Coating the inside of pepper grinders

Hi all,

Does anyone have a convenient way of applying some sealer to the inside of a pepper mill? It seems like a good idea for an aromatic or oily wood (I like the smell of huon and camphor, but I don't want my pepper to be either huon or camphor flavoured!), but it's a bit of a pain and I am unsure how effective it really is.

What I did for my most recent grinder was put the bottom of the grinder body inside a plastic cup, give a decent pour around the circumference of the hole and let the run off go into the cup for later use on the outside of the grinder. Then I wrap a bit of cloth around the head of a vermec sanding rod and twist that around inside the hole to spread it around and hopefully even coverage.

Is there a better way?

Cheers,

Danny

I dont think it is necessary to coat the inside. When the wood has aired a bit and properly dry there won't be any taste. I have done a few huon grinders and no complaints about taste. However if you feel like coating the inside then you'r method sounds fine.
Regards
John

That's good to know - makes feel like it's unlikely to be a problem if I mess it up. Camphor is the one that scares me most! Maybe I should make an uncoated camphor grinder and use it myself for a bit.

I made a pepper grinder using Camphor Laurel about a year ago, and left the inside of the grinder as bare wood. The outside of the grinder was finished with Ubeaut Shellawax. Once the finished grinder had been stored in the kitchen cupboard for a day or so, you could smell the camphor everytime you opened the cupboard door. I couldn't taste any camphor when the ground pepper was put on food, but others claimed that they could......

I tried coating the inside of that pepper grinder by disassembling it, loading the centre with about a table spoon of a heavy cut shellac, and then blocking each end of the blank with my fingers, and tipping the blank around to distribute the shellac onto all the surfaces. I gave the blank a few days to fully cure, and then reassembled it and tried again. Camphor shell problem fixed.

When I went to make the next batch of pepper grinders as Christmas presents, I decided I wanted a less messy and easier way of coating the inside of the grinder blank. I'm not sure how other people make these pepper grinders (I use a mechanism from Timberbits), but I start by drilling all the centre holes before I turn the outside to shape. (I don't know if the process would be different when using those "crush grind" mechanisms that I've seen mentioned on these forums.) So, I drill the centre holes on the square blanks, and then dunked the drilled blanks into a bowl of heavy cut shellac, and left them to soak for an hour and hour or so with a weight on them to make sure that they stayed submerged. Then hung up to drip dry over night. Once turned to shape and finished on the outside, there was no camphor smell detectable to my nose.

[Edit] I realised that the terminology "heavy cut of shellac" is a bit imprecise, so ..... I mix up a small batch of metho and shellac flakes to a thick consistency that is about the same viscosity as un-thickened cream. After sealing the pepper grinder blanks, I just add more metho to the mix to bring the shellac mix to roughly what I use for normal wood finishing.

The only down side that I've found to sealing the inside of the pepper grinder with shellac is that, sometimes in hot weather, the two wooden halves of the pepper grinder can stick together a bit if you've got a shellaced surface bearing against another shellaced surface. My fix for that problem has been to rub a little bit of candle wax on the shellaced bearing surfaces where the two halves of the pepper grinder come together.

It's a bit more complicated of a way to make pepper grinders, but when you're using a smelly wood like Camphor Laurel, the above process seems to work.

Regards,

RoyG

Thanks Roy! I should have though of immersing it, I'll give it a try... I even have a long thin container sitting around that's pretty much grinder shaped.

I always seal mine with shellac. I use a Zinsser spray pack and it works a treat.
I recently made 150 woggles for the Scouts and used the spray pack --2 coats.
I do not use shellawax on grinders as I find that they can become dull after a short
period of use. I use feast & Watson satin poly and then buff them with lemon oil.
Seems to go OK. Hope that helps a little. Drillit.

Thanks Drillit, noted. Interesting, I didn't know there was such a thing as spray shellac! That sounds pretty convenient.

I always seal with UBeaut's Hard Shellac, applied with long handled paintbrush

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dai sensei

I always seal with UBeaut's Hard Shellac, applied with long handled paintbrush

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Yep! Agree with Neil!

I,ve been turning S & P grinders from Camphor Laurel for a couple of years (100+ mills) I swab the resevoir out with a beeswax/grapeseed mixture & let it soak in, have been using an unswabbed set myself daily for this time, I have many repeat customers ordering them for friends & rellies and have never had a complaint re flavour or smell, I was contacted by one lady who' mill had stopped working but after I explained that she needed to fill it occasionaly the problem was solved.

Hi danny , what about sanding sealer ? Applied
with a bottle brush maybe !:2tsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whitey D

I was contacted by one lady who' mill had stopped working but after I explained that she needed to fill it occasionaly the problem was solved.

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Best customer issue I've heard! :-D

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Like many others I give the inside a coat of sanding sealer, allow to dry then sand with 240 & 320 grit & seal again.

Col