I would like to replace the existing rollers on the Vigor rolling mill with flat rollers. The existing rollers are a combo of flat and wire. Additionally, wire patterns on the rollers seem to be offset from each other, giving me more reason to consider replacing. We got this electric rolling mill for a song, at this point the effort is worthwhile.
Eve Huggins
I’ve tried to find this mill on the internet, but I’m not finding it anywhere. Sourcing different rollers could be difficult.
If you bought it from a jewelry tool company, have you reached out to them for advice to see if replacing the rollers is possible?
Jeff
Similar to Jeff’s point, you might reach out to Rio and seen if they have any ideas. I wonder if the shaft is the same as durston mills.
We bought it from a leprechaun, well at least he reminds me of leprechauns. In other words - not a dealer or jewelry tool supply company. The shaft size is odd and because Vigor is a Spanish manufacturer it is likely metric. Rio is a good suggestion, they have a lot of knowledgeable people.
If there are other suggestions keep them coming
I reached out Steve Frei, owner of Otto Frei Jewelry Tools to ask about your question. Otto Frei has been in business for about 100 years. Steve is the closest person that I know to a jewelry tool historian. He seems to know the history of most every jewelry tool that has come to the market in the last 75ish years and many that almost came to the market.
One of the things that I was curious is about what happened with Vigor tools? They used to be huge.
Here’s what Steve said.
"Vigor RM-1000 power rolling mill is made by someone else other than Vigor. Could be a Cavallin, could be a Spanish made mill. Both companies are out of business, although the Cavallin name may still be in use somewhere in Italy. Her mill dates from the late 70’s early 80’s most likely.
If I saw a picture of it I could tell you.
She won’t be able to buy new rollers.
If the surface of the rolls is bad and that’s why she wants to replace them, then take them to a machine shop and have them re-ground and re-finished. Simple job but she would have to hunt around for a place to do it. I have no suggestions for where to take them. You can call out the hardness and the finish. Might cost $500.00 but who knows. Get out some wrenches and take it apart.
Vigor was the main brand name of the B. Jadow & Sons company, once the largest distributor of watch material, tools and supplies to the jewelry industry. They made a fortune inventing and distributing Super Glue. They use the Vigort brand name a lot on products they had made for them. They suddenly fell on bad times having made a series of bad bets and bad management. Sold to their main competitor, Grobet-Dixon, now called Grobet USA, in the early 90’s.
They sold off the watch material end of the business and then stopped using the Vigor brand name for most items. There are still some Vigor branded products, mostly glue!"
Steve confirmed what I wrote before, that replacing the rollers with different ones will be difficult to impossible. Probably your only option to replace the rollers is to find a comparable mill the same size.
Rolling mills are very complicated to make as they are made of thick tool steel that is hardened on the outside, but annealed on the inside. This kind of acts like a shock absorber to keep the mills from cracking when under pressure. Heat treating them requires specialized equipment. I say that because it’s not like you can get an average machinist to make one for you. Also, it’s important to remember that when you refinish rollers by a machinist because of rust or something you can only take down so much before you cut past the hardened steel into the soft, annealed steel.
You said your mill is a Vigor Spanish mill. I’m not sure if that is similar to a Cavallin mill? I’ve got a Cavallin mill from the 1980’s that I took apart once and got the rollers refinished. Here’s instructions how to take apart a hand-crank Cavallin mill. It’s pretty easy. Maybe that will help you?
LIke Steve said, feel free to post some pictures of your mill. Maybe that will help us help you?
Unrelated to this problem. Steve said that Vigor invented Super Glue. Crazy!!
Jeff
Steve should be on a TV show!
Some years ago I bought a used old direct drive (no gearing) rolling mill which had some corrosion on it, so I traveled down the road of what to do. I looked into having the rollers reground and, incredibly, there was a machine shop out in the country near Maryville, TN which would have done it at about $100-$150 for the pair of rollers IIRC. Of course, that was a number of years ago, so IDK what it might cost now. Also, please note that regrinding can be easily done, with the right tool, on the plain rollers, but I don’t think you can get the wire rollers redone the same way, if at all. What I did was to use sandpaper to repolish the rollers, and I think there are some comments on here about that, but I haven’t looked for the thread…repolishing is accomplished by starting with a fine grit sandpaper to see if that will work with a reasonable amount of effort and time, and then moving to something coarser if needed. One can also polish the rollers with a steel polish…probably bobbing compound on a cloth would work.
The easiest way to do this is to open the rollers and insert a folded piece of sandpaper with the two grit sides out. Close the rollers down and insert a wood dowel in the loop or the sandpaper to keep it from exiting the rollers. Create enough friction to sand both rollers, but not enough to stop you from turning the crank. Then crank until you have smooth rollers, with the caveat that they will have sanding marks on them. That’s where the progressively finer grits come in…and possibly a final polish.
This is a lot of work, but it can produce a passable finish on the rollers. You might reach a like new condition…or not. My mill ended up being fairly clean and smooth, and, since the things I run through it are going to be buffed when finished, that is good enough for me for now. I am an occasional user and hobby jeweler.
You’d have to balance the work and time involved against the cost of a new mill…there are cheap ebay mills from India (I’d never buy one) and China (I might buy one) and the pretty good Pepe mills and then the Durston and it’s ilk. Good luck with your rolling mill journey. -royjohn