Rolling Mill summary

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about rolling mills.
Here is what I discovered:

James Binnion and Sara at Durston Rolling Mills indicated that none
of the Hand-powered mills currently manufactured open wider than
about 4-7mm (Durston mills open to 7).

James Binnion wrote that the old Tatum mills did open to about 10
mm, but that Tatum is no longer in operation. When I inquired at
Allcraft about the availability of Tatum Mills, Tevel comfirmed this

Sara at Durston indicated that 1) their power mills open wider than
their hand-powered mills and that 2) Durston makes special gears
that allow their mills to roll at thicknesses between 5 and 10mm.
To reduce further, however, these gears must be removed and replaced
with the standard gears. However, they could be used on a mill
with two sets of rollers, allowing one set to have the bigger range.

For rolling mill buying tips, I got the following

Bruce (Jewelpunk1) wrote to say that the had had good luck buying
from Rio Grande’s liquidation page on the web. Go to
http://www.riogrande.com , click on ordering, then on liquidation
items.

Kevin Ard indicated that Gold International Machinery (
http://goldmachinery.com ) is a source of new and used equipment.
You must email them to get prices.

Laura Wiesler wrote that she picked up her mill at a conference.
The vendor was willing to reduce the price so that they didn’t have
to transport it back home.

Thanks to everyone who helped me. I will take this back
to the club folks and see what they decide to do.

Debby

Debby, to add to you summary On a normal Rolling mill the opening is
limited by the size of the roller (diameter). The gears on the
Rollers will not mesh if you spread them so far apart that the teeth
do not touch.

First of all you have to see if the rolling mill has enough room to
provide the opening.

Sara had posted the best solution where you get a bigger diameter
gears on the rollers so that you can now have the rollers working
while they are far apart.

The Two handed Rolling Mill posting was also correct but no
reduction gear would be a tough job.

Regards Kenneth Singh