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thompy
11th June 2012, 04:02 PM
So i had some sentimental (my pops wood) and dammaged (borers) cut into some blocks (thanks to Neil *Dai-Sensei* for the expert cuts:cool:) to see if i could fashion some salt an pepper mills. I used one of my "round-to-it" cards to spend the day on it.

It's not finished to my usual standard for a couple of reasons, i thought it was a throw away halfway through, but i managed to fix what i messed up dimensionally. Learnt a LOT doing it. and i'll make its mate later on during the week.

A couple of things came up while doing this and i have a couple of questions, i used medium ca to void fill and tried to be neat (i failed at neat:-), should i have airblown the leavings out and fresh filled them? or leaving the sandlike grains in place as i did and hope the ca "got in" as i did. And whats an appropriate flood method? coat it numerous times sanding between and leave it, or try and fill it all in one go?

When drilling with the bits (a spade and couple of speedbore bits) i found the shanks only just long enough to drill the 25 through the middle on my drillpress, do you guys use extension bits? or is it better to lathe drill? again with an extension bit?

In a breif researching i found the crushgrinds, how much more work are they than these regular types? do i need the special chisel? extra drillbits? more skill? i've heard they're a better quality mechanism so i'm interested to see how they are different in the basis of machining.

And lastly, sorry Greg (Plantageon), i couldn't wait, got impatient, bit the bullet bought the drills and had a crack at em:D.

Neal.

dai sensei
11th June 2012, 04:24 PM
Looks Ok to me :U

Crushgrind mechanisms are the best IMHO. No more real effort, drilling similar, glued in rather than screwed and no protruding knob.

As for the worm holes, depends on whether you want to retain the wormy look or fill them. If you want to keep the hollows, fill them with thick CA (spray with accelerator) or resin and leave to set overnight. Sand them by hand or ruff sand then turn with skew. If you want to fill them, you could use sawdust/coffee etc with thin CA. Do not use accellerator, just best leave over night before finishing.

hughie
11th June 2012, 05:16 PM
Yep they look fine, as dai has mentioned go for the best mechanism. :2tsup:

Filling holes etc I use coffee grinds and if the gap/hole is not too severe I use black CA.

thompy
11th June 2012, 05:17 PM
Cheers Neil, i remember our discussion somewhat on the crushgrinds, i know Carrol's stock em is there anywhere else near us? and is it the 260 i need for the smaller ones?

Neal.

dai sensei
11th June 2012, 06:43 PM
Bruce from Wood N Workshop Products - Crushgrind Ceramic Salt/Pepper Mill (http://www.woodnworkshop.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=2262) sells them. Carbatec also sell what looks like a copy Easigrind Easy Fit Salt/Pepper Mill Mechanism : CARBA-TEC (http://www.carbatec.com.au/easigrind-easy-fit-salt47pepper-mill-mechanism_c21754)

260mm is the standard one, but you can cut it down to suit what ever length you want