Looking for a swager? Also known as a swaging machine, jenny, bead roller or rotary swager, a swager beads, wires, crimps and forms edges into sheet metal — work that's central to HVAC ducting, automotive bodywork and general fabrication. This guide covers how swagers work, which rolls do what, and which model in the W. Neal Services range fits your shop — from bench hand swagers to motorised power and battery machines.
What is a Swager (Swaging Machine)?
A swager is a machine with a pair of rotating rolls (wheels) mounted on parallel shafts. Sheet metal is fed between the rolls, and as they turn, the profile machined into the rolls is pressed into the sheet — forming a bead, wire, crimp or other edge without heat or a press tool.
Because the rolls simply bolt onto the machine's shafts, one swager can perform dozens of jobs by swapping roll sets: swaging/beading for stiffening rims, wiring for turning a wire into a rolled edge, jennying/flanging for forming a lip, crimping for reducing a tube end so it slides inside the next section, and necking for tapering a tube. Hand swagers are turned by a crank; power swagers add a motor and foot pedal for faster, hands-free runs.
How to swage bead/wired edge
Whether hand-cranked or power-driven, the sequence for forming a beaded or wired edge on a rolled cylinder is the same.
WNS 20mm swager rolls fit our PS215 & HS215 machines and are also compatible with CMZ5, CMZ6 & CMZ6R swagers. WNS 30mm rolls fit our PS280 and are compatible with CMZ7, CMZ7R, CMZ8, CMZ8R & CMZ9R. If you already own a CMZ machine, our roll sets are a drop-in replacement — no need to buy a whole new machine.
Swager, jenny, bead roller or rotary swager — what's the difference?
These are almost always the same type of machine, described differently depending on trade and generation. Swager and swaging machine are the general terms; jenny or bead roller tends to describe the same rotary-roll machine used for beading car body panels; rotary swager and universal swager emphasise that one machine handles many roll profiles.
A tube reducing or pipe swager job uses crimping/necking rolls to taper a tube end for a mechanical splice into the next section — common on ducting, exhaust and chimney flue pipe. Whatever you call it, a search for a hand swager tool, a bench swager or a HVAC swager is almost always after the same machine.
The history of swagers
Rotary swaging machines have formed beaded, wired and crimped edges into sheet metal for well over a century, evolving from bare hand-cranked shafts into geared, motorised and now battery-powered machines — while the basic pair of profiled rolls has barely changed.
What the old manufacturers' literature said
The W. Neal Services swager range
From compact bench hand swagers to motorised power and cordless battery machines, our range covers every throat size and duty cycle. Each machine type below links straight into our live stock.
New swagers
Used & reconditioned examples
A used or reconditioned swager can be the smart buy for occasional work or a second machine on a budget. We regularly take in quality used swagers — including CMZ and EDWARDS models — inspect and recondition them, and pass them on with UK support. Examples below have sold, but similar machines come through stock regularly.
View used & reconditioned stock →
Applications & industries
Spare rolls, service & machinery wanted
A swager earns its keep for decades with the right roll sets on hand. We manufacture and stock swager roll sets for our own machines and CMZ4–CMZ9R compatibles, service and repair most makes of swager, and buy quality used machinery outright.
