the 2 rear rollers to be moved toward or away from each other. I think, I could be wrong. Easy enough to do any way just slot the piece they bolt to. 'T' slot if you want to get fancy.
Cheers
Tom R

 

[bazmak]

Hi Brian great idea using the vice . Brings back memories from my apprenticeship.I made something similar from 2 roller brgs used to stretch metal rather than roll.2 x 3" roller brgs with small adjustment to clamp down
on sheetmetal and roll back and forwards to stretch the metal.One particular job was a folded section of 1.5mm thk sheet with a 15mm folded edge,when rolled and stretched the section could be curved.The old way was to roll 1 piece
and cut the curved section in the bandsaw,then weld together and dress
Your thread would work well by using 2 large roller brgs.Will give it a try and hopefully thread in the new year. Regards Barry

 

[Ratshooter]

Well, this looks nice. I wonder if it will work on a bench vise. I have a couple nice vises here, including a Wilton machinist's vise. There's no way the jaws remain parallel and square under force of tightening. This will cause the ring to be funnel shaped, don't you think? Maybe better done on a milling machine vise?

This is NOT to be considered as criticism. This is discussion, this design looks promising, lets refine it and make it work!

Thanks Brian, you are making me think, and that's a good thing!

 

[Barnbikes]

Love the simplicity of it but I think you will get better results if you power the back two rollers. The friction drive of pulling and pushing of the material will cause less slippage. Maybe chain between the rollers.

Just an idea.

 

[Jyman]

Seen this design before, it works really well. I have mostly seen it for up to 1/4 inch round or square, if you where doing flat bar I think the top area of the rollers would flex and you wouldn't get a true ring.

There is no need to power the backside wheels as they just free roll, usually without any problems.

 

[Herbiev]

This is one of those projects that been on my " to do list" for years. I have always had a fascination with the art of wheelwrighting and several years ago did a blacksmithing course at the local college

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Remember people--that model was not a "How to" article. It was something that I seen on the internet, and thought "Wow--what a neat idea!!" It was a concept to make you think of the possibilities.---Brian

 

[petertha]

I just removed the jaws from my ~5" wide Record vise recently. The jaws are retained in the vise casting by two 1/4-20 flathead screws & sit on kind of a ledge.

What I'd be concerned about is the roller force is occurring above the vise top which will result in the jaws seeing torque - wanting to roll them out & pulling tension on the bolts. That's quite a bit different than its existing design of just clamping pressure applied across the jaw faces.

I assume you would plan on milling dedicated jaws for this purpose as mine are hardened so tough to modify.

 

[BaronJ]

I would just make a pair of loose jaws carrying the rollers that drop inside the vice and allow the work to be placed at jaw height. Its unlikely that you would want to roll anything thicker than, say, 12 mm in steel, even that would require conciderable force just to bend it.