Bead Rolling has become more and more popular over the years for home hobbyists and is a great way to add strength and style to a metal panel. We offer a full range of bead rollers from small hand crank bead rollers for doing edgework to large motorized bead rollers for doing large panels. These bead rollers can be greatly upgraded with the addition of some key bead roller dies. We decided to list our top 5 below. Find all of our bead rollers and accessories HERE.
- Offset Bead Roller Dies– The most simple way to use an offset dies is to create a step in a panel that you can lay another piece of metal over for a flush finish when overlapping metal. Our favorite use though is to make a design that gives the panel a “stamped” design when done. This be making the stepped design connect in the end of to have two sets of stepped beads run parallel. This can be used for decorative use like on the side of a pickup truck bed or on a inner door structures, floor pans, etc. to mimic original stampings. These might be one of our most used dies!
- Soft Lower Bead Roller Wheel- The idea behind using a soft lower wheel is to give a more gentle shape to a bend, radius, or bead. This lower wheel is firm, but has give to allow the metal to form in a softer/more gradual way that looks more “factory” in some cases. We like to pair this wheel with the tipping wheel, but it can be used with most any upper die to create custom effects!
- Tipping Bead Roller Die– A lesser know fact about bead roller functions is that you can actually break an edge or bend a flange on a bead roller with the correct dies and procedure. We offer a narrow upper tipping die that is used to make crisp bends in metal. Most commonly you use a flat metal or poly lower wheel and tighten the tipping die down so it has light pressure on the metal and as you run it through the bead roller you pull/push up on the panel and it will slowly bend the metal on the contact point of the tipping die. This is one of the only ways you can create a broken edge that curves or bends as a standard brake can only bend straight lines. Use of this die and a soft lower wheel really opens up the possibilities with any bead roller.
- Radius Edge Dies- If you want to create a gentle curve, radius, or flange on a panel a set of radius dies will allow you to make preset gentle curves in the edge of a panel. We sell these in a set that allows you to do the most common radius edge finishes.
- Bead Roller Forming Die Kit- If you want all of the best dies for forming and pressing metal in a bead roller you may want to upgrade to the complete forming die set. It has some of the dies mentioned above but also some specialty dies like wire edging, rounding dies, etc. We suggest this kit as the best bang for your buck if you’re looking to get serious in bead rolling!