Hi Kath,
I am so happy your Victorio is working properly. The cranking will be hard if the screw is dry as it is lubricated by the tomato juice. I squish the tomatoes hard into the hole even before cranking to get the juice flowing, and then continue to push them vigorously until done. I've never been one for reading instructions.
I milled a small batch of just 8 lbs of raw tomatoes the other day and timed it. Assembly of the mill took just over one minute, the milling took three minutes, and cleaning the mill with hot water four minutes. When disassembling the mill, the screen will have a lot of pulp and skin stuck to it. I gentle rub my finger over the screen to remove only the pulp into the juice bowl - if you rub too hard, some skin will come off. Then remove the screen (gripping it with a paper towel helps) and scrape the skins off with the back edge of a knife, then brush it clean under running water.
I think once you get some practice with the machine, you'll agree it's the easiest way to skin tomatoes.
TomNJ