Life As a Hobby Jeweller

My Durston Rolling mill was one of the first major tools I bought when I started making jewellery as a hobby. All I had for a work space was a small desk in a corner of the living room and nowhere to set up the mill.

My solution, though not thought ideal at the time, was to mount it on a stout piece of kitchen work top, with handles to lift it by and six rubber feet to avoid scratching the furniture.

When in use it was transferred to my work station, but its home was on the side board, in place of an ornament or a sculpture.

This meant of course that it had to be used quite gently to remain stable—not a bad thing to learn when wanting an even result with sheet and wire.

Among its uses, have been rolling thick remnants of sheet into usable pieces, rolling subby remnants of wire into useful lengths by using the V-grooves and best of all the making of roll textures.

Surprisingly after several house moves and now a separate room to work in, I still keep the portable version as a space saving feature.

Below: The mill and two roll textured pieces. Dennis

Good heavens Dennis do you eat a lot of spinach! My Durston would need my OH and even he’d be puffing. Mine was bolted to the bench but I did in the end buy a cabinet/ stand which sits nicely in a corner and gives me a locking cupboard which made such a difference in my tiny workshop. It was my second big spend, my first being a Dustmaster polisher. It’s now huge compared to the models available now but a great bit of machinery.
That’s a beautifully set stone, a lovely statement piece to wear

Dennis, you have had that mill for a while, I have been doing quite an amount of research on rolling mills in the last couple of months, I am building myself one ( and a couple of mates) based on that older design, mine will not be as pretty
and will have, electric drive, (shoulder issues), I will post a pic when it is up and running, it will a substantial piece of gear the rollers weigh alone weigh 15 kg.

Mine is mounted on an oak and steel plate which hooks over my drawer unit as I didn't want to ruin the top.
Love that ring Dennis, beautiful texture.

Thank you Caroline, Bob and Sara. Mounted like mine, it is not possible to use much force, as it would tip up. So I have learned to close it down slowly, even passing metal through it twice, to let the springs do their stuff. Of course a motorised drive would be ideal. Oh, and the texture on the ring is from hand made paper. Dennis.

Hi Dennis, I mentioned to my wife that you have a room in your house that you use for working in. She gave me a steely gaze and said one word "NO". She got in a preemptive strike. I just use a hammer, I don't have the sophistication of a mill 😀

Lovely ring and texture.

Thank you Alastair. That's a new one. Call it room envy. What I didn't let on, is that I put in kitchen work tops and cupboards from Magnet all round. I got one side and my wife got the other, so there was nothing to argue about.
On the plus side, I can shut the door on my mess. On the down side its hard to stop, so I go on til late. Dennis.