Tennsmith 22 ga rolls (hand now powered)

[aametalmaster]

I have had these 22 ga x 2' rolls since 2001 and they were hand powered. That sucked cranking the handle esp rolling my ceilingtrains tubing that is 70 some inches long, thats alot of cranks. So i bought a Boston 60:1 gearbox a cheap Grizzly 3/4 hp motor and a drum switch. I didn't have my lathes at the time or i would have done things a little different but i needed to mount the gearbox to the roller. I know the powered rolls have the gb on the other end but i didn't have a choice and since the movement of the bottom roll was limited by the cap of the machine it really didn't matter. So i mated up my Lovejoy couplings and got the motor gb mounted. I wanted to make a universal fit arrangement so i could use the gb/motor combo on some other projects. So to put it to this roll it just takes 2 bolts and its on. So move ahead 10 or 11 years i got a job in a plant that does some sheetmetal guard work and i am the new guard builder. They wrap the metal around big dia pipes which is fine for one or two parts but it gets old after weeks of them. So i told the boss i wanted to cut some metal and see if my rolls would make the job easier. He said why do you have rolls at home i said doesn't everybody So yesterday i rolled up the 16 1/2" wide 14 ga with no problems it was actually too easy. So maybe i can work out a deal rolling them at home...Bob

 

[HSS]

Nice build Bob. They say necessity is the mother of invention and you had the need. That is exactly what I do with my machines. I make things I can't find or maybe won't fit what I need to do, for my day job. I haven't made any pretty eye candy and probably couldn't if I wanted to. You did an excellent build up on those rolls. Thanks for sharing.

Pat