yet another rolling mill question

[jdm61]

if you wanted to have a rolling mill built from plans, say like the McDonald mill, who would you go to to get that done?

 

[jdm61]

Nobody ever had to have anything built?

 

[12345678910]

Unless someone is making and advertising them, I think that sort of thing is usually best locally made.
Maybe self made.

Shipping would be quite high.

Ask around your local shops and get quotes with the drawings.

I think you can likely build it yourself, except maybe the lathe work if you don't have one.

Id source all the stuff first, motor, gearbox seem to be the most important.
I'd buy the materials, cut to length from suppliers
Drill and bolt it together yourself.
Outsource welding and lathe work if you need to.

Have a look at the plans, I think you can simplify some things
For instance
Instead of rollers turned down to fit bronze bushings, can you just buy large pillow block bearings
to fit full sized round stock.



There is a mastersmith, maybe Josh Smith who has a beautiful rolling mill
a fabricator built for him, but it's huge $$$ and features

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/869126-rolling-mill


Oh wait that's your thread too.

 

[jdm61]

That mill that Josh has is badass, but it was $6500 a couple of years ago. That may be too rich for me if I have to buy a power hammer and some other things and it may be too big for the space I have. My question is what kind of shop do you go to if you want to ask about having something built? I know that a machine shop could make the rollers, etc, but who would put it together? Certainly not me!!!!!

 

[Fellhoelter]

Someone with experience like whomever built Josh's is going to charge less than someone starting from the ground up.
$6500 sounds like, and is, a lot, but good luck getting her done for less if you are having someone else do the work.

I used to run the machine shop at a machinery manufacturer, shop rate will be $100+ per hour.

 

[Salem Straub]

Did you try John Marcus over at Bladesmith's Forum Boards? He was building and selling them a year or two ago.

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=17148

 

[Ed Schempp]

Matt Whitmus built Josh's mill. Matt worked on the parts for my mill. My elevation screws, nuts for the screws, my rollers, and my outboard rollers were all made at the machine shop where Matt worked at the time. Matt bought another shop and is still producing mills. They start at $5000. My. Mill is quite different and I have about $6500 in machine shop work and a month of my time....Take Care...Ed