Hi Christine, I have had the smallest Durston rolling mill with reduction gears for about fourteen years, and have tried to look after it by wiping it down with a clean cloth and a trace of lubricant after use and keeping it covered. Even so it now has a few small pits on the rollers. The big enemy is moisture from annealing and small specks of grit.
The Cook Book says you can pass 6mm of sheet through the smallest of these mills, but that could be quite tedious with pauses for annealing. Also the repeated annealing is likely to build up firescale on sterling. The thickest I have rolled down was 4mm. I try not to close the rollers too much at one time as this results in wavy or curved metal which is difficult to manage. I aim to turn the mill with just one hand. If you take too big a bite you can in fact get completely stuck and need a stronger person to rescue you.
There will also be hours of fun experimenting with the grooves for wire.
Hope this starts you off, Dennis.
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