Anybody here built a powered tube roller?

[fabricator1]

Going to build one. Probably hydraulic motor turning a gear reducer for ability to control the speed and reverse it easily. Just curious if anyone had some do and don't

 

[jccarter1]

Use an electric pipe threader they turn slow and plent of power and easy to reverse

 

[Shortbus]

^^ some white guy built one the same way few years ago.

 

[Rokcrler]

Re:

http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Electric-Drive-Bottle-Jack-Kit-For-The-Harbor-Freight-Tubing-Roller-_p_74.html

 

[fabricator1]

Yeah I have seen all those, but was thinking something a little better. Kind of like the jmr roller that you can also put a bender die on and have double duty

 

[blacksheep10]

because my bender already had a homemade hydraulic setup on it (motor off boiler blower, pump/resi/valve off a combine) I just put hydraulic qd's inline and hung the roller off the back. Made some plates to ride on the up/down center roll C and hung a hyraulic motor off of an old auger. big sprocket on the drive (got teh swag drive shaft and rolls) and small sprocket on the hydro motor. Perfect. Super controllable from most distances as I can pivot the roll and run the hydro control from 3-8' away to control the tube from rolling sideways and corkscrewing. It's easy and works ****ing awesome.

 

[fabricator1]

because my bender already had a homemade hydraulic setup on it (motor off boiler blower, pump/resi/valve off a combine) I just put hydraulic qd's inline and hung the roller off the back. Made some plates to ride on the up/down center roll C and hung a hyraulic motor off of an old auger. big sprocket on the drive (got teh swag drive shaft and rolls) and small sprocket on the hydro motor. Perfect. Super controllable from most distances as I can pivot the roll and run the hydro control from 3-8' away to control the tube from rolling sideways and corkscrewing. It's easy and works ****ing awesome.

Is one powered drive roll enough? I see most of the high end machines have both of the stationary wheels powered

 

[patooyee]

I've fooled with my HF roller through multiple iterations / experimentation and here is my experience.

First I tried a cheap HF torque multiplier:

Harbour Freight Tube Roller w/ Harbour Freight Torque Multiplyer

I can't even find it on their site any more. It was a huge piece of **** even before I knowingly overworked it. That video was the first time I used it and it overheated and puked its guts out about 30 seconds after that video.

Then I went to a 1hp 3-phase electric motor controlled by a PLC that converts it to single phase. I used the largest sprocket available at www.surpluscenter.com on the drive roller shaft and the smallest at the motor. The motor also has a right angle rpm reducer / torque multiplier on it. I don't recall the ratio right now.

SDC10911.AVI

SDC11043.AVI

Also worth noting is that I converted the acme tension screw at the top of the unit to a hydraulic bottle jack. This setup is cool because of the PLC, you can program ramp up and a whole bunch of cool features. It has overload protection. It is borderline on power, I am almost at max power pretty much all the time, but I have never stalled out. I think a 1.5hp motor on the same gear reducer would be the permanent solution. here are some things I've learned though:

• TO US / PEOPLE USING .120 WALL TUBE, the HF roller is basically only good for the 1.5" die. The quality of the entire thing is so low it falls short in every other category. The frame flexes under anything but the most minor loads which causes the bearings to get out of alignment and wear prematurely. Rolling 1.75x.120 tube is at the very extreme of it capabilities and can not be done for long.
• The shaft for the top roller is flimsy, even if you get the chromo aftermarket upgrade. 20mm is just not enough to resist the stress induced by 1.75x.120. Again, it flexes, causes premature bearing failiure.
• The bearings are so minimally spec'ed for this application that it is ridiculous. If you look at a real tube roller's bearings the difference is laughable. A real tube roller will use bearings that are roughly about 100x the size of the HF roller bearings. I have destroyed the stock bearings on mine, upgraded to ultra-high quality precision name-brand ones, destroyed those, and am on my second set of good ones now. Its so pathetic that I'm not even going to use my roller any more until I do something about them.
• The one drive roller gets the job done but two would be better. On mine if you apply too much tension it will slip. Its irrelevant though because if you're applying that much tension the whole structure and the drive shaft flex so bad that you are literally seconds away from destroying bearings.
• Using the aftermarket "wings" I think would take a lot of stress off the whole thing. Really adjustable lower roller width should be a standard feature on a roller this cheap. The only reason I haven't bought any for mine is because I don't plan to continue using it. I will either buy a more professional level roller before I roll more tube or make my own.
• I think hydraulic would suit this application better than electric.
• When the bearings start to go they cause the rollers to misalign. This destroys the dies. I am on my third set of Swag 1.75" dies as a result.

That's all I can think of for now. There's more, I just can't remember it all at the moment.

 

[blacksheep10]

I've only rolled like 5 or 6 cages, but all out of 1.75x.120 DOM. I made my own extender wings out of 1/4" plate and still use the acme screw with an impact and lube. I am all the way out on the extender wings though. Can't imagine trying to do 1.75 in teh stock holes. just go a little at a time and get there quicker than you would think.