Cheap Tubing Bead "Roller"

[lovehamr]

While trying to get everything done on my BDR it became obvious that the radiator tubes which were designed for a SB Ford were NOT going to work with my FE set-up and would have to be shortened a good bit. This means that the factory beads would have to be hacked off. After a few unsuccessful attempts to find an inexpensive bead roller I came across an idea in one of the turbo forums where guys needed to set beads on their turbo inlet pipe to keep them from blowing off under boost. Well the cheapest that I could find a roller that was capable of more than one size was over $300 and this homemade tool looked like it would be cheap to replicate. (If it worked that is) See these guys were doing this with aluminum pipe and I needed it done with stainless. The idea is quite genius in its simplicity. Take a pair of vise-grips, the saddle from a muffler clamp, a washer and then weld them together so that the muffler clamp supports the outside of the tube and the washer pushes a "bead" from the inside of the pipe. All this powered by your hand and the vise-grip. There were a few guys who complained about the washer collapsing when to much pressure was applied to their aluminum tubing, so I knew I would have to come up with something more substantial. In place of the washer in the original idea I used a woodruff key. This I welded to the lower jaw of the vice-grip then welded the muffler clamp saddle to the upper jaw. While working around the pipes I must have compressed and released the VG about 8000 times to get the final result. Though I haven't had them under pressure yet, I can't see how this woun't work just as well as a bead made by a more expensive (though admitedly faster and easier) tool. The pics that follow should fill in any gaps left by my narative, but if you do have any questions about this just drop me a PM. Steve



























Price? Including the new VG, woodruff key and the muffler clamp = less than $20. Of course after doing this on a couple of stainless tubes my hands are sore to.

[Tom Kirkham]

Thank you. That is very clever.

You will probably also want to sand the end of the tube to help keep the hose from sliding off. Just speaking from the school of hard knocks...

We should have a forum section on cool tools like this.

[lovehamr]

Originally Posted by Tom Kirkham

You will probably also want to sand the end of the tube to help keep the hose from sliding off. Just speaking from the school of hard knocks...

I see what you mean, I think I'll do that!

[LMH]

That's awesome!
I think you better get a Patent on that soon!
Larry

[PANAVIA]

Very creative. -- thank you for sharing !

[Outwest34au]

Great stuff. I have entered that in my book of tricks.
I wasn't sure how to do it on my 2" fuel tank/ filler pipe but you have put my mind at rest.
Thankyou.

[alfy65]

That is pretty neat...

[Tom Wells]

Steve,

Ugly as sin but beautifully effective! Great tip!

Tom

[Cashburn]

That is a nice result, I'm sure your hands are a bit sore... what we do is section the pipe so you essentially cut the factory bead off, remove the 1" or 2" or whatever you need and then weld the bead end back on and grind it down and polish/buff it. The hose will cover the modified section anyway.

[mreid]

Excellent idea! Thanks for sharing. If you can get a bead like that on ss, imagine how easy it would be on aluminum?! I usually just run a weld bead around the tube about 1/2" from the end, but that is a much better solution if you can't weld aluminum or stainless.

[sfm8s191]

this is whats makes a great forum!! thanks mcgiver ..great stuff

[Trueoo7]

Originally Posted by Outwest34au

Great stuff. I have entered that in my book of tricks.
I wasn't sure how to do it on my 2" fuel tank/ filler pipe but you have put my mind at rest.
Thankyou.

I could have used that last year for this very reason so I may have to take it apart and and get rid of the 2 clamps. Now if you can invent a gadget that can bend aluminum pipe into a 90 deg angle without breaking it....I'd be your new best friend !

[767Jockey]

Looks great - I wonder if the muffler clamp / woodruff key setup could be duplicated on a small bolt cutter instead of the vice grips. That would have more leverage if it could be done and probably much quicker and easier on the hands. It would need just a touch more fabrication, but if you could cut or grind down the size of the cutter head to fit inside the tubing and you use one of the smaller bolt cutters it should work pretty good, no?

[LMH]

You know, if you added a couple small rollers to the muffler clamp and a single roller for the inside of the pipe, you could speed up the process. Think little pulley's on the clamp and solid roller in place of the washer. Just spit-balling... it's great the way it is.
Larry

[KevinW]

might also find this interesting....

http://www.crendonreplicas.com/tools.html

[lovehamr]

Kevin, a friend on another forum also posted that one for me. It sure does look easier and faster. The only downside is at todays rates it would still be almost $140 before shipping from the UK.

[cobred]

What a great idea. I had the lower hose push apart on my factory 5 years ago because of no beads. That sucked. Nice job.

[mickmate]

Super idea thanks. If you're doing a lot of one size these aren't too badly priced in the smaller sizes. http://www.summitracing.com/search/?...20beader&dds=1They use a tapered threaded pin that pushes ball bearings out further as you turn it. I have seen what looked like a tube cutter with rollers one side and a cutting wheel on the other. Instead of working on the outside it had a radius on the cutting wheel and worked on the inside. I haven't been able to find one so may fnish up making one.

[tkb289]

Steve,

Nice result and very clever indeed ... love the DYI ideas that people come up with.

[wetdog]

great tool, I use t-bolt clamps and nothing slips off 5 bucks from summit and superior to band clamps WD