MAKING A WHEELING MACHINE OR 'ENGLISH WHEEL'

摘要

In case any reader is not familiar with these machines (photo 1) they can be used to produce compound curves in sheet metal and also to smooth out hammer marks. In operation, the metal is pushed manually between two rolls which exert pressure. We have now moved on to 2011 and retirement. I am once again delving into things automotive and recently built a bead roller, which, it might be argued, really does need to be complemented by a wheeling machine, this time more of a hobby size and weighing very much less. Checking back through the M£l//archive, I did find that a fabricated wheeling machine had been described by Christopher Fisk in MEWte. Browsing on the internet threw up several companies supplying such machines and one in the UK which will supply just the sets of wheels for fitting to a DIY fabricated frame. Unfortunately by the time I found their website (ref 1) I had already made the upper wheel by sandwiching together a couple of one inch thick steel slices. On their website, Justin Baker give the dimensions of a number of their lower anvil wheels and this has helped point me in the right direction. The cross section of each wheel has a cylindrical central band, flanked at each side by an arc, tangential to the centre part. I have not been able to get data on the level of loading expected between the wheels so there was a bit of guesswork on the bearings and on the frame dimensions.