For three decades I have been associated with the preservation of a large rolling mill steam engine in Youngstown, OH.  Called the Tod Engine, it is a 34" x 68" x 60" cross compound engine that drove a 24" merchant mill at Youngstown Sheet & Tube for 65 years.  We obtained it in 1996, moved and reassembled it at the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum and now are in the final stages of restoring it to operation.  

At the end of 2023 McDonald Steel Corporation in McDonald, OH shut down their 14" bar mill.  This mill was originally part of the US Steel McDonald Mills and was known for making asymmetrical and custom shapes.  The mill had been built in 1925 and was the last of 11 rolling mills at the plant.  Shortly after the closure I started making trips over to McDonald, photographing and documenting the plant knowing that within a short it would be a field of rubble.  After the site was sold to a redeveloper I made a deal to purchase machinery out of the plant and thus began a year and a half long project of hauling over 130 tons of rolling mill stands, machinery, tools, equipment over to the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum. 

So with a rolling mill steam engine on one hand and a 14" rolling mill on the other, it was natural that I would start thinking of getting the one to drive the other.  About this time I received a call from someone looking to have a few thousand pounds of special chemistry steel rounds rolled per year, and now our museum rolling mill project started turning into an actual business.

So I started looking at how to set up at least two of the mill stands in a way to be powered by the engine.  What I chose was to set up the one three high stand and a two high stand in a train in the tradition of the early hand operated bar mills.  The three high stand for roughing and the two high for finishing.  The plan is to take 1.5" rounds and roll them into .75" to 1.25" rounds in eighth inch increments. 

Currently my plan is to have the engine operational by fall and focus on rolling steel in 2027 if we keep up the current pace of reassembly.  When finished it will be the only operational steam driven rolling mill in the US.  The only other operational steam driven rolling mill that know of is at Blists Hill in the UK. 

I figured that some of you may be interested in our project.  Its not blacksmithing per se, but it is working metal with obsolete and historic technologies and equipment and shares some commonalities that translate over to traditional smithing. 

In the first photo I am standing next to one of the 14" two high stands as we were pulling it out of the mill.  Second photo shows the Tod Engine, 260 ton total weight with a 20' flywheel.  Third photo is of the rolling mill being set up at the museum.  Two mill stands, pinion stand and bevel gearbox that takes the power from the engine in the building and turns it 90 degrees to drive the pinion stand. 

That's really impressive, Rick!

The epitome of Big Boy Toys! A labor of love and a service to the history of human ingenuity. Well done Rick.

--Larry