Rolling Mill, power to both wheels.

[JTknives]

I am designing a rolling mill i want to make and have come up with a way to power both rolling rollers. all the ones i have seen have just the top one driven and the bottom one turns freely. i would Imagen that driving both wheels would allow more grip in pulling the material through them. any thoughts?

 

[12345678910]

I agree, but you will have to have them matched in speed, one roller in opposite direction from the other, and not affected by the mechanism that adjust the stock thickness.
(for me that means the pivot point of the opening mechanism should also be the shaft centres too???)

Roller chain is one option, but runs into all the trouble mentioned above. It takes extra drive sprockets to change direction

Hydraulic motors make the most sense to skip some engineering grief. it should be easy to put a relief valve to stall out, so you don't over stress


I seriously covet Josh Smith's mill


It uses rollerchain powered by hydraulics to drive both rollers.
I don't have the drive gearing fully sussed out and need a few more pics of that left side to fully grasp it all.

http://www.joshsmithknives.com/wordpress/

 

[JTknives]

Ya the pivot for the bottom roller arm will be a drive shaft. On one side on the mill the top roller and the pivot shaft will be geared togather with gears the same size. Then the pivot shat will have a large gear on the other side for the standard drive set up. The bottom roller will be driven from inside the mill frame with a chain going to the pivot shaft. I will do up a drawing later do show you what I mean. It should work good and provide a lot of pulling forge.