Poor scratchbuilder's bead roller

With a cheap bead roller only available on eBay or elsewhere online and the local sheet metal shop not wishing to touch my home-built fuel tanks for fear of litigation, I came up with this rough and ready solution.

 

Thought I would share it with you. In all I got the device refined enough to complete my tank beads in a weekend.

 

I used some wardrobe door rollers and made up a couple of hardwood discs simply by cutting them out of hardwood and sanding them on a bench sander to match the large female roller. Then it was just a matter of devising a method to squeeze the material between the two rollers.

 

So instead of waiting a week for a roller to come in the mail, the job is done and I can move on to the next stage.

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Dempsey on November 13, 2012 at 8:21pm
Permalink Reply by Glenn Andressen on November 15, 2012 at 4:19pm

I saw your method Dan, and it looks quite effective, but I'm wondering how you did the long runs along the back of the tanks?

Permalink Reply by Dan Dempsey on November 17, 2012 at 6:15pm

Here's a picture of the long bead.

I had 2 sets of blocks.  One for the long ones and one set for the short ones. Here's a picture of the long bead being made.

Permalink Reply by Tim Smart on November 14, 2012 at 3:17am
"Lot of thought and work" in yours and Dan's solutions, good job both. I got lucky and could borrow a bead roller from a friend.

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