Rolling mill rollers adjustment

Jewelry Discussion
1

hi folks

Can anyone help me out with rolling mill adjustment for rollers just
slightly out of parallel?

Thankyou
Diane
www.magicmethods.com.au

Note From Ganoksin Staff:
Looking for a rolling mill tool for your jewelry projects? We recommend:

2 
Can anyone help me out with rolling mill adjustment for rollers
just slightly out of parallell

I have had the best success aligning my rollers by using brass rod
from the hardware store, bending it in half in a u shape so the two
ends are close to the outside edges of the rollers and gently bring
each side down till they are in contact with the rod. After this,
roll a strip and you might have to adjust a little lowering the side
that has the inside curve a tiny bit. With my mill it matters where
you roll the metal, putting the metal through the middle produces
the most distortion, either end less.

Richard Hart G.G.
Jewelers Gallery

3

My lovely shiny Durston small mill was in storage for a year before
use - on its side (shame, but unavoidable) When I set it up the
rollers were not parallel.

There is a surclip just under the big central cog. I was told to
remove this clip, lift out the central cog woth its handle, and
adjust the side cogs seperately to make them level - the tip about
the brass wire U posted by Mr Hart is a good one.

Then when the rollers were as parallel as I could get them, the
central part was reinserted. This worked for me.

It did throw out the figures on the two outside cogs, i think, but I
don’t understand these anyway, and don’t use for reference.

Aside from taking the mill back to where you bought it, this is one
possible fix.

You can buy surclip tools from a motor / car shop, and these are
fairly essecntial if you want to put the clip back.

Best wishes
Tamizan

4

Diane.

Remove the center top Height Adjusting Gear (T or a Round handle
with the Gear).

Then manually turn the left and the right gears till both the
rollers (top and bottom) meet and you can see no light between the
two of them and you cannot tighten further This would square both
your roller. Now insert the top T handle or the height adjusting gear
again you may have to wiggle a little bit (usually there is a play)
this will not affect and your mill will work fine.

Regards Kenneth Singh.
karat46
Ring Tools

5 
Then manually turn the left and the right gears till both the
rollers (top and bottom) meet and you can see no light between the
two of them and you cannot tighten further This would square both
your roller.

I have tried this many times with different mills and I have had
problems with metal curving when rolled, I have used a caliper and
brass rod is very consistent in thickness at any point along the rod.
Using the rod gets both ends of the rollers within several teeth of
being aligned to produce the least distorted strip I have achieved. I
am open to a better way to achieve the least distortion.

Richard Hart G.G.
Jewelers Gallery
Denver, Co.

6 
I am open to a better way to achieve the least distortion.

Adjust via whatever “guage” method you prefer to get close. Then
trial and error. Roll a small test strip. If it rolls out straight,
you’re fine. If it curves to one side, tighten the side it curves to,
by one tooth on the adjustment gear, and try again. Repeat till it’s
as close as you can get. The test is more sensative with thinner
metal, and with less annealed metal, which stresses the rolls more,
showing up deflection effects. There are limits, simply because you
can only adjust within the steps of one whole tooth worth of tighter
or looser on a side. And if the rolls aren’t perfectly flat, or the
bearings are unevenly worn, such that the mill curves the metal in
one portion of the rolls, like one side, but not in the middle or the
other side, well, then you can only get to some close approximation
and best compromise.

Peter Rowe

7

Richard,

    I have tried this many times with different mills and I have
had problems with metal curving when rolled, I have used a caliper
and brass rod is very consistent in thickness at any point along
the rod. Using the rod gets both ends of the rollers within several
teeth of being aligned to produce the least distorted strip I have
achieved. I am open to a better way to achieve the least
distortion.

I have used some very fine tools to adjust my set of rolls and some
curve and wave will always be present. If the ingot you are rolling
is of sufficient length you can add custom made feed/discharge
equipment to your mill to ensure the feed is very parallel; this
controls curvature. Waviness is controlled as a secondary operation
feeding the strip through a series of consecutive bending rolls of
smaller and smaller bends until straight. The last set I operated, I
seem to recall was about 27 rolls; I think. These are rolls of
smaller diameter on a smaller frame because they only bend the strip;
no reduction is taken. Remember that at the end even in the hands of
the best material manufacturers the rolled strip isn’t perfectly
straight. The straight edges are created by trimming, and the last
small waves are removed by tension wrapping.

Dan Culver

8

You may wish to search for a product call Plastiguage. I purchase it
at automobile supply stores.

Its intended use is to gauge clearances on crankshaft bearings. It
may be used to adjust the parallelism on a rolling mill rolls; place
two strips on outside edges of the mill rolls around the
circumference of the rolls and roll through.

The tighter side of the mill will squish the gauge strip flatter and
wider than the loose side. Adjust the loose side of the mill tighter
and retest(this may require the application of additional bits of
plastiguage). Continue to do this until two strips of plastiguage on
rolled

on opposite sides of the mill during a single pass are the same
width or as close to the same width as you can get them.

Reinstall the adjustment key/gear at the top of the mill.

There is one other thing to consider. If you own one of the newer
low cost rolling mills which are offered with

multiple rolls (flat, wire,textured etcetera) you may need to check
the tightness of the bolt together mill frame.

If parallelism problems continue I also might suspect that (even with
tight bolts)small errors in machining (allowing the

Mill frame to flex or distort slightly during operation) may be
causing the problem.

Michael Edwards

9

Even if the rollers are correctly adjusted it is still extremely
easy to get curved strip if you don’t feed it into the rolls at right
angles to them. Even a slight angle will result in a curved strip.

When I make strip from wire, I hold the wire in parallel pliers (in
UK they are made by a company called Maun Industries). They have
smooth jaws and the hinge is hollow so that the wire can be longer
than the pliers. I hold the pliers so that they open horizontally,
with the jaws touching the rolls, and the wire exactly at right
angles to the roller axis. When the rolls turn they drag the wire
through the jaws which keep it feeding at 90 degrees. That way I get
very straight, long, strips as long as I need.

Even though the plier jaws are in contact with the rolls, there is
no chance of them being dragged in because they are so much wider
than the roller gap.

Regards, Gary Wooding

1 Like
10 
When I make strip from wire, I hold the wire in parallel pliers
(in UK they are made by a company called Maun Industries). They
have smooth jaws and the hinge is hollow so that the wire can be
longer than the pliers.

In the US these are called Bernard pliers. hard to find these days
but still made.

jesse

1 Like
11

Hi Gang,

When I make strip from wire, I hold the wire in parallel pliers (in
UK they are made by a company called Maun Industries). They have
smooth jaws and the hinge is hollow so that the wire can be longer
than the pliers.

In the US these are called Bernard pliers. hard to find these days
but still made.

The Rio Grande tool catalog list 5 different Maun parallel jaw
pliers on page 44.

Dave

12

Rio Grande calls them parallel action pliers and here in Indiana
(midwest USA), I’ve always called mine, parallel pliers. They are
very useful.

marilyn

Note From Ganoksin Staff:
Looking for a rolling mill tool for your jewelry projects? We recommend: