So a while back I did say that I wanted to try out a couple pepper mills and salt mills.  I'm planning on ordering a second blank set of the same size and a mill kit as well.  I did order these from wood craft.  Received it not too long just got to figure out how I'm going to attach it to the lathe since it is a pre drilled piece.  The mill blank is cherry wood its about 9 inches in over all length for I think a 6 inch finished product.  But my options as far as attaching a pre drilled blank to the lathe are some what limited at this point in time.  So I'm considering holding off until March which is when I plan on making the order for the delta lathe stand.  Which in turn I will be able to cut down half of the bench the lathe is on now and use the 4 x 4s as part off blanks.  Just turn it down to shape and fit the openings.  Not sure exactly how to secure it on the tail stock side of the lathe maybe use the top of the blank and use the smaller drilled hole and use the 60 degree live center to lock it in until I can turn the tenon on it.   Either way I'm sure I'll figure out suggestions are always up on ears.  Thanks.

 

Link to the blank....    https://www.woodcraft.com/products/pre-drilled-cherry-peppermill-blank-3-x-3-x-9?sku=159367

Link to the mill parts....  https://www.woodcraft.com/products/woodriver-stainless-steel-pepper-mill-grinder-mechanism-turning-kit?sku=161463

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of things come to mind. For the top, with the the 1/4" hole, Make a sacrificial block that will fit into your chuck. It can be square or round. Drill a 1/4" hole in its center. Using a 1/4" bolt and nuts (or 1/4" threaded rod and nuts) bolt the woodcraft piece to the sacrificial block. You should be able to turn it to the shape you desire. You can use a piece of grocery bag to make a paper glue joint between the two pieces.

 

These pictures show the pepper grinder blank and top. Angled wood and maple collar are the bottom and are glued together. Walnut is the rotating top. The top and maple collar are not glued together. Everything is drilled for the grinder mechanism. 

 

The wooden piece on the end of the threaded rod is turned to the drilled dimensions inside the body blank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

diagram for building the jig.

Edited February 17, 20215 yr by lew

Finished

I'll have to look into making something similar thanks.

I've got a good head start on the waste block for the pepper mill... Just glued a couple of pieces of 2x4 together seems to be holding quite well this time.  Just getting it rounded out today then I think tomorrows plan is to make the joint to fit the 1 inch opening for the top of the lathe...  Then just gotta figure out the other side of the blank.

I've got some what of a head start for the grinder at this point I finished off turning down one waste block.  The two pieces of 2x4 glued together worked quite well.  Once I had the lathe running up at a high enough speed just used my EWT rougher and it just went through it like a hot knife through butter.  But as far as the body of the blank I've got that solved just got to figure out something for the top of the grinder that's going to be the challenge.  Hopefully I'm some what on the right path on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is one of the most BASIC shapes of pepper mills Rounding the top was a bit tricky just did a bowl shape but this one will probably wind up being an EPIC failure in the end but with having limited items at the moment in order to do a pre drilled kit well I think that's where I failed....  Either way I'll finish this one off and see if it actually works.  So go ahead and get the jokes up and out of the way LOL.

Yep I think the first one is a definate fail.  No matter I'll order a couple of these blanks I think I need to build that pepper mill set up you have there @lew

 

 

No Jokes, this is a family site 

 

Looks like you had a really good start. Sorry, I should have added a few more process shots.

 

I turn the tenon in the top and make sure it fits the thru hole in the body

 

Then assemble the top onto the body. In this case I used the jig I made- you can see the threaded rod-

 

 

At this point, I have the complete blank assembled and the top is in the chuck.

 

Instead of the jig, you might be able to make a cone that fits over your tailstock live center. Crank the cone into the large pre drilled hole in the bottom of the blank to press everything together.

 

There are some images at this link showing a little about how to make a cone.

https://community.woodturner.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=c839391c-17e6-4d5f-8f94-9e304783f106

 

 

 

With the entire blank being turned as one piece, for me it was a little easier to get the overall shape I was trying to get

 

 

 

 

I don't think I got the top squared enough on the bottom side it was the pre drilled cherry blank the 9 inch blank from wood craft that I picked up.  But I think tomorrow I'm going to put in a call to wood craft to find out what size drill bit they used to drill out the top piece so I can get the proper pieces for making a rig to hold everything together similar to the pen set ups.

 

here’s the instructions. Looks like 7mm

They have a nice video on the subject.  You may have already watched it.

 

 

@lewunfortunately the PDF did not show up on my screen took a look at it last night before I popped off to sleep... So I spent most of this morning already looking for them online with not much luck.  Its a shame that woodcraft doesn't list the tools used to do the pre drilling, I did put a call into them this morning to find out but theyre tech team is lazy and doesnt work weekends unfortunately.

 

@HandyDanyes I've seen that video previously when I was doing research on pepper and salt mills.

Sorry about that, try this-

 

 

https://www.woodcraft.com/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMjEvMDIvMjAvMDAvNTIvMjAvNDcyLzE2MTQ2My43N0Q5My5QZXB0LnBkZiJdXQ/161463.77D93.Pept.pdf?sha=dd8560801f038f41

Thanks yea I just ordered off for a set of metric drill bits since I didn't have one.  Still gotta get 2 of the sizes of forstner bits since I only have the 1 1/2 inch.  But I'm debating on whether or not to buy their pre drilled stuff again since it didn't quite work out and just drill out own stock.  I think I may just buy non pre drilled blanks and go that route instead for the next one.  

Don't forget the Forstner bit extension!

You do not have to by a special bit instead of the 1 1/16 use a 1. There may be a little fitting to do on base for some kits but it is just a little carving and can be done with a dremel.

Not a huge deal I do have a dremmel but I already ordered the metric bits plus I needed them.

 Those look great! Beautiful work!

I wanted to make a couple, but my wife doesn't like nor use pepper much and I looked for someone who loved pepper. I saw my son-in-law use an old pepper mill at dinner and made him a couple for his birthday. He loved them. 

Just for the heck of it and to test the stuff out I decided to glue up this time much much more glue and hopefully a much longer cure time since its a bit colder outside now.  I'm going to give the 2x4 turning another shot with a longer blank turn it round and see if I can't turn a mill body out of it.  So it should be an interesting experiment to see if I can make it work this time instead of having it flop apart on me.  I think the huge problem was the last time not enough glue and not enough cure time.  How ever I also think that I didn't have a high enough RPM going either when I started turning it.  I did have it down quite low to start out.