[TheForge] angle/ring roller suggestions?

[Ries Niemi]

On Saturday, January 1, 2005, at 11:26 AM, John Emmerling wrote:

> Happy New Year to All!
>
> After discussing the needs of the shop for the upcoming year with she 
> who writes the checks, we've decided to upgrade to a new ring/angle 
> roller. the current home built roller works well for some basic 
> operations, but has the downside of being closed on both ends which 
> limits its  usefulness  especially with heavier stock. does anyone 
> have suggestions on  what to buy in the 4-5k  range?
> tia
> john
>


I have been really happy with my italian made rolls from Eagle Bending-
http://www.eaglebendingmachines.com/
mine is a little bigger than you are thinking about- it is a CP-40, 
which will do 2" angle and 2" schedule 40 pipe, and it is in the 7k-8k 
range, but their smaller machines are good as well. They are very good 
about stocking parts in the USA, phone tech consultations, and have a 
wide variety of accessories and rolls in stock- like scroll 
attachments, and bar twisting attachments, as well as nylon rolls for 
working with brass profiles, and all your standard pipe and tube sizes.
It seems like the Italian rolls are the best compromise between price 
and quality- several other importers also bring in rolls from Italy.
I think these are italian, but they might be spanish or turkish-
http://www.hellerson.com/
http://www.ercolina-usa.com/ce4050-capacities.htm
Then, at the low end, pricewise, are the turkish rolls. I have a set of 
turkish sheet metal rolls, and while they work fine- in fact, I 
frequently roll 1/8" stainless on them, while they are only rated for 
14 ga mild steel- but the quality differences between most turkish made 
machines and the italian ones are noticeable.
The top end of the market- that is, you cant afford it- is the swedish 
made Roundo rolls, which are sold here in the US by Comeq, inc, in 
Baltimore
http://www.comeq.com/.
They are really beautiful, well made machines.
The only american rolls I know of are the ones made by Buffalo (yes, 
they are still in business, making ironworkers, rolls, and 
drillpresses- no forges or blowers anymore),
http://www.bmt-usa.com/
which are antique in design, and high in price. And then there is this 
company-  http://www.rdhs.com/
which makes some manual rolls, as well as some powered ones, which are 
inexpensive, but they dont look like they are built to last like the 
european ones are. http://www.rdhs.com/
We have really beaten up our Eagle rolls, running 2" x 2" x 1/4" 
stainless angle into 3 foot circles, for example, or running big pieces 
of heavily forged stainless flat bar thru them to straighten it out 
after forging, transforming a wet noodle into a straight bar again- 
things like 1/4" x 4" flat bar the hard way. And they handle everything 
we can throw at them without blinking. I like the digital readout 
feature as well- even though rolling is an art, not a repeatable 
science- two pieces of steel that are the same size, but from different 
mill runs, will curve differently. So the readout is a reference point 
for getting close, not a standard for repeatability. Still, it helps if 
you can know that to make a 6 foot circle in 3/8" round, a 48 on the 
readout will be close, and then you can adjust from there.

ries