I bought some aluminum pipe that came with the ends bead rolled, big help btw.

Well, if you have to cut an end off, and don't have easy access to a bead roller or tig welder, you can use this easy trick.



As you can see the right side has the factory rolled bead, and the bottom is where I cut it.

I had seen this done years ago, but my cousin reminded me about it just the other day. A cheap harbor freight bead roller is still like $99 dollars, and most decent tig welders will charge ~$50/hr so this comes in as a very inexpensive solution.

I bought a set of vice grips @ harbor fright for $2.99
A 3" muffler clamp (sized per your piping dimensions) @ Auto Zone/Advanced for $2.99
Old washer laying around $Free



I first off I cleaned and prepped the vice grips to weld the muffler clamp to one of the jaw sides. I then tried to use the U bolt as a press on the bottom side of the other jaw, however, it proved to be to much to press into and I had to cut it down and weld on a washer. Which is the way I saw everyone else do it online, and now I see why, lol.

Finished product below.



My bead is on the right, with the factory bead on the left.

Entire project took me 20 mins maybe.

Overall, for a total cost of $6.00 bucks and similar results to a "real" beadroller, I am very satisfied.

 

nice work

 

cool trick, but this probably would only work for thinner walled aluminum.

 

Agreed.

 

Very nice. I'll have to try this sometime.

 

 

Wait, I don't see or understand what you actually did here...can you break it down for me? I've never seen this before but I could definitely benefit from it.

Thx!

 

wish i would have known this before i put all my chargepipes together and my bumper back on.... nice job

 

What don't you understand?