I know many home made bead rollers but 2 of the cheap & pretty simple ones that do give good results especially on ally pipe are pictured below.
The famous vise grip & exhaust clamp & washer welded on >
this can do some quite decent beads on ally if radius edge of clamp and thick washer nicely. light smear of grease on outer side of pipe tends reduce tool marking.
If mod it bit more you could weld a flat thick plate with 2 threaded holes to vise grip then have the exhaust bracket bolt on with 2 short socket screws so can change between say 2" 2.5" 3" and 3.5" brackets .
washers to make your bead dies >
seen some done similar with thick flat plate & tubing using bolts with washers, i'm going do one assembly built off a old drill press vice clamp rather than working off bench vise jaws.
Work well and can use a socket and t-bar or ratchet as handle so super cheap & easy fabricate, more so if build off vise using jaw plate mounting holes. if got a lathe turning some dies creates a pretty pro bead roller on this simple design.
Burrows done a cool ball bearing one for smaller pipes (fuel hard-lines) if look in his build topic, similar idea to earls eazy beaders.
EDIT: link to Mr Burrows tool >
http://www.gtir-motorsport-club.com/t5702-fuel-pipe-bulging-tool-thing
The famous vise grip & exhaust clamp & washer welded on >
this can do some quite decent beads on ally if radius edge of clamp and thick washer nicely. light smear of grease on outer side of pipe tends reduce tool marking.
If mod it bit more you could weld a flat thick plate with 2 threaded holes to vise grip then have the exhaust bracket bolt on with 2 short socket screws so can change between say 2" 2.5" 3" and 3.5" brackets .
washers to make your bead dies >
seen some done similar with thick flat plate & tubing using bolts with washers, i'm going do one assembly built off a old drill press vice clamp rather than working off bench vise jaws.
Work well and can use a socket and t-bar or ratchet as handle so super cheap & easy fabricate, more so if build off vise using jaw plate mounting holes. if got a lathe turning some dies creates a pretty pro bead roller on this simple design.
Burrows done a cool ball bearing one for smaller pipes (fuel hard-lines) if look in his build topic, similar idea to earls eazy beaders.
EDIT: link to Mr Burrows tool >
http://www.gtir-motorsport-club.com/t5702-fuel-pipe-bulging-tool-thing
Last edited by Mr B on 24th November 2016, 10:51 am; edited 1 time in total