I built this small ring bender this weekend. It doesn’t have a crank so 3/16th rod is about the biggest material that can be fed through it by hand. It’s really made for bending rod that is part of a large rolling ball sculpture while the rod is already attached to the sculpture on one end.
The thumb screw was hard to turn so I ended up grinding the end of it down to a point. That results in much less friction than the off-the-shelf flag end rubbing as the screw is turned. A bigger thumb screw would be needed if thicker material was used in this. I also think that fine threads might be a better choice for the thumb screw to make it easier to turn.
Hi Dave, hope you’re still around… Your simple compact ring roller caught my attention and I would like to make one like yours… Would you have more pictures that shows more angles, including the back?… Or would you have plans for making this?… Regards… Dana…
I don’t have any other pictures but it’s sitting around my garage somewhere. I’ll see what I can do.
I never made plans. I just cut it out by eye, and maybe draw a few lines on the metal to ensure that my cuts were parallel.
Oh, and this thing didn’t work too well because there are no grooves in the bearings. The metal rod slides against the washers and causes a little bit of unwanted friction. It was a good try, but there are certainly improvements that could be made.