Metal Fun Site

A friend with a welding and fab shop asked me to build a ring roller for him. He wanted it to be able to handle flat stock up to 4" wide by 1/4" thick. After I finished it a friend of his borrowed it and liked it so well he wanted one too but wanted the option of spacing the rollers further apart so it wouldn't take so much effort to roll larger stock. He had used the original one to roll 1 1/4" square aluminum tubing and hoped the wider roller spacing would make it a bit easier. The pictures below are of the 2nd roller with wider spacing.

I've also included a couple of dimension drawings and assembly views from Alibre Design. I'm afraid they didn't work quite as well as expected but they should give you a pretty good idea of how it all goes together.

The side plates and center plates are the only parts I really needed drawings for so that's all I ever generated.

The base and lift platform are 4" square by 1/4" wall square tubing. There is a 3/8" hole drilled through the middle of the lift platform. A carriage bolt goes through it and the slots on the center plates. You snug it to keep the center plates from spreading. The base is 24" long/tall and the lift platform is 12" long.

The side plates overlap the base by 4" and are welded along both sides and the bottoms of the plates. Alignment of the center plates is critical. There is also a piece of 3/8" plate welded over the top opening of the base tubing for the hydraulic jack to sit on.

The base size is not critical and for one of the units I built there is no base because they wanted to put it in a 4" square hole in the floor and be able to remove it for storage.

All 3 rollers are 3" diameter by 4" wide. The hole through the lower 2 rollers is 3/4" and the pins through them are 6" x 3/4" hitch pins bought from a Tractor Supply store. The upper roller is knurled to better grip the metal and has a 1" hole bored through it with a 1/4" keyway. Broaching the keyway is the toughest part of the entire project because the broach that was readily available to me was designed to do a pulley or roller that was about 2 to 2 1/2" wide. In order to do a 4" wide roller I had to buy 2 bushings and shims and it still stresses it a bit too much. I've already had to replace it halfway through doing a 3rd roller.

The upper shaft is 1" rod turned down just enough to smoothly fit through the bearings. This is so that the shaft and upper roller can be removed so you can get a complete ring out of the roller without having to warp it. The shaft has a 1/4" slot to match the one in the top roller. A 1" section of the shaft is not turned down so that it serves as a spacer between the handle and the bearing. This section is not slotted but the outer portion is to match the hub of the handle. The opposite end of the shaft protrudes about 4" and has a hole through it and a pin similar to the ones used on the hitch pins.

The handle or "steering wheel" was rolled on the machine and is made of 3/4" thinwall (16 gauge I believe) square tubing. The outer ring was rolled from an 11' long section and the others were cut as needed to mate the ring to the hub. The center hub is a Weld-On-Hub like this one.

The bearings are 1" 4-bolt flange bearings similar to these. The bottle jack is a 4-ton and works well enough but it doesn't push in the center of the lift platform. I couldn't find one that would so I ended up with this one.

Hopefully I've covered everything well enough for you to build your own but if I missed something feel free to email me.