- Joined
- Nov 7, 2019
- Messages
- 481
Been spending even more time "refining" this cheap import tool so figured I might as well make a thread to keep my thoughts in order.
Bought this "bench english wheel" for ~150 usd back in 2020, well aware that it might be a crap tool.
Basically a no-name copy of what Eastwood sells, and of course worse in every way.
Having no previous experience it took me a lot of time to even understand it's flaws and how to work with it.
Eventually realized it could only do aluminium sheet and preferably thinner than 1mm, even then you'd have to use the high radius/sharp wheels to actually make progress.
Using the 'flatter' wheels would simply spread the load too much and just flex the frame instead of working the sheet metal.
Main problem here is that I work with steel 95% of the time ...
Quite a long time after, probably this year, I used a bunch of scrap I-beam to reinforce the frame.
I really like the size of the tool but unusable without reinforcing the frame.
The wheel is also detachable now, I'll get back to that.
With just the red beams welded on it can now work 0.9mm steel decently and 1.25mm if only using the sharper wheels(requires a delicate touch to not make ditches).
So the reason the wheel is detachable is that I wanted to try and use the same frame as a planishing hammer as well.
This didn't work out, either the frame is too weak or the hammer is, not sure which and decided to not dig into it.
Either way it has served me quite well in this condition and managed to shape quite a lot of metal with it.
Considering the relatively low investment I'd probably do it all over again and just weld the extra beams onto it.
It's still quite annoying to shape 1.25mm steel and I wish I could use the flatter wheels better..
So, quite recently, I had it up in the vice and was holding some scrap tubing and figured I might as well put it to use.
So mitered these out and lots of welding later...
I figure this should add a lot of stiffness compared, quite a significant triangulation out to the actually strong steel.
Also gusseted the upper wheel holder for unknown reasons, can't hurt I guess.
So next problem on the list is the lower wheel assembly, it's extremely sloppy ...
So sloppy in fact that it tends to "self-steer" and make things bind up until you grab a plier and correct the wheel, over and over again..
This is wear over time, probably helped by it now doing much heavier work than it was ever intended for.
So here's the next "fix", an interesting project in itself(for an amateur like me at least).
I didn't have any suitable stock at home for this so the inner "square bar" is made from two thick plates welded together and squared up in the mill.
The "tube" is more plate that I squared up and polished the "inside" off before welding it together, clamped on the square bar with a 0.1mm shim.
Afterwards I can say that 0.1mm shim was optimistic, I think 0.2 or more would've worked better.
It works but it's pretty much a weak press fit, it cannot be pushed by hand.
The inner square is bored out and has a nut welded onto the bottom.
The bottom plate of the tube then holds a M16 threaded bar which gets held in place with some nuts and axial bearings.
The big chunk of aluminium then gets threaded onto that and locked in place with the 3 bolts which will be replaced with proper handles later.
Next step will be to run this back and forth a bunch with some compound to smooth out the movement a tad, then try to replace the lower bits of the english wheel frame ...
Bought this "bench english wheel" for ~150 usd back in 2020, well aware that it might be a crap tool.
Basically a no-name copy of what Eastwood sells, and of course worse in every way.
Having no previous experience it took me a lot of time to even understand it's flaws and how to work with it.
Eventually realized it could only do aluminium sheet and preferably thinner than 1mm, even then you'd have to use the high radius/sharp wheels to actually make progress.
Using the 'flatter' wheels would simply spread the load too much and just flex the frame instead of working the sheet metal.
Main problem here is that I work with steel 95% of the time ...
Quite a long time after, probably this year, I used a bunch of scrap I-beam to reinforce the frame.
I really like the size of the tool but unusable without reinforcing the frame.
The wheel is also detachable now, I'll get back to that.
With just the red beams welded on it can now work 0.9mm steel decently and 1.25mm if only using the sharper wheels(requires a delicate touch to not make ditches).
So the reason the wheel is detachable is that I wanted to try and use the same frame as a planishing hammer as well.
This didn't work out, either the frame is too weak or the hammer is, not sure which and decided to not dig into it.
Either way it has served me quite well in this condition and managed to shape quite a lot of metal with it.
Considering the relatively low investment I'd probably do it all over again and just weld the extra beams onto it.
It's still quite annoying to shape 1.25mm steel and I wish I could use the flatter wheels better..
So, quite recently, I had it up in the vice and was holding some scrap tubing and figured I might as well put it to use.
So mitered these out and lots of welding later...
I figure this should add a lot of stiffness compared, quite a significant triangulation out to the actually strong steel.
Also gusseted the upper wheel holder for unknown reasons, can't hurt I guess.
So next problem on the list is the lower wheel assembly, it's extremely sloppy ...
So sloppy in fact that it tends to "self-steer" and make things bind up until you grab a plier and correct the wheel, over and over again..
This is wear over time, probably helped by it now doing much heavier work than it was ever intended for.
So here's the next "fix", an interesting project in itself(for an amateur like me at least).
I didn't have any suitable stock at home for this so the inner "square bar" is made from two thick plates welded together and squared up in the mill.
The "tube" is more plate that I squared up and polished the "inside" off before welding it together, clamped on the square bar with a 0.1mm shim.
Afterwards I can say that 0.1mm shim was optimistic, I think 0.2 or more would've worked better.
It works but it's pretty much a weak press fit, it cannot be pushed by hand.
The inner square is bored out and has a nut welded onto the bottom.
The bottom plate of the tube then holds a M16 threaded bar which gets held in place with some nuts and axial bearings.
The big chunk of aluminium then gets threaded onto that and locked in place with the 3 bolts which will be replaced with proper handles later.
Next step will be to run this back and forth a bunch with some compound to smooth out the movement a tad, then try to replace the lower bits of the english wheel frame ...
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I wouldn’t be surprised if they are all made in the same factory in China with different paint jobs. I’m all for modifying Chinese kits as my garage is full of them. I was going to buy the HF EW but they had dropped the anvils so I passed which worked out. A full size EW came up for $500 and all it needed was the wheel and anvils polished. I’m very surprised the OP has had to mod the frame as while not the strongest the kit Wray Shelin sells does fine without doing that to the frame and it seems to work fine. But I’m not an expert and never used the HF EW. A used HF planisher also turned up and except for making a special die for it it has worked great for me. I’m doing mostly 18ga and 20ga steel.