Who owns a rolling mill?

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
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And if any of you do, would you be willing to do some horse trading or accept cash money in exchange for rolling out some stock in the future? :D
 
It's on my list to build. I had the idea I would make a rolling attachment for the press I'm building, and I would swap the hydraulic cylinder for a pneumatic when rolling, but that turned out to be a stupid idea because there's no way I'm pulling that cylinder out on a regular basis :D
 
DevinT said:
What do you need? I have a 50 hp.

Hoss
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Hoss, I knew that you had a little tiny one......:D One thing that I want to eventually make is some san mai with "compressed" Ferry flip mosaic patterned cladding and I need to get it kitchen knife thin and the core dead straight.
 
DevinT said:
Easy enough.

Hoss
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Hoss, what would you typically use as starting thicknesses for the layers on a piece like that if you were looking for a clean finished thickness of 3/32-1/8? Also, my understanding is that with a rolling mill, most of the "stretch" that you get is in length, but how much, if any growth in width can you see?
 
Lateral distortion is extremely marginal, linear is big. Pre-distort heavy on the width before rolling.

My rolling mill is a baby compared to Devin's, 5hp (old school, large frame motor though), with 6x8 rolls, still will take 1/16 per pass below 1/2, and 1/8 above, 3 or 4 passes per heat. At 2-3" width. Definitely the most valuable machine in my shop from a productivity standpoint.


Can't even imagine what size billets Hoss' can handle, bigger than any of us would want to swing without a chainfall guiding it, I'm sure!
 
Core is 20-25% overall thickness. The Japanese like 35% but they do wide bevel grinds. (Saber grind) With full convex or convex edged knives, it looks better with ~20% or so.

Not much width growth with rolling.

Hoss
 
javand said:
Lateral distortion is extremely marginal, linear is big. Pre-distort heavy on the width before rolling.

My rolling mill is a baby compared to Devin's, 5hp (old school, large frame motor though), with 6x8 rolls, still will take 1/16 per pass below 1/2, and 1/8 above, 3 or 4 passes per heat. At 2-3" width. Definitely the most valuable machine in my shop from a productivity standpoint.


Can't even imagine what size billets Hoss' can handle, bigger than any of us would want to swing without a chainfall guiding it, I'm sure!
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I've seen pics and video of his mill and it is a bit of a beast.
 
Hoss, any chance you have photos of that monster? I would love to see what it looks like.

Javan is your rolling mill one of the home made ones or do you have a production model? If so what is the brand and model number?

-Clint
 
A bit OT. .. My experience is with two types .First the huge rolling mills of a modern steel mill .Far two much for a little knife blade.

Second the small 6" wide pasta making mills .They didn't have the strength for rolling steel . I had been given three mills , each said to be " one of the best " ! The problem was each had rollers that were not parallel and no way of making them parallel ! Pasta, thin on one side and thick on the other ?? Not me as I could do better in my sleep . Shame on them.
Today ? Nothing for steel and for pasta back to my Nonna's 2"x30" hard maple roller !! :D
 
I was standing off to the side of this in Hank Knickmeyer's shop when Dee Hedges was running this rolling mill.
I've wanted one like it since.
You need to go to about the 2:00 mark
 
That's essentially what I want to build, but use an air cylinder instead of the foot pedal and tractor link height adjuster. A cylinder should allow the ability to float at the right PSI without needing manual height adjustment each pass. Or at least that's my hope. It wouldn't take much to change it to a pedal if that doesn't work.
 
Karl, I have had the plans for that McDonald mill for a couple of years, but neither the skill set or the money to build it. I don't even know what type of craftsman I would ask to fabricate one.
Karl B. Andersen said:
I was standing off to the side of this in Hank Knickmeyer's shop when Dee Hedges was running this rolling mill.
I've wanted one like it since.
You need to go to about the 2:00 mark
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Augus7us said:
Hoss, any chance you have photos of that monster? I would love to see what it looks like.

