The Run Of The Mill.
Your beautiful new rolling mill has arrived and you have just removed the protective grease with an oily rag, or WD40. What now? Well if you are into recycling scrap, you will also need a scorifier, an ingot mould (though if you don’t mind a bit of smoke, a groove in a dry log would do) and a decent sized torch.
Once you have your ingot, it can be rolled down into new sheet, or if narrow, passed through the V- grooves to create square wire. Put back through the rollers, it will convert square into rectangular. In fact if the pieces you make are generally quite small, it is very economical to stock only one or two sizes of rectangular wire to cut and roll down for all your needs.
Should you ever miscalculate and find you have cut material a little too short or a little too narrow, as in the case of bezels for instance, one gentle pass will save the day, with very little sacrifice of thickness.
But wait, that’s not all. Wires can actually be rolled down to make bezel strip, if you use the centre of the mill and close it very gradually, making three or more passes. Fine silver wires, currently available from Cookson: 1.0mm round, 1.5mm round and 2.0x1.0 rectangular, will roll down to 1.5 x 0.4, 2.0 x 0.5 and 2.2 x 0.5mm, all useful sizes, with no tedious piercing and very little filing.
What next? Well there’s roll-texturing of course, transferring the texture of metal mesh, pierced designs or something you have etched. If using hard metal templates, the rollers need to be protected with card or paper. You can also just use various papers on their own, left whole or cut into stencils, but my personal favourite for the least effort has to be texturing with fabric. Anything thin, like surgical dressings, net curtains, or the backing for embroidery will give interesting and unexpected results. Sales of remnants and jumble sales are a good source. I have also seen the first aid box raided, which is not such a good idea. Coarse sandpaper will give a frosted effect, but unless well wrapped, bits if stray grit will permanently mark your rollers.
One interesting effect is that if you texture both sides of the sheet at the same time, by wrapping your texturing material around it, the sheet will come out perfectly flat and you will have the choice of which side you prefer.
Many mills also have an extension for D-shaped wire and occasionally I pass a larger D-shaped wire through an undersized groove, to create an interesting detail for a ring shank. (Middle of secomd picture, below.)
What else? By feeding square wire into the rollers, rotating it and gradually closing the space, you can create a taper, for a draw-plate. If you start at the centre of a piece of wire and turn backwards and forwards for just a short distance, while gradually closing the rollers, you will have a hardened spring for a wire bracelet. For me the mill also creates more accurate forging than I can achieve with a hammer.
Lastly, on mine at least, you can feed some very thin (3.0mm) annealed strip, through the adjusting cogs at the top, to corrugate it.
Do you have a favourite trick? Dennis.
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Originally Posted by caroleallen
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