I thought this was really cool... Home made metal working tools... A power roller made with a taper design for rolling stainless steel round bar into a shape that can be used for table legs.
Can you imagine having to wind these legs up manually?
1/4" round stainless round stock is pretty flimsy but when you see the finished legs with the stiffener pieces welded in, you see that the legs have plenty of strength and rigidity.
I like the idea of the foot switch too because it would really suck to get your shirt tail caught in this thing if it didn't have a foot switch.
It looks like it takes less than a minute to roll the stainless and get it out of the metal working rollers. So in about 5 minutes, he has 4 table legs ready to weld up.
Mounting tab flanges on the top, feet on the bottom, and stiffeners make for some pretty artsy fartsy looking stainless steel table legs. These things could be tigged, migged, or sticked easily.
I like the concrete counter table tops ok but it would be cool to mix some wood and stainless for the top too. Another possibility would be to heat tint the stainless steel legs with a torch and then clear coat them.
Anyway, I was more intrigued by the homemade metal roller than anything else. I once built a turntable out of the ass end of an old ten speed bike. A machinist friend made a threaded shaft for me that went in where the pedal bearings go and I put a 1/2" drill chuck on the shaft and baam!
I had a turntable.
A variable speed drill with a 1/4" mandrel pressed against the tire powered the thing.
It just goes to show you what you can do with no money and some hardware lying around.
That gets me to thinking about other metal working tools...
I found this other video from a company called Baileigh that makes rollers, press brakes, metal shears, saws, and all kinds of metal working equipment.This particular video is about a combination Shear, Press Brake, Slip Roller unit.
Its bad ass.
How would you like to have this baby in your shop?
Baileigh also makes other metal working tools like welding positioners.
exit metal working tools page and see more on welding stainless
go to welding tips and tricks home page