Rolling mill build

Jim McGuinn

Jim McGuinn

Joined
Sep 8, 2013
Messages
385
I am far enough along to show some photos of my progress.

First I 'll give you a rundown of what I am working on.

This is a rolling mill of my own design but with ideas borrowed from others I have seen.

First off I am 6'3" tall so the working heigth is about 45 inches. This lets me take a built out of the forge and straight to the mill with out having to bend over.

For safety it will feed out towards the user like the McDonald mill and will have the peddle to raise and lower the lower roller, but probably not the levier adjustment.
There will be a screw jack to adjust the lower roller as well.

Both rollers will be powered.

The rollers are 4" in diameter and 8" wide solid chrome molly steel.

It is powered by a 2 HP 1725 RPM motor into a 60:1 gear reducer and then further reduced by 2.5:1 which will give me between 11 and 12 feet per minute speed at the rollers.

Any questions or comments are welcome


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Ok Guys I didn't get much more done on it last week. Because I had sold a grinder and had to get it going, and getting ready for the
"introduction to Knife making" get together we had here this last week end.
But I promise to make some headway in the next two weeks. Johnny Stout wants me to bring it down to his place on the 26th to show off at a little get together he his having. And I am going to do everything I can to make it.

I had to build some riser blocks to raise the gear reduction unit up 1-1/2" so it would mate with the motor. Keyways have to be cut in the roller shafts and the lower shaft holding the gear. The gears have to be broached for a keyway and drilled for set screws. I will have to have the broaches cut at machine shop because I don't have a 1/4" broach.

Today I am going ahead and biting the bullet and ordering the acme thread and nut for the jack screw.

Anybody got any questions or suggestions lets hear them.

Jim BTW I should be a Gold member soon, just waiting on Sparkie.
 
I would be interested in what your final build cost ends up being. This looks like a really cool project, taking notes incase I ever get serious enough in my smithing to make one.
 
Total cost is going to be about $1,250.00 this is with me doing most all of the welding and machining. I didn't have a 1/4" broach to cut the keyways in the two gears this cost $15.00. The rollers were made out of used hydraulic cylinders that I got for free. And I found the 60:1 gear box off eBay for $80.00 inc.freight. one of the biggest experience ($145.00 each) were the gears they could probably be smaller.
If I decide to produce this mill for sale I would have to charge at least $2,500.00 and I don't know if anyone would pay this much.
 
Will I finally found the acme threaded rod UPS delivered it two doors down. Even though it had my name and address on it the people had put it in there garage. ?...

But all is well, i had to cut some welds open and reweld them do to things not lining up.

I have the peddle assembly figured out and much of it welded up. Next will be to build the top bracket where the acme thread attaches to the bottom of the lower roller assembly.

Then I will strip it all apart for painting.

I ordered a 220 volt switch from amazon, but haven't figured out where to mount it.

I'll try to get some more photos posted soon.

Thanks for watching.
 
I got a lot done today, and it is really taking shape. Down to only a few more welds. Only problem for some reason my mig welder started acting up. Crappy welds even worse than my normally crappy welds and it keeps popping the house breaker. Checked around on the Web and found several possible causes. I'll check it out tomorrow
 
It works!!!

I'm taking it down to Johnny Stouts this weekend and were going to give it a work out.
I'll get some photos and a report of how it goes.
 
Johnny Stout had a group of knife makers gather at his shop Saturday about 10 to15 were there and we put the RM through the paces. It has plenty of power and as I had hoped the steel did not curl up when comming out of the rollers. It did have a problem curling the metal sidewaysdue to the metal plate the lower roller mounts to will twist when the steel is not in the center of the roller. This should be a simple fix..
we took a 1/4" x by 8" bar and rolled it out to1/8" X 16-1/2". More later.
 
Getting back to the rolling mill. Its been a busy couple of months . But I am taking time to finish up the mill. This week I have made the needed refinements. I have strengthened the lower plate that the lower roller sits on so it won't twist when steel is not in center of rollers. I have beefed up the peddle so it won't bend. I have added a second diagnell support bar . I am adding two pillow blocks for the peddle assembly. Still need to add the peddle stop to keep the peddle from coming up to high. And springs to raids the peddle . I have started painting the pieces.
By next week I hope to have it all completed so we can use it at Johnny Stouts hammer in first week end in February.
 
Great build. Looking forward to some finished pics and to hear how it does in action.

Gotta make one of these.
 
Will the mill is all back together. I haven't ran any hot steel through it yet but it appears to be working fine. On the first trial run the plate that the lower rollers set on wasn't strong enough and would twist causing a miss alignment of the rollers.
I welded a reinforcing plate and some webbing. This problem appears to have been fixed.
I will be taking it down to Johnny Stouts hammer in this coming weekend where we will give it a good work out.
 
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