Ring Rollers

**Iliketobuild** · Dec 15, 2015, 06:51 AM

In the process of building a boat I ran into a problem which required the fabrication of a new tool. The rub rails for the boat are schedule 40 aluminum pipe 2 1/2" in diameter. They require significant bending along a radius of approximately 14'. I tried numerous ways to bend the pipe without a roller and wound up kinking the pipe every time. After consulting some commercial boat builders the general consensus was that a ring roller was needed. Heavy duty commercial ring rollers are extremely expensive so I decided to build one. My design utilizes 7/8" plate sides (that just happened to be the thickness I could find used). The shafts are a little less than 2" in diameter, riding on huge tapered roller bearings that are adjusted for end play using castle nuts and cotter pins. The roller shafts are driven with #80 chain and a huge gear box. I've use a VFD to control the speed and direction of the rollers. All the dies for the roller were made from a piece of 6" diameter steel repurposed from a sewage treatment plant in Michigan. The roller has worked very well, bending huge pipes without any kinking. The pipes are bent then compared to a full-size template of the radius. After the pipes are bent they are split on a band saw. Sorry for some of the pictures, the downloading software rotates them and I can't fix the problem. If anyone knows how to fix this problem let me know, I have more tools to post.

Ring Rollers-2013-03-06_17-58-13_772.jpg

**DIYer** · Dec 16, 2015, 02:21 AM

Thanks Iliketobuild! We've added your Ring Roller to our Ring Rollers category, as well as to your builder page: Iliketobuild's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Ring Roller by Iliketobuild

tags: ring roller

**DIYer** · Dec 16, 2015, 02:26 AM

Thanks Iliketobuild! We've added your Roller Dies to our Metalworking category, as well as to your builder page: Iliketobuild's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Roller Dies by Iliketobuild

tags: ring roller, die

**DIYer** · Dec 16, 2015, 02:30 AM

Thanks Iliketobuild! We've added your Radius Turning Tool to our Machining category, as well as to your builder page: Iliketobuild's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Radius Turning Tool by Iliketobuild

tags: radius, turning

**Leprechaun** · Dec 16, 2015, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Iliketobuild

...
Sorry for some of the pictures, the downloading software rotates them and I can't fix the problem. If anyone knows how to fix this problem let me know, I have more tools to post.
...

I've noticed the problem and it has to do with a site's software configuration for displaying images. Sometimes the wide images are rotated (as seems to be your situation) and sometimes tall images are rotated. The simple 'solution' is to crop a copy of your pics to be sorta close to square. (I don't know how close; my experience is they don't have to be exactly or even really close to square, but you might need to experiment.) Hope you get it working, cuz I sure want to see more!