Since Bead Rollers have become so affordable it is more and more common for home garages and pros alike to have a bead roller at their disposal. The base model kits come with enough to get you adding looks and strength to your sheet metal panels but there are a few extra accessories you can add that will help you do better work and open your possibilities for additional bead profiles. I decided to list me Top 3 Favorite Bead Roller Accessories below.
Tag: motorized bead roller
How to Motorize Your Bead Roller
One of the best ways you can add good looks and strength to sheet metal is using a bead roller to add beads or joggles to metal. Most standard and entry level bead rollers are operated by using a hand crank. While this works fine on small pieces or when you have a helper, it doesn’t produce the best results. Adding a motor to your bead roller will help free up a hand and also allow you to work larger pieces alone. Below we show how to adapt a motor to a standard bead roller using the Eastwood Bead Roller Drive System in a few easy steps.
How to Keep Metal from Warping While Bead Rolling
If you have a bead roller, and you try to add a wide or deep bead to a thin piece of metal; or multiple beads to the same piece, you will find the metal starts to deform. You may get perfect beads in the piece you are working on, but it suddenly looks like a metal potato chip. That is because the bead roller does not necessarily stretch the metal as it presses beads into it. If you have an English wheel you can fix this problem before you begin. This problem is especially bad when rolling beads that don’t go all the way to the edge, or rolling different length beads in the same panel. Follow along as we show you a simple way to keep your panel straight when bead rolling.