Stepping the voltage up after the poco's meter won't reduce the current draw before the meter.
I saw a similar set up in a shop in Lancaster PA several years ago many miles from any town. I didn't understand a bit of how it worked when I saw it but did some reading afterwards. It was pretty cool.
This was a machine shop with some pretty big lathes and shapers but not as big as your mill. I know that to start some of the bigger stuff, the shop owner first started several other pieces of equipment and then was able to start the big motors. Once the big motors were started, he shut everything else down and it worked fine.
