salt pepper mills

[mick foxall]

I am about to embark on my maiden pepper / salt turning experience and have read a considerable number of articles on the do's and dont's of how to set up and go about the business. I must say that there does seem to be a number of ways to attack this project, and I would appreciate some feedback from the members of their experiences and recommendations.
Foxy

[ndp_2010]

I have only done one so far, I used a pepper grinding mechanism sold at 'packard woodwork' from USA. they are relatively cheap, and seem quite good quality (made in usa)
The way I did it was probably not the best but without the proper equipment its all I could do. I drilled a hole through a piece of wood I wanted to use, then turned the pepper grinder, with bottom at the tail stock end. I turned the body of the mill, and then left a small gap (about 1.5cm between body and the head. This part I turned to approx3cm diameter. This part sat inside the body to keep the head on. I turned the head round and then separated it from the left over wood being held in the chuck.

As I did not have any drilling equipment for my lathe I had to use a router to cut the correct size to insert the mill mechanism, and then drill a larger hole the whole way through for the pepper, and due to using extremely hard and dense wood this was not so easy :P

The next mill I do I will use a drill holding chuck in the tailstock to drill out the right dimensions in the bottom of the grinder before turning shape. Overall the only difficulty I had was getting holes drilled and router'ed which should not be an issue if you have the right equipment!

I hope you can maybe get some sort of help from this, and I guess there may be a better way to do this so I will also be listening in for my next mill :)

[Mulgabill]

I am about to embark on my maiden pepper / salt turning experience and have read a considerable number of articles on the do's and dont's of how to set up and go about the business. I must say that there does seem to be a number of ways to attack this project, and I would appreciate some feedback from the members of their experiences and recommendations.
Foxy
G'day Mick! The feedback you are seeking will depend on which type of grinder mechanism you intend to use, either the Crushgrind or the cheaper traditional type mechanisms.
Check out Carroll's Woodcraft Supplies http://www.cws.au.com/files/crushgrind.pdf for Chrushgrind instructions or Carbatec http://www.carbatec.com.au/pdf/manual/GRIND-7-10-12-17.pdf for the traditional inserts.

I would recommend that before actually starting with the "good" blanks try out your procedures on say a piece of scrap pine or similar. Accuracy and sharp bits are important when drilling the insides of the mills.

[steck]

What he said. :goodpost:

I have only made one pepper grinder and that was 45cm tall made from Redgum. It was a special request.
I followed the instructions on Carrolls Woodworking Supplies (http://www.cws.au.com/files/crushgrind.pdf) for the Crushgrind mechanism and found them excellent. I got a little confused at the instruction to break off some plastic tabs but a quick phonecall to Carroll's solved that. ( there is a choice between turning an inset groove inside the barrel of the grinder or cutting off the plastic tabs and simply glueing the grinder mechanism in place. If you want to cut the groove there is a special tool for doing that.)
Overall it was a fairly straightforward job.
Good luck with the job.

[newqlder]

I have just tried my first pair of mills and used the cheap mechanisms. I have seen the crush grind ones and they look much better. Now the question, Has anyone had experience with the wood-cut mill drill? It is a bit exxy $$ but the principle is brilliant to get all holes concentric.

Any comments would be appreciated folks.

[dai sensei]

I've turned heaps and only use Crushgrind mechanisms. I use a Vicmarc chuck with shark jaws to hold the initial black for drilling with a cone centre tail support initially to line it up. I then switch to pin jaws to turn the grinder. Attached is instructions for one of my shapes but note I use a 22mm central hole in lieu of 25. You can use the same principles with your own shape to suit a 25mm central hole.

[smiife]

Hi foxy,
Just follow dai sensei download, looks very clear
and easy to follow , he also knows what he is talking
about ,I have seen some of work first hand excellent stuff !:U
Well done neil and thanks for the download , next time
i do grinders i will be using that cheers :2tsup: