English wheels

[BRIAN]

Be careful with the cheaper wheels they flex like crazy and do not track correctly.

The quality of the wheels is also very important. It is not a tool where a cheap quality will give you good results. It kind of defeats the purpose.

There is a Grizzly machine that looks strong but again the wheels are questionable.

[F70t/a]

Could you buy a english wheel from harbor freight and reinforce the brackets that hold the rollers?

[68RS350]

There would really be no point to try and reinforce the anvil wheel holders. Does it say what the material the wheel is made out of? When you crank the wheel up to try and shape the metal i wonder how much pressure you could put on in to before it starts to deform the machine. Especially if that upper piece is bent. I wonder how much is flexes when a pressure is put on. If your building a high dollar car I would cheap out of the tool I use to make it......

[BRIAN]

If you could rotate that upper wheel so you are working your piece in and out of the throat of the machine it would help. The way that it is set up it is putting a lot of twist in an already weak? machine.

I guess the question is what are you trying to make with it?


Look at Grizzly's web site the machine looks strong and I guess the wheel would be your biggest problem. I have zero idea what you would do with the grooved wheel???

[DLinson]

When I designed my English wheel, I made the rollers rotate 90 degrees so I could form long pieces. I used my English wheel to roll out the top of my dash, rear spoiler, front spoiler, piece to cover the cowl vent, and my rocker panels.

I made mine on casters which is a mistake. I had to clamp it to the wall or to my work bench in order to use it without pushing it around the garage.

The rollers should be made out of 1045 steel. They don't have to be heat treated either. If you know a machinist, you can have a few rollers made to your specific diameters. I designed a tool for our lathe to cut some different radiused rollers.

Another helpful tip is to get or make an upper roller out of a hard rubber. This will roll a straight length of material to the radius of the roller, like a rocker panel.

The cheap Harbor Freight wheel looks like the frame may twist as you roll the material throught it. If you lighten up on the pressure it could work but just take more strokes to achieve the form.

[68RS350]

How would rotating your wheels 90 degrees let you do longer pieces? If you rotated the wheels 90 degrees from the way it is in harbor freight and other ones you are limited to your throat length as the length of your piece?