A pinch of salt and pepper grinders

**ubute** · 20th October 2016, 07:17 PM

My wife recently asked me to make a set of salt and pepper mills/grinders for a gift. Needless to say she didn't need to finish her request before off to the shed I ran, as it had been probably 18 months since I'd had time to turn anything significant following the birth of our 2nd child. The wood of choice was some camphor laurel to be finished with danish oil, and I figured it'd be a good opportunity to finally try crushgrind mechanisms for a change.

I'd almost completed turning the 2nd (reasonably) matching grinder before it finally dawned on me that, being turned from the same length of wood and since these are crushgrind mechanisms without the usual "S" or "P" screwy nipply adjustment on top as per other grinder kits, there was no way to identify which grinder was which and the recipient would forever be faced with the terrifying risk of salting their meal when all they wanted was a little seasoning of pepper.

So after some head scratching, I turned to sketchup to mock up a couple of alternatives to better visualise how they will end up looking.

Suggestion 1 was to burn one or two rings say on the bottom to differentiate the grinders:

grinders_burned.jpg

Pros:
- I still have one body mounted on the lathe so could easily burn one or two rings into it to differentiate it from the other.

Cons:
- I think it would look better to have a single line on one grinder and double lines on the other, rather than one or two lines on one grinder and nothing on the other, and it'd be a pain to try mount the other body back on the lathe.
- There's still a question as to which lines means which.
- I prefer the look of the main grinder body untouched.

Suggestion 2 was to drill some holes in the tops of the grinders and plug the holes with some contrasting timber - pale for salt, and dark for pepper.

grinders_drilled.jpg

Pros:
- I think it looks a bit sexier.
- No ambiguity as to which one is which.

Cons:
- Worried about how neatly I can drill the hole on the top to plug it without having an ugly rough join between the plug and the main part.
- More likely for something to go wrong which would end in tears... but then it would also mean getting to spend more time turning up a replacement, so maybe not so big of a con after all...

So some questions for you... if turning a matching set from the same wood, what method do others use to differentiate them? Does anyone have any other suggestions? Out of the above examples which way do you think looks best?

**smiife** · 20th October 2016, 07:44 PM

Hi ubute,
I like suggestion 2 best , if I was making s& p grinders
I would make another one out of a lighter timber
maybe........ jacaranda? for the salt and cl for pepper!
I am not too sure CL is a good idea for them anyway
Isn, t it a noxious weed? not sure i would sprinkle it
on my bacon and eggs

**bench1holio** · 20th October 2016, 08:11 PM

Camphor Laurel is gonna make your salt and pepper taste pretty crap!

**Old Croc** · 20th October 2016, 08:37 PM

Its a bit late now for my suggestion but when I make them I leave the tenon on the top 3 mm longer and I make up black and white plastic 3 mm spacers to indicate which is which. It does not look out of place. As for the smell of the camphor, I run a couple of coats of danish oil through them befire assembly.
Rgds,
Crocy.

**ubute** · 20th October 2016, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by smiife

Hi ubute,
I like suggestion 2 best , if I was making s& p grinders
I would make another one out of a lighter timber
maybe........ jacaranda? for the salt and cl for pepper!

Yeah I'm leaning towards the 2nd option. Two contrasting timbers would've solved the problem but this request was for a matching set.

Originally Posted by bench1holio

Camphor Laurel is gonna make your salt and pepper taste pretty crap!

No, they'll make someone else's salt and pepper taste crap, they're gifts remember

But seriously, with CL grinders I coat the insides with a few coats of hard shellac and that successfully takes care of any potential smell issues.

Originally Posted by Old Croc

Its a bit late now for my suggestion but when I make them I leave the tenon on the top 3 mm longer and I make up black and white plastic 3 mm spacers to indicate which is which. It does not look out of place. As for the smell of the camphor, I run a couple of coats of danish oil through them befire assembly.
Rgds,
Crocy.

That's a good suggestion for next time. I had briefly imagined something similar using light and dark timber, but thought it might look a bit "muddy" if the light timber darkened from the DO. I think crisp black and white plastic as you suggest would give a more pleasing and classy contrast in the middle.

**turnerted** · 21st October 2016, 04:08 PM

I have used the second option, but I drill the recess for the plug and glue it in before the final shaping of the top of the grinder. It then gives a seamless joint when the final cut is made.
Ted

**Christos** · 21st October 2016, 04:25 PM

I like the second options.

**dai sensei** · 22nd October 2016, 09:09 AM

I often use your option 2. If you cut a bit of conduit and split it, it can be placed around the tenon and gripped in a set of pin jaws to drill/turn out the holes for insert/cast

Originally Posted by ubute

...But seriously, with CL grinders I coat the insides with a few coats of hard shellac and that successfully takes care of any potential smell issues...

+1

**ubute** · 23rd October 2016, 04:31 PM

I decided to go the 2nd option, and used some pen blank offcuts for the inserts - huon pine for salt and what was labelled melaleuca for the pepper, and this is the end result after 2 coats of DO so far. Pretty happy with how the join ended up, just maybe should've gone a bit bigger for the inserts than 16mm.

Grinders Top 2.jpg

grinders front 2.jpg

I ended up keeping the body concave shape a little less exaggerated compared to the sketchup design, but in hindsight think I'd have preferred it somewhere in the middle. These were just some run of the mill CL but next time I'll be tackling some of those special figured stump CL blanks I picked up from Mapleman.

Also with the insides sealed with hard shellac, there's not a hint of camphor smell remaining.

**Christos** · 24th October 2016, 08:07 AM

Nice going on the finished grinders.

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