DIY Pipe Roller

[HumboldtEF]

I just finished up making a little pipe roller for small pipe and tubing, 1/4" and smaller.
I took inspiration from other DIY designs I found but some of this is my design.

Its basic structure is just angle iron.





I've used some small bearings with washers in the middle to create a groove to hold the pipe in place for the 2 bottom rollers.



the top roller that does the work is just a steel spacer that a few bearings (with a collor/spacer inbetween them) fit neatly inside of, this spacer gets smaller on one end and ended up holding this bearing in place like it was meant to be.



the slide mechanism is made up of a slot cut in the bottom angle iron piece with a small piece of angle iron that slides in this slot with some added wings to keep it on track. A length of all thread for the adjustment with a captive nut welded to the top of the frame and to connect to the bottom slide I welded a washer on the end of the all thread (due to clearance) and used a nut above it to attach to the piece that slides.

The middle roller (on top) is supposed to have a handle to help feed the rod or tubing but I'm just gonna feed it by manually for now which worked well so far.

I screwed up the spacing of the holes originally thinking for small tubing that these should be closer, but found that having them spread out was much better. thats why my holes have the offset, so not on purpose.

I also want to improve the handle for adjusting the middle roller, I've need to put a wrench on the other side to get the leverage I need. So I plan to ditch the bent raised handle and give it a big T handle so I can grab both sides and have better leverage.

So far is working great with 1/4" rod, I've bent up a simple front bumper for a K10 Ascender body.



Just clamp it down to the table and its ready to use



I'm still not sure if it will handle tubing without crushing them, but maybe with some finesse.

[Browneye]

As an accomplished wood worker and boat builder I have always envied metal fabrication and welding skills. It's a completely different animal.

Looking great.

[number9]

Very nice man I was going to ask about the hole spacing until I read further, haha - BTDT myself

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by Browneye

As an accomplished wood worker and boat builder I have always envied metal fabrication and welding skills. It's a completely different animal.

Looking great.

Thanks, My Grandfather was a metal worker and my father was a woodworker and I've taken on a bit of each, mostly woodworking though. I work at a cabinet shop and I installed them for 15 years but I've been moved into the office and I need projects more than ever to keep my Idle hands busy.

Originally Posted by number9

Very nice man I was going to ask about the hole spacing until I read further, haha - BTDT myself

Yep, I messed that up

[ADlBOO]

Looks great! Might have to take some inspiration from this and build my own.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[rockhugger]

That's awesome great job!!!

[rs10man]

something different than most designs you see! looks like it works. can you try some harder bends and tube and post pics up?

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by rs10man

something different than most designs you see! looks like it works. can you try some harder bends and tube and post pics up?

So a pipe roller is different than a pipe bender. A roller does curves, from gentle curves to a full hoop, where a pipe bender can do complex multi bend pieces where the radius of the bends are all the same, but it cannot do gentle curves or hoops.
Sorry I dont have any tubing to test out.


I couldn't find a video that explains it exactly but this one does a pretty good job going over the differences.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfD7ST1Dvd0

I honestly wont use this too often, it will likely be just for the getting gentle curves for bumpers to match the contour of bodies. Plus I also need a pipe bender, I've just used a torch in the past for getting tight bends.

Heres the finished bumper for the K10

[JRDV]

Nice job on the fabrication!

Your bumper turned out nice!

If you try tubing, fill it with sand and plug the ends.
Its what I do on 1to1 tubing when I use my pipe bender.

John

[MAC FAB]

Great job scaling down the real deal tube roller. For those considering making this tool, do realize that your piece that you roll is longer than what you actually need, being you need to contact all 3 rollers on the full length of the roll, going back and forth while gently adding tension to achieve the desired curve. Have you tried square material in it, like 1/4" bar stock? I use my slip roll to roll tube, but this tool may be added to the shop for square stock, easier to keep it on axis.

Edit after looking at the one I have at work: As with the full sized roller, you can add holes to move the lower rollers further apart so it rolls easier, larger radius, and closer, harder to roll, but gets a tighter radius, just be sure to have the upper roller centered between the lowers in the various configurations. Start with the large radius, change to the tighter, build rock bouncers!

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks, indeed you do end up using more material than whats needed, there's some waste on the ends.

I imagine this would do square material, the rod I bent was solid 1/4" so 1/4" square wouldn't be too much of a stretch.

As for hole spacing being even.... uh, I really messed that up. I might end up chopping up one side of the frame so I can get the other roller spaced even, right now the angle iron is in the way (not flat) and one hole is offset due to this.

Yeah if I was more of a rock bouncer fan this could be very useful in making a crazy over the top bouncer cage

[83trekker83]

Very cool ,nice job!

[mewalsh100]

Nice looking bumper!

[Hal]

Originally Posted by JRDV

Nice job on the fabrication!

Your bumper turned out nice!

If you try tubing, fill it with sand and plug the ends.
Its what I do on 1to1 tubing when I use my pipe bender.

John

I also have pretty good luck with tubing if I fill it with wax. Haven't tried it with large tubing. This is a trick a jeweler showed me.

[CODYBOY]

Originally Posted by Hal

I also have pretty good luck with tubing if I fill it with wax. Haven't tried it with large tubing. This is a trick a jeweler showed me.

You can also fill it with water and freeze it.

[HumboldtEF]

Okay it only took 3 1/2 years but I finally tried out some tubing and it worked great, no kinking. I just tightened it up slowly like 1/4 turn at a time. I didn't bother filling it, I just went for it. It was even a pretty tight diameter, maybe a 5". I Used 5mm stainless tube with 1mm wall thickness.

[TITANIUM94010]

Looks awesome! Might have to make one myself. My current process involves trying to bend tubing against a 3d printed "mold"piece.

Are your joints welded or brazed? They're really nice looking.

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by TITANIUM94010

Looks awesome! Might have to make one myself. My current process involves trying to bend tubing against a 3d printed "mold"piece.

Are your joints welded or brazed? They're really nice looking.

Thanks, this one was mig welded on the back, tops and bottoms. I left the front alone and carfully ground it into shape. I thought about tacking the front too but figured I wouldn't be able to clean it up that easily. Since the sides are mild steel I hit it with a coat of silver paint.

I was just telling a buddy to try making a 3d printed buck for some bends, how does that work out for you?

[DRED805]

Very nice!

[TITANIUM94010]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Thanks, this one was mig welded on the back, tops and bottoms. I left the front alone and carfully ground it into shape. I thought about tacking the front too but figured I wouldn't be able to clean it up that easily. Since the sides are mild steel I hit it with a coat of silver paint.

I was just telling a buddy to try making a 3d printed buck for some bends, how does that work out for you?

That looks incredibly clean for a mig weld!

For 3d printed molds I cad up a curve on fusion, then I make something resembling a mold around it, like one for making forged carbon fiber but with a tube cutout. Clamp it on a vise and crank away. The tube does end up rebounding a little and I have to bend the rest by hand, which isn’t ideal, but works