Who's using a rolling mill?

Mecha

Mecha

Titanium Bladesmith
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
10,017
Anyone using a rolling mill regularly during their knifemaking operations?

I'm wondering how small a rolling mill can get before it's no longer useful for something like a knife billet.

I guess a jeweler's mill is too small. However, the home-made rolling mills I see on the internet don't seem much bigger, just way more beefy. Could a good jewelry mill be reinforced and powered for use with a knife billet, do you think?

If anyone has a rolling mill they don't need, I have just the place to put it. In my shop. :D
 
I have a large Jewelry rolling mill in my shop. I occasionally use it to size oddball pieces of steel. It works fine, but I don't use it for large pieces of steel.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
I have a large Jewelry rolling mill in my shop. I occasionally use it to size oddball pieces of steel. It works fine, but I don't use it for large pieces of steel.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, Bill. Maybe I can get ahold of a large one and give it a try.
 
I have several jewelry mills. Two are power driven and one is hand cranked. I keep the big one has 6" flat rollers and is chain driven by a 1Hp motor. It is at a friend's who uses it for rolling out mokume. I find that a jewelers mill is just too weak to roll out steel beyond thin stuff. Brass, copper, mokume, silver and gold all roll well with one.

The big heavy duty hydraulic rolling mills specifically made for rolling steel, and the uniquely designed McDonald mill seem to work fine on hot steel. I have never used one but am told that the McDonald mill is really good for rolling out billets. With your building skills you might want to get the plans:
https://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/mcdonald/mill.htm
 
I didn’t personally use it but Ray Rybar has one in his shop

used it for a wrought iron billet I was working on

9wM5mGw.jpg


K6VF8MX.mp4
 
I built a McDonald style rolling mill a couple of years ago. They are quite nice if you want to start with larger stock sizes and then work it down to the thickness you want for whatever blade you're going to make. I also use the side-lever to make tapers on blades. Though it seems people are about 50/50 on whether they think the side-lever is useful, I much prefer it to turning the star nut if you're trying to do a lot of reduction, you can just pull the lever back a little further for 3 passes or so and then while your piece is in the forge, go and adjust the star nut a bit.

ccb8e395665e75b657d6fef18de09ebc.jpg
 
Peter Swarz-Burt built a combination hydraulic press/rolling mill with his move to Hawaii in the last year. He seems pretty happy with the results. He's on Instagram and has an Etsy store but doesn't seem to have much of a presence on the rest of the web.
 
Thanks for the info, everyone. Seems like the biggest hurdle would be getting the rollers themselves. Perhaps having the ends of large diameter steel alloy rounds milled down into stub shafts for the bearings would be a good way.



Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I have several jewelry mills. Two are power driven and one is hand cranked. I keep the big one has 6" flat rollers and is chain driven by a 1Hp motor. It is at a friend's who uses it for rolling out mokume. I find that a jewelers mill is just too weak to roll out steel beyond thin stuff. Brass, copper, mokume, silver and gold all roll well with one.

The big heavy duty hydraulic rolling mills specifically made for rolling steel, and the uniquely designed McDonald mill seem to work fine on hot steel. I have never used one but am told that the McDonald mill is really good for rolling out billets. With your building skills you might want to get the plans:
https://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/mcdonald/mill.htm
Click to expand...


That's interesting, thanks Stacy. That design would be so nice to use. No reverse needed, just roll, pull, flip, and roll it again. Without even taking a step. :D
 
Any reasonably tough steel that is available in the needed round size should work. 4140 would probably work, but H13 surely would.
 
Bigger, heavier, more expensive to make, more expensive to ship, fewer people want them.

Any damn fool who watches FIF can buy a grinder.
Not as many can really use a rm.
 
  • Like
Reactions: weo
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top