6G Celicas Forums

So for the past couple years, i've been trying to find a way to bead the ends of intercooler piping.
There are several available beaders that do an excellent job at it, but as little as I would use it, it wouldnt be worth buying one, (they are a couple hundred $$ minimum) so i've been looking around trying to find a good home method.

some guys like to weld a bead on the ends, which i dont like to do, its messy, and not very consistant.
so i kept looking around, and came across this site on the net that showed a guy who had made a beader out of a set of vice grips, an exahsut clamp, and a washer. it looked like it worked, but at the time, i didnt need it, so i didnt make one.
fast forward to now, and i wanted to bead the ends of jims intercooler piping.
i remembered that site, and went to look it up, but its no longer there.
so, i went ahead, and built one from what i remembered.

basicly, you get a set of 10" vice grips (i used a cheapo set from harbor frieght, they were under 4$), an ehxaust clamp for whatever size pipe your beading, (jims is 3", so i got a 3" clamp) and a nice heavy duty washer ( i used one that i had in my "bucket o bolts")

weld it up like this:







you insert it into the pipe, and squeeze it like this:



and you end up with this:





and there you go, bead your pipes for under 10$!!

that is badass... nice idea

Nice... wish I did that with my Rx7. I just welded beads the entire way around...it looks sloppy has hell but I guess you never see them.

yea, i've tried that in the past, and didnt like it exactly for the reason you discribe.

nice manny! blown IC piping FTMFL!! will be doing this! (if i can get hold to a welding machine )

dont buy it in those as seen on tv stores this time... lol

Manny how about a brake flare tool now...

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/custom-fab...-bead-tool.html

That the one?

Awesome homemade tool, very creative!

thats exactly what i did for when i beaded my intercooler piping. I ended up finding that idea from a random nissan forum.

Did you grind down the washer so the edges are more of a circle shape than edged?

ahh thats the one! for some reason the link i have dont work. lol

i didnt do anything to the washer, it was part of a double washer thingy, so i just cut off what i needed.

nice! might even do a better job on aluminium pipes

it definetly will be much easier to use and do a better job on aluminum.

Worked out pretty well on my intercooler piping

This post has been edited by Stambo: Dec 1, 2010 - 11:46 AM

yea, that looks MINT dude!
cant beat it for the price!
i definetly need to get and learn how to use a tig welder.
mig works, but tig is just sooo much cleaner.

lol get one b4 january so you can do my piping!

then you can make a business on this stuff

glad to see ideas like this are still kicking around on this forum...sniff...growing up...

also, @stambo-honored to be quoted in your sig. One of the most fun I ever had in a thread lol.

lmao.
you pay for it..it'll only be ~2k.

haha ya i know, mad money for it. but if you really think about it you could make some good money in the long run if you made a mini business out of it. it would take time to get the tig welder cuz like you said they arent cheap lol