d.i.y. FENDER Roller

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8ball

8ball

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I've been reading hondataeg6's thread on a tube roller. Great info there. So as not that hijack that thread*... has anyone made a homemade FENDER roller? Or know where I can get a factory or one-off machine? In accounts I've read online, a Harbor Freight english wheel was both recommended & debunked by bloggers.

Here's a pic of vintage fender roller off Web...

fenderroller.jpg


* I did a RRB search w/o results yet if this topic has been discussed previously I would appreciate the link. Thanks
 
A fender roller is on my to do list. But its down near the bottom.....

I've seen a thread on another bike forum where a guy was making them new, but I cant tell if that ever happend.
 
8ball said:
I've been reading hondataeg6's thread on a tube roller. Great info there. So as not that hijack that thread*... has anyone made a homemade FENDER roller? Or know where I can get a factory or one-off machine? In accounts I've read online, a Harbor Freight english wheel was both recommended & debunked by bloggers.

Here's a pic of vintage fender roller off Web...

fenderroller.jpg


* I did a RRB search w/o results yet if this topic has been discussed previously I would appreciate the link. Thanks
Click to expand...

This doesnt look hard to duplicate, the only thing that can be tricky is the roller dies
 
Walker said:
A fender roller is on my to do list. But its down near the bottom.....
Click to expand...
I felt the same until I saw some fat tire fenders, original paint with perfect patina, rolled nice as new. It really looked miles better than with the dents and creases associated with getting that patina.
 
I should look through some of the catalogs at work, there are probably rollers like that already made. The lower wheel could even be like a 6" diameter pulley with the flanges milled off and a knurling tool applied.

Its a simple mechanism. In order to make them affordably it would be necessary to make quite a few. What is the value of preserving original fenders? And how much is one of these really worth? $100.00 $200.00 more??
 
I think the ones that were being made by a guy in Cali were selling for around $300.
I use my english wheel with pretty good results. I had to make a couple of different sized dies to get it to work though.
 
There has been a couple on ebay in the last year, both brought around $300. each. expensive, but no different then any other 1 of a kind tool for auto or other repairs.
 
After I saw those aged fenders made smooth again, I was researching fender roller a lot online. That's when I came across the vintage photo* and the $250-300 range on eBay (Completed Listing) was what I found too. As mentioned (2manybikes), apparently there was a guy producing them, but blogs can't find him as far as my reading went. Also found this D.I.Y. ** in looking...

fenderrollerdiy.jpg


There seems to be two camps: steel wheel and bearing *** rollers.

* another pic here: http://www.50sville.com/tools.htm

http://www.schwinnbike.com/twn/eng/foru ... hp?t=78656 (** images lost)
*** http://www.roddingroundtable.com/tech/a ... wheel.html
 
The article about the guy making the fender roller was on the CABE several months ago
 
I know this is an old thread but has anyone gotten any farther building their own roller? Thinking of how to do it and looking for anyone else who has tried. I do own an English wheel but the dies are not appropriate for the thin fender shapes.
 
I'd like to have one but till money randomly falls out of the sky I'll stick to my bench vise anvil and a ball peen hammer to slowly massage out dents. I just work around the perimeter of the dent and slowly work my way around and around to the center till the dent disappears.
 
This isn't going to help much straightening old fenders, but I make new ones by bending tubes ans splitting them down the middle.
 
onex29er said:
This isn't going to help much straightening old fenders, but I make new ones by bending tubes ans splitting them down the middle.
Click to expand...
Been thinking about this myself, can you post a pic to show how they come out?

Luke.
 
Maybe I'm a huge ball of turdz, but I'm completely happy with Wald 962s. That being said, I really do wanna make my own fenders... I kinda wish I could build every component. I'm thinking we, as a community, can come up with a cheapish DIY fender roller. I'll put my boy Harry on it, although he seems to think an English Wheel would do the trick.
-Rob
 
The harbor freight tubing roller comes with 3 dies, 1", 1 1/2" and 2"
As a source for material for this discussion shapiro metal supply in st louis mi has 4130 tubing in those dimensions.. 1 1/2" can be had in. 035 thickness, unfortunately 2" is only 083
The roller in the pics above is not hard to duplicate, though i have never tried to roll a bicycle fender in such a machine. I would think the more traditional way would be using a stretcher/shrinker for the side and than an english wheel to smoothen iit out and create the radius.

The disadvantage of the tubing roller is you loose 1/2 the material you bought, and you have to cut the tubing after the bending.... And if you want that nice bead roll finish, you need a bead roller and 1/8" rod...

There is no "bicycle fenders for dummies" aproach :mrgreen: it does still take some technique to do... Though very approachable for anyone with some basic skills, basic tools and ambition.
 
I ended up buying one. Here's pictures. Mine's #128 (no other markings except MADE IN USA!).
Friend who has similar had second wheel made without knurls since they will leave marks on chrome fenders.

These do work great.

roller1.jpg

roller2.jpg
 

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