Converting bead roller to powered

[MrFluffy]

Hi all, as title, planning on converting a niagra hand cranked bead roller to powered for convienience in near future. Small servo or stepper maybe, or a normal small ac motor with a cheap vfd (theyre cheap here for smaller units as tend to be used in domestic heating controls) and reduction box. At the cunning plan formation and aquiring apropriate motor bits stage.

Is it a good idea to make the motor a variable speed for use, or is that overkill with no added gain + a simple on and off motor geared appropriately is just as good? Would soft start add anything to let positions be nudged or something? Reverse a good idea?
What would be a comfortable linear distance traveled per minute by the forming dies to aim for on the gearing?
New to me so no experience to draw on myself, but there's only ever one of me around so I cant get someone to crank it on longer stuff while I feed it in.

 

[optima21]

I hijacked a thread at the beginning of the year as I was modifying a metz one to powered feed. I got a geared DC motor off ebay and worked from that. I still havn't used it in anger yet, but it worked fine in testing. most people would go for a foot control, but I decided to use a variable speed hand control instead.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/edwards-jenny-swager.51616/page-2

 

[oilyneil]

I converted mine with a stairlift motor, it already has a good gear reduction on it and I added a variable speed control which I can plug my tig foot pedal in. Full speed it runs about 9 rpm, which is plenty fast enough for me .

 

[MrFluffy]

Thanks all, thread contains most of the info too but it didnt come up when I did a search first.
9rpm is the output (50mm) roller speed neil?
Nice car btw, is it a pop or anglia or something else? I have a 103e project waiting for me to get time...

 

[hotrodder]

Most commercially made kit is 0 - 15rpm IIRC regardless of whether the dies are 50mm or 76mm on bigger machines. Obviously slower speeds make following curves and/or detail work, hitting stop points accuratly etc easier, some people find it harder to follow straight lines at very slow speeds and obviously it can get boring if doing a lot of them although i've never wanted to run one flat out at 15rpm personally
Forward/reverse on/off foot switch with a speed control on the machine is probably the most common commercial solution? Variable speed via a foot pedal with a for/rev switch is nicer IMO although for/rev isn't really necessary... take something like a stiffening bead around an ally door panel or whatever, can race along the straight bits and slow down for the corners
DC motor with PWM or AC motor + a VFD... whatever's cheaper, last time i was looking used low rpm gear reduction motors DC stairlift motors were more plentiful & cheaper and a cheapnese PWM that's "rated" way in excess of the motor wattage is under a tenner

 

[oilyneil]

Couple of photos of mine when i modded it, stannah motor mounted sideways driving through a bevel gear onto the main shaft and the speed control box next to it, forward and reverse switch on the top, tig pedal plugs in underneath and a power lead off to a 12v battery. I'm not sure if you have done it to yours, but the box section welded to the frame stiffens it up alot giving better beads.
Its a popular, i have a couple of them,,,