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