What Is it? (Sorry, Again I Haven't a Clue.)

Don't they normally have three rollers adjustable so that you can bend the sheet / wire in a given radius?

Nope, I don't think you get the cigar.

Too many grooves and there's no provision to remove the sheet once it's rolled.

A sheetmetal pre-form (ribs for added stiffness) ?.

Well, the question really isn't what it is... it's a Roller Press... but the question is what in the heck did they press with it.

No clue, but I'll look around.

Sounds good...er looks right....

How the heck do you get the can OUT of the machine, one done???? :-)

GA

Seems very reasonable.

but the profiles are opposite rather than mating, so don't think it would create corrugated but rather thick/thin... and to bend you'd need an offset, and a way to get it off ;-)

It's a Rolling Press... as others have mentioned it could be for jewelry, but it seems rather robust... so I'm thinking it is a Blacksmithing Combination Rolling Press. And by 'combination' it can roll flat billets/bar... or round. Maybe the user made ornamental wrought iron work.

Its hard to say, the ridges don't appear to have been manufactured uniform across the length of the roller either.

Thanks for the mental picture of 'ye old ornamental wrought iron jewelry'

Why are you marked off topic? You are correct! We had one at the Uni i worked at. The rolls were once very smooth/shiny and the flat section was to thin down bar/sheet. This is small and may have been for jewelry.

Jim

Shoulda read all posts before posting . Still doesn't answer why you are OT!

Once again, Solar Eagle is right. It's a slip roll machine. I found a few videos on youtube that show them in action. Here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puBLjpAmXAg

The grooves at one side are for forming wire and tubing.

I agree,

It looks like a Jewelers rolling mill to me.

A slip roll former would have three rollers.

Yep! Click on the picture.

My thoughts too. Almost looks like it could be for shaping something the size of a tin can lid.

GA: you mean here?

The odd thing here is that the top roller is smooth and the bottom one has "troughs".

Is that rust on the rollers, or did someone get behind in their work?

Pasta maker?

A cavalier owner body part press?

A mangle for people who wear stainless steel underpants? Just guessing.

What ever it is if you lived closer I'd give you at least $100 for it.

I like finding odd old things like this and repurposing them for new work.

Maybe a very heavy duty laundry press for wringing water out of clothes?

This is a multipurpose pasta extruder. On one side you get various diameters of round stuff like angel hair and spaghetti; on the other side, flat stuff like linguine and fettuccine. With the post-processing accessory, you can get farfalle, lasagna, etc.

GA.

Trouble is we don't get much sugar cane or sorghum in Hemel Hempstead. But maybe there is a clue in the name "Hempstead".

I thought that at first but I have never seen a cane mill with horizontal rollers. All of the ones I've seen have vertical rollers and they were turned (at first) by a long shaft that was powered by a farm animal.

They were later powered by tractors or stand-alone engines driving a belt and pulley system.

I have found some horizontal roller mills but none of them have the exposed rollers on the side.

When I saw the picture the first time I wanted it to be a cane mill but I don't think it is. The fact that the top roller is height adjustable on both sides instead of in the middle leads to a metal-working tool. There would be no reason to be able to have a tapered gap between the rollers if it was a cane mill.

Also, if anyone has an old cane mill they would like to get rid of let me know. I'm trying to put together some of the things my father and grandfather used as a means of survival during the depression. Lets see if any of you know what this is:

I recently found one in my father's barn that I didn't know he had. I know what it is and have used it many times.

Sugar cane juice crusher

This looks more like a wire or rod straightening machine, probably a blacksmiths tool.The fourth roll points to it being a universal production tool.

I think it only has 2 rollers, the 4 gears are just to allow for the roller spacing to be adjusted. The suggestions of a sheet/wire roll seem to be about right.

Looks like a rubber mixing mill to me....

It reminds me of a scrap cable recycling machine where the insulation of long lengths of cable are crushed and stripped from the conductors.

The only thing that comes to mind is a device for stripping plastic from electrical cables but the smooth part of the roller does not fit the possible use. Then again if they found some rollers and had the various groves turned into them and did not need a full range this could be the reason for smooth area. If it is for stripping wires then the knife part is missing also it seems a bit massive but that happens when built by a DIY.

its a pasta maker.........roll your own

Is there an echo in the room?

Old roller mill. Which had many uses. A blacksmith or farrier to reduce bar stock. Used to crush hemp or jute to release the fiber. Many trades used them.

GA. Thanks

I think this confirms it; even has the "D" grooves.

I believe!

Sugar cane juicer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk73z7y3tKo

This is just a sugarcane juice extracting machine still being used in India on road sides.

Dear Mr.Randall,

It may be (In my opinion it is) Sugar Cane Crusher to extract juice from the Sugar Cane.

DHAYANANDHAN.S

Ramconsult's rolling mill at #40 is so close it has to be the correct intended use.

As for the sugar cane juicer: it would be incredibly difficult/inconvenient to mount a sensible way to collect the juice on the machine we found.

A cane mill or most any press for extracting juice would be mounted over the collection system and it would probably have relatively inert rollers like brass or rubber:

Like this sugar cane mill.

Look at the second picture at post 27.

It is definitely not incredibly difficult.

Never said it was, but compare the robustness of the unit in the original posting and the juicer in #27. Since form follows function it would be unnecessary to have all that heavy metal and gearing on a juicer, unless what it was compressing was a material that required a lot of force.

The generic term "to mill" means to grind or crush something so the function is the same, but the form that the mill takes is dependent upon what is being crushed. I think that you'll agree that putting a 25mm² piece of iron into the juice crusher would result in its destruction, while the unit in the original posting would be able to flatten that into a sheet 4x6mm, no juice catcher required.

I was only commenting on expression that it would be difficult to collect the juice.

Yes I agree that the structure is way too heavy for a simple sugar cane juice maker.

Even faced with clues that lead away from the cane mill - the robustness of the design, the outside rollers, the ability to cant the rollers separately, etc. - some people are still stuck on the cane mill idea. A 1945 Volkswagen Beetle is a car, just like a 2013 Bugatti Veyron is a car, but they do not serve the same purpose. You can do a lot of the things in a Veyron (roller mill) that you can do in a Beetle (cane mill) but you can't put that piece of metal that you run through through the roller mill (Veyron) through the cane mill (Beetle) without causing some serious damage!!

So THAT'S where it has gone!

Any chance of returning it, please?