Ronald Fox
09-04-2011, 6:25 PM
For those who are interested in how I make my segmented peppermills, I thought I would post how I assemble them.
I use a 12 segment sled to cut my wedges. I found the plans that Kevin Neelley has on his web site. I did add two toggle clamps to the fence to hold the pieces as I cut them. Plus it keeps my fingers far away from the blade.
The nice thing about making pepper grinders is I can cut all of the wedges the same size. I just make a bunch of 3 inch rings and shave them down to the size I want. I cut the stock to 1 1/2 inch strips and then adjust the sled to cut the edge of the wedge to 13/16". I then just spend hours slicing up lots of wedges and fill large plastic shoe boxes with the wedges. I have a box for maple, cherry, walnut and purpleheart.
When I am ready to make the rings, I can simply grab the boxes with the wood species I want and start glueing them up. I use the "Rub" technique. You take two wedges, put some glue on them and rub them back and forth on wax paper until they start to grab, and then align the wedges and move onto the next pair. Then you glue up the 3 pairs into a half circle. Once dried, I flatten the bottom on the disc sander, then sand the edge so that the two half circles have a nice glue joint and then glue the two halves together.
Once the rings are dried, I use a set of 100mm jaws and flatten them on the lathe. I use a round scrapper and the tool rest acts as a depth gauge. I takes some practice, but I can flatten the rings pretty flat. I had been glueing up the rings one at a time on the lathe, but I am experimenting with drilling a 1/4 hole and using a bolt to glue up 3 or 4 rings at a time and then glueing them on the lathe. Still takes a lot of time, lol.
Thanks for looking,
Ron
206844206845206846206847
I use a 12 segment sled to cut my wedges. I found the plans that Kevin Neelley has on his web site. I did add two toggle clamps to the fence to hold the pieces as I cut them. Plus it keeps my fingers far away from the blade.
The nice thing about making pepper grinders is I can cut all of the wedges the same size. I just make a bunch of 3 inch rings and shave them down to the size I want. I cut the stock to 1 1/2 inch strips and then adjust the sled to cut the edge of the wedge to 13/16". I then just spend hours slicing up lots of wedges and fill large plastic shoe boxes with the wedges. I have a box for maple, cherry, walnut and purpleheart.
When I am ready to make the rings, I can simply grab the boxes with the wood species I want and start glueing them up. I use the "Rub" technique. You take two wedges, put some glue on them and rub them back and forth on wax paper until they start to grab, and then align the wedges and move onto the next pair. Then you glue up the 3 pairs into a half circle. Once dried, I flatten the bottom on the disc sander, then sand the edge so that the two half circles have a nice glue joint and then glue the two halves together.
Once the rings are dried, I use a set of 100mm jaws and flatten them on the lathe. I use a round scrapper and the tool rest acts as a depth gauge. I takes some practice, but I can flatten the rings pretty flat. I had been glueing up the rings one at a time on the lathe, but I am experimenting with drilling a 1/4 hole and using a bolt to glue up 3 or 4 rings at a time and then glueing them on the lathe. Still takes a lot of time, lol.
Thanks for looking,
Ron
206844206845206846206847