Motorising a Bead Roller

I have a need to form some beads into metal and to that end I purchased a cheap hand operated bead roller.

Whilst researching what I was buying I saw repeatedly that using the crank handle to turn the bead rollers made it difficult to use. I clamped the machine in my vice and gave it a crank, the internet was not wrong, the crank handle takes one hand away from the job and has you reaching way over to turn a complete circle...... I was not going to use it until I had motorised it.

I would not be able to motorise it with it mounted in the vice so I welded up a stand to mount the machine on, this is not part of this instructable as it is simple metal frame that stops it from moving :), suffice to say the single leg is 50mm square tube.

Again I hit the internet to see what ideas there were for motorising, I discovered that you can buy ready built motor drive assemblies that just bolt on, but the motor is mounted on the end of the cranking shaft, making an already wide machine even wider, I wanted my motor tucked away under the machine. I watched many videos of other peoples modifications and mixed and matched all that I felt would work best for me.

Bead rolling machine on a stand

2000lb ATV winch

3/8 chain wheels 1off 27 tooth and 1 off 28 tooth

3/8" chain

100mm x 6mm mild steel plate

2" x 1" steel tube

Metal enclosure of a suitable size, mine being 320mm x 150mm x 80mm deep with a hinged door and key lock

12V 30A power supply

DC motor speed control

Motor connector

Reversing switch

Foot switch

3 core cable for mains connection and to connect the foot switch

3 pin plug for foot switch

Removal of a couple of screws had the winch spool off, once I had removed the cable from the spool I cut the flange off the outer end on my bandsaw then turned down the end to 25mm to accept one of the chainwheels.

When I ordered the chainwheels I had already checked that a 27 tooth would fit, with its chain, into the winch cradle, the other chainwheel has one more tooth being 28, this is just good practice so that the chain will not run in the same place on the wheels all the time.

The chainwheels were drilled and bored out to 25mm to fit both the input shaft of the bead roller and the winch spool. A side hole was drilled in the boss of each and tapped 8mm for a grub screw.

The mounting bracket is cut from 100mm x 6mm mild steel, holes were drilled and slotted to match up with the mounting centres of the shaft bearings on the bead roller, another hole M8 tapping size was drilled in the plate where it will be drilled through the bead roller frame on assembly.

Holes were drilled to attach the hinge and piece of 1" x 2" steel tube, a bit longer than the width of the winch spool cradle, with hinge attached, was welded to the bottom of the plate. I drilled through a hole in the spool cradle into the bottom tube 10mm diameter to be a good clearance on an M8 screw.

The spool cradle was drilled to accept the door hinge and the reassembled winch was attached to the mounting bracket, via the hinge.

M12 studding was cut to replace the bolts that hold the shaft bearings to the machine frame as the existing bolts are very short, the studding was installed and held in place in the bearing blocks with loctite thread adhesive.

The bracket was then hung on the studs and nuts were screwed on finger tight.

The chain was offered up and split to a length that will hold the spool cradle clear of the tube at the bottom of the bracket then the joining link was inserted to hold it in place. an M8 bolt and nut with a compression spring was inserted in the front of the spool cradle to tension the chain. I then ran the motor from a battery and adjusted the position of the bracket until the chain ran quietly. Once locked in the correct position I drilled the M8 tapping size hole in the bracket through the machine frame, re-drilled the bracket 8mm, tapped the hole and inserted and tightened a bolt. My picture of the bracket in place shows it to be at a slight angle, this is due to slack in the hinge I used for the pivot, chain and chainwheels line up perfectly.

I then slightly loosened the top shaft bearing nut, this is important as the top bearing needs to be able to move, the other bearing nut and the 8mm bolt being well tightened will ensure that the bracket stays in the right position.

When the motor runs at 12v it is as fast as I would want to go but I realised I would want more control of the speed. Next job speed control!

I decided that I wanted all the electrical bits to be unpluggable and removable, to this end I found a metal enclosure with a hinged lid and a key operated lock, that was large enough to take the power supply and speed controller. Once these parts were positioned I cut keyhole slots in the back and transferred the hole centres onto a piece of 18mm plywood which was screwed to the leg of the machine stand, thread inserts were pressed into the plywood from the back for 5mm flange headed screws, these screws will allow the box to be lifted off of the machine.

A mains socket was cut into the base, the motor connector let into one side, a 3 pin DIN was let into the other side for the foot peddle switch and the speed control knob and display were set into the top.

The wiring is simple, just follow the markings on the power supply and speed controller using the cable that came with the winch for the 12v output from the power supply to the speed controller and from the speed controller to the motor socket, just make sure you use red for + and black for -

A piece of 3 core mains cable runs from the mains in socket to the power supply.

The speed controller has a "centre off" three direction control switch which will be replaced with a foot switch, more of this next.

As the idea is to keep all the switching foot operated I decided to add a stomp switch to the footswitch cover for direction change, this is the only bit of wiring that needs to be thought through carefully to make sure it works correctly. The wire to the middle contact of the reversing switch that came fitted to my speed control was yellow, I have shown in my sketch how it would be wired to the foot switches using the current switch colours but in reality I used a 3 pin Din plug and socket and 3 core mains cable to extend the lead once the existing switch was removed.

I had Mrs rog make me a cover out of waterproof canvas as the machine will be outside under a canopy while I have it out to use, it stores away in a shed when not in use.

It takes but a couple of minutes to connect up the electronics and get it running.

The following video is best viewed with the sound off, (I am not very good with video) it does however show how easy it is to change direction and speed.