MyMotorizedBeadRoller

 How do I want to set up the motor control? Most ready products available seem to have a speed  knob and direction selection and then just a foot controlled on/off switch, this would be the easiest to build. But, I would like the speed control to work in the same way as a sewing machine pedal so one can accelerate on the straight parts and slow down in corners or when you come close to the end of the pattern you are making, and when you let go of the pedal the motor stops. I'm thinking a similar floor pedal as I've seen on  tig welders. Direction selection I would like to have on the bead roller body close to the adjust screws for the upper roll. Emergency shutdown button in same location might be a good idea. Biggest challenge is the accelerator pedal. Might be possible to buy something but I don't know the values for the potentiometer and it has five conductors connected to it while potentiometers usually only have three so what the two "extra" wires are for I d...

 I purchased a PWM (pulse width modulation) speed controller from an online shop. There was very little information on the sight about the controller it only said max current 60A, so I thought that should be sufficient. When I got it it is clear by looking at it that it is not intended for use anywhere near nominal currents of 60A but maybe for really short periods it can withstand it.   Terminal marking on casing is in Chinese I think, but on the circuit board it is indicated in English. Hooking up the controller. I used the cables from the remote controller from the winch they had end terminals on with correct markings so it was straight forward. I did some tests with the controller. One was to remove the display unit and did not make any difference, works fine without it so that one I will leave out. I see no use for it. I tried to measure the amps when bead rolling also but my multimeter freaked out so I did not get any result. Need to try that again at some other time. Th...

 After reassembling the bead roller I wanted o try it to see if there is any improvement to the rigidity of the frame and also to make sure it still works as it should after all the modifications. The frame is much stiffer now and behaves better when using the roller. Earlier the roles had a tendency go apart sideways when applying pressure on the top wheel, that is basically gone now. I think I have caused some distortion of the frame with all the welding I've done to it, if I tighten the bolts for the shaft line the hand crank becomes quite stiff to rotate. But other than that it seems to work better now. The test piece I made is intended for the backside of the Dodge Dart sofa  https://mydodgedartrearcouch.blogspot.com .I tried to imitate beads on the rear side of a Dart station wagon back rest. Picture taken at a local motor show in Finland spring 2022! Here the piece is still in the making. But main thing is the roller works as it should and I can proceed with the motoriz...

The bead roller frame is now strengthened together with some other smaller modifications. The motorization is not ready yet but the roller can be used again with hand crank. Before: : After:  Before: After: Other modifications: Grease fittings added. Lift mechanism for the upper shaft. The black knob on the tightening screw is from the winch that was bought for this project. I accidentally broke the shaft when dismantling winch, came in handy here when it has a M6 thread. No need for tools when spring load is to be adjusted. Plan to make similar arrangement for the tightening bolt for the upper roll (the long bolt). Painting. Miscellaneous pictures.  

What is it I want to build?  I need to figure out how to fix the motor to the bead roller. I'm thinking I want to be able to convert the roller back to hand crank use if needed, for example the motor breaks or the construction I'm making does not work, so I will try to make a bolted bracket for the motor. I need to be able to adjust the motor position to get the shaft aligned as good as possible. As I will have to dismantle the bead roller and probably need to do some welding to the frame, it would make sense to stiffen up the construction while I'm at it. I think the easiest way to stiffen the bead roller would be to weld square tubing or a thick plate to the back side of the bead roller frame. As I need a way to get the motor more towards the back of the roller a suitable tick plate might solve two problems at once. The plan is now to strengthen the body of the bead roller at the same time as preparing fastening point for the motor assembly. Purchasing material. With some...

 I decided to go for alternative 2 where I use a lathe to make the shaft outer diameter same as the weldable bushing inner diameter. To get access to a lathe I registered to a metal forming course were you are allowed to bring you own projects. The bushing originally acquired was quite short so I bought a longer one to be able to make it the desired length. Below a picture of the main parts, modified winch drum and bushing. The reason why I kept the whole length of the winch drum is that the material was thickest at the end of the drum, so I wanted to use the strongest part of the shaft and take away material only where the wall is the thickest. I also kept about 5mm untouched of the thicker part of shaft to avoid causing a weak point where the drum would break, this is the reason I did not make the lathed area longer. The hole in the drum is for fastening the winch cable, the location is a bit unfortunate.    The bushing has been cut to desired length and the tread for t...