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metal to be reduced. Turn the T-bar to lower the top roller until it touches your
metal. Remove your metal and turns the T-bar a further 1/2 turn. Re-insert your
metal and crank the handle, so that the roller turn inwards and grabs your
metal, rolling it through away from you. Continue to turn the T-bar 1/2 a turn
before each pass and this will slowly reduce the thickness of your material.
Depending on the effect you want, you may wish to rotate your metal 90° in
order to create square or rectangular bars.
NOTE: When you reduce the thickness of your metal, it will typically increase
in length quite dramatically. You may also see a slight increase in width, but
this will be less noticeable. If you rotate it 90°after each pass, it will go thinner
and longer. Consider this when cutting or casting your initial starting piece.
3. Take square wire using the V groves. It is first important that your metal is
uniform and parallel. Starting from the cast ingot, roll it through the machine;
rotate the material 90 degrees, then roll it through the machine again. Note:
Each time the T-shaped rod rotates half a turn, allowing the top shaft to
descend, and rolling the material through. After rotating the material 90
degrees, roll it through once more. This dual-channel process will shape the
material into a square bar.
4. As soon as it fits, move on to the V grove rollers. Start with the largest,
again follow the same method of rolling the wire through, rotate 90° and roll
through again. You may find it helpful to use a permanent marker to mark on
the side of the metal so you can see which way you are rotating it. When the
rollers are getting close together, reduce the thickness by 1/4 turn and pass
the wire through several times, rotating each time before reducing any further.
This will avoid any pinching as the rollers touch. Continue down to the next
roller until you have the desired dimensions. Note the length will increase
greatly during this operation. A small ingot a couple of inches can be
transformed into many feet of thin wire.
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