Which turning tools do you need for turning peppermills

[Alan Tolchinsky]

bottle stoppers etc. I only have bowl tools right now but want to do some of the above. I would appreciate any advice as to what to get including tools and lathe accessories. I can't tell the best way to hold some of these projects during turning. Thanks. Alan in Md.

[Bob Oswin]

Originally posted by Alan Tolchinsky
bottle stoppers etc. I only have bowl tools right now but want to do some of the above. I would appreciate any advice as to what to get including tools and lathe accessories. I can't tell the best way to hold some of these projects during turning. Thanks. Alan in Md.

Give us an idea of what you have to turn with as far as tools and what you have on your lathe to chuck up some wood.

There are several solutions to your question.
As far as tools are concerned a decent gouge(which I think you have now) and a skew chisel are all you need to cut the outside.
A morse taper and drill chuck in the tailstock will accomodate a forstner or brad point bit to hollow out the mills.
A scroll chuck of some kind is essential on the head stock. I personally use a Oneway strong hold setup but here are others.
Get some 4x4 fence post to practice on. It's cheap and gives youl ots of material to learn the skew with.
Ernie Conover puts out a few good books on turning .
(Amazon will have several)
Lee Valley sells pepper mill mechanisims as do several others on the net.

regards
Bob

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Bob, Thanks for the great ideas especially the one about using the 4x4 for practice. I need to get the morse taper for the tail stock but I have a Super Nova chuck with various jaws.

I have the grinder mechanism and one blank.

I've seen how you can hold the tailstock end with a cone that fits into the hole. Is this how you do it? Thanks for your help. Alan

[Bob Oswin]

Originally posted by Alan Tolchinsky
Bob, Thanks for the great ideas especially the one about using the 4x4 for practice. I need to get the morse taper for the tail stock but I have a Super Nova chuck with various jaws.

I have the grinder mechanism and one blank.

I've seen how you can hold the tailstock end with a cone that fits into the hole. Is this how you do it? Thanks for your help. Alan
O.K. now I can get you some more info.
Oneway makes a live center for the tailstock with both a large cone as well as a large funnel.
You can go this way.
I often do if the wood is particulaly soft or brittle.
The other method is a 2 step.
1. Bore out the blank as I mentioned before.
2. Then make an insert for the tailstock end called a "jamb chuck" this will plug the hole you just drilled and allow you to finish the piece using the regular live center on your lathe.
Remember that you will be sectioning the pepper grinder at the headstock end so the blank has to be long enough to sit inside the jaws and allow you to turn the top of the grinder..
The jam chuck should be long enough to grab in the super nova
when you remount the body to inset the base and refine the separation cut.
I will try to get a couple of pics for you today.

Bob

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Bob, Thanks again for all your help. I'm going out today to buy some wood to practice on before I use my good blank. Have a great weekend. Alan