Ring rollers

I would like to build a ring roller,but have little idea how to go about it.

Have any of you chaps ever built one? Any help welcome regarding gears ect required.

Thanks in advance.

Look up the George H Thompson design. I made one years ago. It worked beautifully until my brother made off with it.

Larry,

I'm in the middle of building 1 now.......powered and reversable.........dial in "home made ring roller" in youtube, there are loads.....spent a good few hours sorting out what I wanted, obviously using the best of all the ideas.......mind there's a whole bunch of rubbish.........main difference in mine is that the top will pivot outta the way to get the rings out.....biggest peice I expect to bend will 25x50x3mm box and the usual flat bar stock.......

good luck, if u need any help please PM me.......no trouble.......clogs

Hi Clogs,

Checked out youtube,loads of stuff there,some of it way over the top but some really good basic ones as well. Plenty of food for thought,enough to set me thinking.

When I get around to clearing my bench [I know it,s under there somewhere ] I will set about making one.

PS I know there,s a floor in my shop as well,just have not seen it for a while.

I am looking for plans for a proven design of ring roller.

Does anyone have a link to the George H Thompson design? I can't find anything.

George H Thomas:- The Model Engineers Workshop Manual.

Edited By Mark Rand on 25/06/2020 23:26:40

You can buy a kit from Hemingway for the Geo Thomas design. If you've got access to material, he will sell you just the drawings

I've just recently made a set of George Thomas' bending rolls. Works well. Certainly a good point to start. Do you actually mean a ring roller as in 'for bending bar stock into rings' or a sheet roll for making tubes? George's design is really for tubes and can be made geared or ungeared. Rolls can be grooved to take angle or T section. You could shorten the design and rescale to make a ring rollerwhich are shorter, more compact and really do need to be geared.

regards Martin

I think it is a ring roller I am looking for. I recently wanted to bend some 1.5mm flat bar into a ring and can see the need to do this again in the future.

Check out This Old Tony on you tube. He had a video about building one.

That is the video that got me thinking about building one in the first place.

1.5mm flat bar you could form by hand around a piece of pipe etc.

You need to decide how much un-bent ring you can live with.

Pyramid rolls where the top middle roller drives and bends the metal by pressing it down between 2 fixed rollers leaves a flatish start section. The top roller (which needs to be removable) gives the minimum ring dia

Initial pinch where the metal is clamped between 2 rolls and drives the metal, the third roll moves past their centre to give the bend. The top pinch roller (which needs to be removable) gives the minimum ring dia. This one will roll a true round assuming you cut the length correct and grips the metal better and so slips less.

You can make rings on a sheet roller.

I hadn't realised that there are two different configurations for the rollers. Thanks.

And if you decide you can't live with any unbent ring then roll it from two over length pieces and cut away the unbent ends before joining.

Andrew J has a nice pinch type ring roller in his albums and a nice pyramid type here using twin geared motors

Edited By JasonB on 28/06/2020 13:23:45

Hi, you'll get a flat section on both ends with pyramid rolls. Although for small rolls that may be used in the home workshop, the top roll is probably easier to make totally removeable, but both types of rolls can have just one end bearing removable so the rolled piece can be slide out, all industrial rolls I've used large and small work this way. In the drawing below it shows the weight of the top roll is taken at the left hand end by a turn screw, the right hand end will pivot down after the wing nut and plate is removed from that end of the roll.

I've only ever used 3" pinch rolls and these often have a handle that you can hold up when removing rolled piece. Of course if you are only doing a part roll or if the metal is flexible enough you won't need to remove anything.

I've always found pyramid much easier to use on thicker plate as they generally have more power and you can get over the flat bits at the ends by using a long enough piece for them to be cut off and then you only have one weld and normally in general fabrication this would have the weld dressed down flush and the cylinder return back to the rolls using extra pressure to slightly over roll and thus the spring-back will produce a close true circle.

Regards Nick.