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:
397672
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.
397673
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?
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:
397672
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.
397673
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?