Antique rolling mill

I recently got a beautiful antique rolling mill from the late 1800’s
and want to use it because I don’t have another rolling mill. It has
two top adjustments instead of one. What is the best way to keep
adjustment correct? Maybe feeler gauges? Thanks for responses.

Catherine Thomas-Kemp

Hi Catherine,

Could you send a picture to me of it, please? I love antique tools,
I’ve modified old tools for modern use, and recycled the other
antiques that are pretty much dead.

The Durstons we have at TAFE, have the single vertical adjustment,
this attaches to two geared side adjustments. You can remove the
vertical adjustment and adjust each side individually.

To make sure these are aligned, we squat down and look through the
rollers, and see that the rollers meet flush. If they don’t we
adjust each side until the rollers are parallel.

What I suspect is that your rolling mill, just has the two side
adjustments. The same method of truing up the rollers that I
mentioned could possible be used for this antique.

It would then be up to you to adjust each side manually equally to
get a flat roll. You could get some stickers to give you a guide if
you wanted.

Regards Charles A.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I have 2 rolling mills and
one of them you have to adjust both sides without reference marks. I
set it initially by using hardened engineers spacer gauges and now
adjust each wheel by the same amount and check with a feeler gauge if
appropriate. You can roll a couple of pieces of lead at each end and
measure their thickness. Lead has very little “set” so is good for
this test.

Nick Royall