Javan is your rolling mill one of the home made ones or do you have a production model? If so what is the brand and model number?

-Clint
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Well, mine is not home built, although it appears to have been "factory built" in the factory that used it originally for straightening plate parts cold, either by cannibalizing an existing rolling mill and cramming it into a compact package, or perhaps at one point there was a kit available from machinery dealers. The slides that hold the rolls are typical cast iron parts like pretty much every commercial mill I've seen, and the rolls are hardened, and quite large considering the footprint of this machine, but the base is obviously not original, it's from some older piece of machinery, and have had components welded to it, and of course it had all sorts of guards when I got it, as I'm sure was mandated by OSHA.

Originally it had a rack & pinion adjustment system with an indicator, and would only adjust maybe 1/8", so I had to remove that and rig up a method of tying both sides of the roll adjustment screws together, which I did with chain sprockets and a chain.

I originally thought this wasn't going to be big enough for my uses, but it's been a beast for such a tiny footprint, although it's over 1500lbs crammed into a 3x3 footprint or so.

I'll try to take a photo for you guys.


It's nothing like a McDonald style mill, and personally, they don't appeal to me from what I've seen. I can see how they'd be decent for drawing, but I use my rolling mill primarily to do "finish" drawing, which requires both rollers to be locked stationary when making passes. With an indicator, I can nail certain thicknesses, very consistently, compensating for how much scale (I've mentioned before but the rolling mills leave a brutal thick and seemingly consolidated scale behind), and a margin for error, usually making the last 2-3 passes, with the billet ending up longer than my forge, for my maximum basic billet length capacity.

My understanding of the McDonald style mills is that they typically use foot pressure with leverage, but do they lock at any thickness, or have an adjustment range to step down thickness consistently per pass?


I've personally never seen even a commercial mill that doesn't banana the work somewhat, even some really big really expensive ones, any variation of heat from one side of the billet to the other can cause it, and the thinner you go, the more likely it is. I work a lot of billets down to 0.170 or 0.200 on the rolling mill before grinding to 1/8 or below for pocket knife stock. At that point, just moving a 2-3" x 24"+ long billet from the forge to the mill will bend it. But flipping side to side per pass, you can keep it consistent, and then easily straighten by hand (hammer and anvil) or straightening dies in the press to acceptable tolerance.


Funny thing is, on mine, only the bottom roll is powered, I thought this was going to be a problem, but I know 3 or 4 other guys with machines 10x larger than mine, and having used them, I've noticed no significant difference, I don't personally see me needing to upgrade, although I'm not trying to work billets as big as Devin, and I'd definitely spend the money on another big hammer first.
 
Javan, IIRC Chuck Bybee told me that had his Whitmus mill "upgraded" with both rollers powered, but he is rolling crazy titanium stuff, so his retirements are different, I suspect.
 
jdm61 said:
Karl, I have had the plans for that McDonald mill for a couple of years, but neither the skill set or the money to build it. I don't even know what type of craftsman I would ask to fabricate one.
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You have those plans?
I'd love to do a group build some weekend with like-minded people.
The composite brain power and experience in a group could put a bunch of them together at once. And possibly save money buying quantities of materials.
Everyone would go home with a mill.
 
jdm61 said:
I have had the plans for that McDonald mill for a couple of years
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The one in the video does not have the big gears and wheels like the McDonald mill. Hank's has a gear box and seems to be direct drive. I' think I'll get hold of hank.
 
Karl, didn't Big Blu briefly make a modified version call the Blu Crusher that had a gearbox setup?
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
You have those plans?
I'd love to do a group build some weekend with like-minded people.
The composite brain power and experience in a group could put a bunch of them together at once. And possibly save money buying quantities of materials.
Everyone would go home with a mill.
Click to expand...
I bought them off of Anvilfire. If you want to strictly look at them (wink, wink) I can let you check them out.
 
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