Hi Jay,
Thank you for your rolling mill series, before you end your writings
can I request a paragraph or two about maintenance, troubleshooting
problems & maybe how to swap out the rollers?
Have you thought about a Rolling Mill Basics video and/or workshops?
Thank you again for the articles.
kh
Karen,
As far as rolling mill maintenance goes, a good idea would be to
check out Durston Rolling Mill’s instruction manual on their website.
It has specific instructions for each type of mill they sell. This
info. is down-loadable from their site. Good info.
As far as day-to-day rolling mill maintenance, I use a light machine
oil ( WD 40 is not advised) on my mill’s rollers at the end of the
day, covering the mill to keep dust/rust off the rollers. In the
morning, I uncover the mill, and before using it, take a soft cotton
cloth and carefully wipe all the oil or other contaminates off the
rollers.
I try to keep anyone from running the rollers all the way together,
putting wet metal, or steel objects through any of our mills.
Very few rolling mills let you “swap out” rollers, and the ones that
do are very labor intensive to do. Plan on getting your hands very
greasy, and be careful when tightening up all the bolts.
As far as workshops are concerned, I am starting to make plans to
teach workshops outside of San Diego in 2008. I have explored the
idea of doing a DVD, but I think a hands-on approach is the best for
learning how to make stock with a rolling mill. So far, I am looking
at San Antonio, Pennsylvania, and Chicago for future workshops, but
no definite time frames, yet. I am open to other locations, but will
need to work them around my UCSD teaching schedule.
Jay Whaley