Cheap Tubing Bead "Roller"

[lovehamr]

As I was looking through here seeing what's new I realized that I had something to share and hadn't shared it here.  For those who saw this on CC don't worry about it because there's not much new info.  Just a repost, but I thought some might be able to use it.

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) You 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. Thus far I have had zero issues in about 4k miles of street and track use. So the beads seem to be just as good as beads 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. 

Hope this can help someone, Steve

[jayb]

Steve, that is a GREAT idea, and it looks like it really works well.  Hot rodding and fabrication at its finest.  Thanks for the post - Jay

[AlanCasida]

That is really slick! I am in the proces of hooking up an aftermarket radiator in my '65 Mustang and was trying to figure a way to do just that for a piece on the lower rad hose. Great job!!

[cammerfe]

Certainly looks neat when the work is done. I have, on occasion, taken my MIG and made several weld spots spaced around the circumference of a pipe before pushing it into a piece of hose. With a clamp behind the weld spots there seems to be enough 'grip' to keep the cold-side hose from separating.

KS