Can someone give a good site to get information on making peppermills?
My daughter just purchased a new chuck for her lathe and she bought
all the hardware to make a nice simple project for a
beginner...right!! I didn't have the heart to tell her she could have
picked something easier to begin with! Anyway,I've never made one so I
can't be of much help. Something with a lot of instructions and
pictures would be great.

Thanks all

Mike

Mike R. Courteau wrote:
Can someone give a good site to get information on making peppermills?
My daughter just purchased a new chuck for her lathe and she bought
all the hardware to make a nice simple project for a
beginner...right!! I didn't have the heart to tell her she could have
picked something easier to begin with! Anyway,I've never made one so I
can't be of much help. Something with a lot of instructions and
pictures would be great.

Thanks all

Mike


I'm new to wood turning and have never made a peppermill (yet).
I did a search on goggle and came up with a couple of links:

http://www.newwoodworker.com/turning/trnppml.html

and a pdf file at this link:

http://www.woodturner.org/products/aw/peppermill.pdf

I hope this helps some,
Jack

On Mar 14, 10:40 pm, "Mike R. Courteau" wrote:
Can someone give a good site to get information on making peppermills?
My daughter just purchased a new chuck for her lathe and she bought
all the hardware to make a nice simple project for a
beginner...right!! I didn't have the heart to tell her she could have
picked something easier to begin with! Anyway,I've never made one so I
can't be of much help. Something with a lot of instructions and
pictures would be great.

Thanks all

Mike

Woodturning design, the magazine has had a couple of articles on
making them. Here are the instructions I hand out to my students, it's
about to get overhauled though.


For a peppermill your blank should be at least 2 ½" square and
approximately 2" longer than the planned mill. For an 8" mill ideally
you should have a 10" blank. I prefer to start with a slightly
oversized blank so I purchase wood 6" wide and cut it in half.


Start the turning by marking the center of the blank and mounting it
between centers on the lathe. Turn it down to a cylinder. Turn a
shouldered tenon on each end of the blank. At this stage you should
stop the lathe and examine the blank in order to determine which end
will be the top and which will be the bottom. Make another tenon at
the top of the body of the mill. Use the shaft as a guide to the
length of the mill and to get an idea of the proportions of the body
to the top. Part off the top from the mill body.


Using a scroll chuck, with a set of #2 jaws you should be able to
mount the body in the chuck. Drill the mill body with a 1" forstner
bit. If you're drilling from the top of the mill, ease the whole edge
to make the mill easier to fill. If you're drilling from the bottom,
turn the bottom recess to accept the mechanism parts. Reverse the mill
body and complete the other end.


At this Point, with a funneled top and the mechanism fitting into the
bottom of the body it's time to turn the body. Take a piece of scrap,
mount it in your #2 jaws and turn a cone. Mount the body between
centers using the cone and a live center. You can now commence turning
the body, sand and finish the piece. Be sure to clean up your top
tenon and remove any marks left by the chuck.


Put the mechanism in the body of the mill as per the included
instructions. With the excess of the shaft pointing out from the top,
you can gauge and mark the outside dimensions of your top. Drill a
5/16 hole through the top. Turn a recess in the bottom to fit the top
of the body, and a smaller one to snugly fit the shaft guide.

Turn the bottom half of the top, reverse and chuck by expanding the
jaws in the recess. Finish turning, sand and finish the top.

On 14 Mar 2007 19:40:44 -0700, "Mike R. Courteau"
wrote:

Can someone give a good site to get information on making peppermills?
My daughter just purchased a new chuck for her lathe and she bought
all the hardware to make a nice simple project for a
beginner...right!! I didn't have the heart to tell her she could have
picked something easier to begin with! Anyway,I've never made one so I
can't be of much help. Something with a lot of instructions and
pictures would be great.

Thanks all

Mike

There are several different mechanisms out there and the procedure for
each is different. Try finding a website for the outfit you bought
the mechanism from - it often contains an instruction set.

For example , here's an article on turning the peppermill

http://www.woodcraft.com/articles.aspx?articleid=585

and here are a couple of instruction sets for a particular design of
grinding mechanism

http://www2.woodcraft.com/pdf/77c14.pdf
http://www2.woodcraft.com/pdf/77c15.pdf

Thanks everyone. I have eveything I need now.

Mike