I needed a small piece of 3.5 mm square Sterling Silver wire with sharp edges to make a cross. I didn’t want to buy it and 3.5 mm is larger than the largest hole in my square draw plate. I normally just run round wire through the square grooves on my rolling mill, but that leaves rounded edges. I melted a quantity of clean scrap and poured the largest round ingot that my mold will make. After forging it all around into a rough square shape, I annealed it and then rolled it down to about 4 mm square in the square grooves in my rolling mill. I annealed again and then set the flat rollers to 4 mm and started rolling in small increments. I made sure to roll once and then rotate the square 90 degrees so that it was rolled at the same setting in both orientations. By slowly reducing the opening and annealing, I was able to get to 3.5 mm kind of square. It was a bit trapezoidal in shape. I went back to the square grooves and, without a lot of pressure, was able to reshape the wire so that it was square and not trapezoidal. It finished at 3.45 mm square. Now to make it into a cross. Lots of fun…Rob
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Rob… Can you roll it out or cast it slightly large then sand it flat to size with your sanding disc in the drill press?..D
I use a 220 belt on a wet lapidary expansion wheel. You can also use rubber abrasive wheels and abrasive paper in different grits laid flat or on an arbor…Rob