Peppermill Turning Proceedure

[Charles Drake]

I would like to turn a peppermill from a nice piece (3X3X12) of green wood and need some advice about to proceed. What would be the best method for handling this wet wood? Seems to me there are several options. First is to just seal the ends and let slowly dry (perhaps I won't live long enough to finish) before doing any lathe work. Or, I could rough turn including drilling the internal hole and soak in DNA and hopefully shorten the drying time. Or, I could rough turn, drill the hole, and boil in water, again hopefully shortening the drying time. Or, is there a better proceedure? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Any or all of those may work Charles. I have just found it better to use kiln dried wood. My first peppermill was out of green wood. I roughed it, drilled it and soaked in DNA. It moved and warped enough it was unusable. If it were me I would anchorseal the ends and just let it dry.

[Robert McGowen]

It is hard to turn anything out of green wood that later requires a precision fit between two pieces of wood. I can see where the base would be able to be drilled, soaked, dried, and returned successfully. The problem would be getting the 2"-3" thick top to dry out completely and keep it from moving. Any wood movement at all will lock up the two pieces of the mill, probably a couple of weeks after you have it all nice and finished. I am sure that you will get some different answers, but I don't have enough time to turn an entire peppermill, dry it, turn it again, put it together, finish it, and then throw it away because it does not work. I would just use kiln dried wood, especially if this was a gift and not for my personal use. YMMV