I've had this bead roller for three years and I think I've rolled about four beads in it. It works, but it's what you get for $150 or whatever: an entry level thing. Cruising around YouTube over the past few weeks I've learned a bit about what these machines are capable of doing when in capable hands. Aside from Schelin and some others I've come across this guy—Jere Kirkpatrick. Apparently his claim to fame is having worked with Shelby on the first batch of Cobras.
He's not the only one who shows how to mod a cheap Harbor Freight or Woodward Fab bead roller into a pro machine, but he seems to be the most thoughtful.
So with Jere as a guide I (of course) rifled through my scrap metal pile and started in to fortifying my little bead roller.
Here's a three-foot piece of 3/8 x 2 mild steel bar. I cut it in half...
Then notched them near the ends to allow me to make the 45-degree bends:
Laid out:
I traced them...
Ground away the powder coat or whatever.
While I was at it I slotted the top shaft hole to give adjustability there
Tomorrow I'll fire up ol' sparky and see about burning some wire. 
One of the things I found that I think might end up being better than Jere's system is a power winch I took off a boat trailer I bought over a decade ago. I swear I've tried to give it away at least twice. Now I think it'll be perfect for motorizing this shop accoutrement: It's got loads of torque and a hella reduction gearbox built in. All I need is a 12 a/c to 12 DC inverter and a foot pedal controller, plus a way to attach it where the crank handle is now. But that's for later.
In between taking apart the bead roller to mod it, and working on a jewelry box I'm making for my wife for our 10th wedding anniversary, I took the seamers and a hammer to the actual Spyder part and started rolling down that inside edge.
In thinking very slowly about how to make this I decided that the inside edge has to be first, in order to tuck the tail in behind the rear flange.
The bottom of that skirt will be rolled up and under later. This little exercise took me about 15 minutes and, even using crude tools, it looks pretty clean.
—which gives me the idea that maybe I don't need to make a tipping die to do the other bends; maybe I should try my luck with the seamer, flanger and hammers, particularly since I'm going to have to fix the wrinkles with the dolly and hammer anyway.
But I'm in no hurry.
