Or even less if you've got some of these parts lying around.
I bought new just because they're cheap anyway.
Vise grips: $6.99
Exhaust clamp: $1.38
Washer: $.45
Apologies if this is a repost of something people have seen before. I hadn't so I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
I got a bead roller awhile back, but I don't have the dies for it yet. They're taking forever to get to me, and I wanted to make my intercooler pipes. I wanted to bead the ends of them, and i found this fantastic tool on some random DSM board.
The pictures are pretty self evident, but for the slow of mind:
The upper portion is the exhaust clamp housing that sits on the outside of the tube, the washer on the lower jaw is what goes inside the tube and pushes up to make the bead. Generally I would make two passes, the second time with more pressure to make a higher bead. I'm sure if I made a third pass I could get even more out of it, but so far I'm extremely pleased with the results:
Obviously the tubing has to be thin enough that you can bead it in the first place, but for under $8 bucks I'm loving this thing.
Thanks for looking
Sky