Ring Rollers

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.



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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:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/ring-roller-13"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/137362/ring-roller-13.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/ring-roller-13">Ring Roller</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/Iliketobuild">Iliketobuild</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/ring-roller">ring roller</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

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:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/roller-dies-2"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/137386/roller-dies-2.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/roller-dies-2">Roller Dies</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/Iliketobuild">Iliketobuild</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/ring-roller">ring roller</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/die">die</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

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:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/radius-turning-tool-5"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/137382/radius-turning-tool-5.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/radius-turning-tool-5">Radius Turning Tool</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/Iliketobuild">Iliketobuild</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/radius">radius</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/turning">turning</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iliketobuild

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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.
...

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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!

Admirable!

Leprechaun, thanks for the tip. Will try it on the next post.


Bob

It was fun to make but took lots of precision machining to get everything to fit and work smoothly.

Speaking of precision machining, I like the large-sized radius cutting tool you built for your lathe. Looks like it can handle some large parts.

Yes, it works surprisingly well, made it out of some scrap material I had laying around. It is custom fit for my 13" Southbend lathe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leprechaun

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!

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You're right about this. There is a back-and-forth about this exact subject with this forum software's customers and developers, here: How do I disable images from auto-rotating - vBulletin Community Forum, with the end result being that this is not a bug. I disagree, and I've just installed a fix for this that makes an image orientation decision based on the image's EXIF data.

It will not retroactively orient all previously-uploaded pictures, but the goal is to properly handle future jpeg images. Let's keep an eye on this going forward and make sure it works properly.