Small Plate Roller Build

[f150skidoo]

Plate Roller Build

I've been getting into building custom CNC cut fire pit rings with what ever design/ wording the customer wants. The previous rings have been bump bent in my press brake. But that was very time consuming laying out all those bends and setting up the stops in the brake for repeatable bends. I have several more that I have been asked to make so I decided to build a small plate roller to roll the rings instead.

The roller will be 24" wide using the 3 roller design for simplicity. The top roller will be the pinch roller using a 8 ton bottle jack. The bottom 2 rollers are the driven rollers, I'm using a harbor freight 1320lb cable hoist that will be modified to power the rollers.

I'm trying to build the roller mostly with material I have on hand so I cut the side plates from 1/2" plate. I mag drilled the bolt holes for the flange mount bearing's since the holes were to small accurately to cut on the CNC plasma.

 

[f150skidoo]

Before I got to far ahead of myself I wanted to temporarily mount the bearings and throw a piece of cold rolled shaft in to check that the bearing are mounted in the correct spots and turning true. I checked the shaft with my dial indicator and they are turning with in .005". Next I made the mount for the HF cable hoist out of 1/4" plate. The legs consist of 2'x2" tubing and 1/4" plate for the lower frame, I slotted the plate so I can tension the chain from the motors weight. The slot in the lower center will guide a rectangle tube, which will transfer the cylinders force via 1/2" flat bar to move the top roller.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice work so far!
What is the maximum thickness you intend to roll?
Subscribed for updates.

 

[f150skidoo]

Most of what Ill be bending is 12" of 3/16" but I think i should be able to bend full width of 3/16". The rollers are going to be 4" 3/8" or 1/2" wall DOM tubing so they should be stiff enough to roll that thickness of steel.

 

[bullnerd]

"small plate roller"

lol! You don't do small, do you? lol!

 

[74cj5]

Re: Plate Roller Build

Yeah, it kind of looks like “small” is a relative term!

 

[mohead1]

Re: Plate Roller Build

Thing is large and how heavy?? 200lbs w motor??

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[f150skidoo]

I'm guessing this machine will weigh in the 300-400 lb range all said and done. I originally thought of making a small manual roller that you could pickup and store under the welding table. But that quickly morphed into what you see now.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I love your builds, looking forward to how this turns out.

 

[PugetDude]

Are you going to pre-bend the ends of the rings to your desired radius before rolling or incorporate a swing-away top roll support so you can tack weld and then re-roll for concentricity?
If you don't you'll be welding two flat spots together and end up with pear-shaped fire rings.
If you don't have a swing-away outboard top roll support, another option is to tack weld while still in the roller, re-roll, then cut the tacks. remove the ring and then finish weld.

 

[f150skidoo]

Got some more progress completed today for the downward motion of the top roller. I used some 1.5" x 2.5" .188 wall tubing which will transfer the force from the 8 ton bottle jack to the flat bars which will lower the top roller. I will add a stiffener to the rectangle tubing to help with the deflection. I threaded some bar stock and welded it to the inside of the tube and cut a hand knob so I can remove the tension bars/ top roller with no tools. I cut the tension bars out of 1/2" plate and welded a 1/4" plate spacer. The spacer slides over the 1.5x2.5 tube and transfers the force instead of the 1/2" bolt on the hand knob. I needed to add a spacer between the unsupported parts of the legs to add rigidity. I could of used angle iron or small square tubing but that's to simple. So I cut and bent up some 11 ga. steel with the same radius as the 1/4" plate sides. Keeping with the hexagon theme on the tension bars I cut a honeycomb to help with air flow from the motor.

 

[The Cobbler]

I admire your talent

 

[tarmy]

Great post OP...love the detail photos...

 

[f150skidoo]

I didn't get much done in the shop today, but I got the front panel cut out and bent. I need to make a longer jack handle to fit through the slot in the front panel but its 20mm and 3/4" is just to loose of a fit. So Ill I have to come up with some kind of solution.

 

[matt_i]

Very cool use of the plasma table looking forward to seeing the progress! You will have a moneymaker there when you get done

 

[f150skidoo]

So a bit of a update, I ended up using 3" x .500" wall DOM instead of 4" DOM for the rollers due to availability and cost. I had a local retired machinist turn me some spacers that fit in the ID of the DOM to keep the roller concentric to the shaft, (need to get a lathe for myself). I milled the key ways to connect the gears to the roller shafts. The roller's are connected to the motor with #40 roller chain with a 2:1 reduction to decrease the roller's RPM. I did a quick test with some 3" x 3/16" flat bar and was happy with the result, but realized a issue with the machine. Since it was designed with 4" rollers but now uses 3" they don't pinch enough to make a circle smaller then a 22" diameter. To resolve the issue I'm going to have to cut the notches in the side plate down to make the top roller have more travel. This project is going to have to be put on the back burner for a bit since I won't have time to work on it for several weeks.

 

[PugetDude]

Any updates on this one?

 

[f150skidoo]

No not really, I've switched the top roller to 4" diameter. But I've never fully finished it and have been using it as is.

 

[dkmc]

I really enjoy seeing HF tools repurposed for different uses. The hoist motor is ideal for this and other applications and it's low cost for what it's accomplishing. Great project.