Diy Aluminium Intercooler Pipe Bead Roller

[conrad]

Hi all I've just found a simple little tool that you can make up at home to roll beads on your custom intercooler piping . I did some research and I found all the info from another forum , so all the credit goes to the forum where I got the info from. It really only works for Ali pipe but I'm sure you could use it on stainless pipe too, if your hands are up to it. I think the company that makes vice grips should make a tool like the one below. Maybe if it is good enough the mods might make it a sticky.

You will need 1 Pair of standard size Vise Grips

a 2.5 inch Muffler clamp saddle ( Depending on the size pipe you are using, if you are using 3" pipe get a 3" exhaust saddle and so on), a large washer and a small welder.

Weld the muffler clamp saddle to the bottom of the vise grip jaw. Then weld the Washer to the top jaw of the Vise Grip.

The pics below are very self explanatory, basically what you do is put the pipe in the vice grips and clamp it down, then release and keep moving around and clamping to form the bead. Let me know what you think about it. I think for around $50 it's a good tool to have in your shed, if you go to garage sales I'm sure you can pick up a set of vice grips for about 5 bucks.

Cheers

Conrad

Edited 16/01/11 04:46 PM by conrad

[01txr]

Not bad thinking there, probably get a smoother finish if you clamp vice grip in vice and just clamp down a little with vice grip at a time and roll the tube around a couple times working back and forth then clamp a bit more and do over again until you get a good bead.

Probably do it in 3 steps.

Just like how you use a pipe cutting tool.

An improved version would be to find 2 sealed bearings in place of the exhaust clamp and a thin sealed bearing instead of the washer so to make rotating effort easier with less damage from the clamping of the exhaust clamp.

Would not need to have multiply vice grips for different pipe size as well.

Good fine there Conrad

[fordboy1981]

very clever, well done dude!

[mattyb]

Definately add this as a sticky... well done, looks like it does the job perfectly.

[TURBO4LT]

Very impressed!

[Rusty XR6T]

why dont they just roll the bead when they make the pipe? paying a fortune for pure slackness!

this is a great DIY, I just hate the fact that you have to do it.

it would take the end user anywhere from an hour on to do this themselves, the machine shop these pipes come out of already have the beading tools, the pipes are already there to get cut, bent, polished etc

[conrad]

why dont they just roll the bead when they make the pipe? paying a fortune for pure slackness!

this is a great DIY, I just hate the fact that you have to do it.

it would take the end user anywhere from an hour on to do this themselves, the machine shop these pipes come out of already have the beading tools, the pipes are already there to get cut, bent, polished etc

I spose if you are making your own custom ali pipes it is a cheap alternative. If you are going to mass produce ali cooler pipes it would be worth buying a proper tool to roll the beads.

Thanks all for the positive comments hope this helps everyone out.