My first pepper mills

[wes murphy]

I though I would post my first attempts at making peppermills. I find that I have a problem with the intersection of the top and bottom not being square. I think my forstner bit mught be wondering a bit. Not sure how to fix that, but I hoping to get a few inputs from our peppermill makers. The walnut was my first then three chinaberry and then Jobillo.


209034

[Bruce Lundgren]

Wes, Nice job on these. I've made about 5 sets of salt and peper mills all with the crush grinding mechanism. I started by getting the pepper mill DVD by Ted Sokolowski (sp) and it helped a lot. To avoid the wandering of the forstner bit (which he cautioned about), if you drill about half way through and then reverse the blank and drill the other end that should help. Also drill a little at a time and keep backing the bit out to clear the shavings from the bit as the shavings if they get compacted inside the hole might contribute to it also. I'm sure there are others with a lot more experience than I have but that's what I did. Mills are a lot of fun to do and the shapes you can do are endless and they make great Xmas gifts. The DVD also had some good tips about design and its well done. Good luck and enjoy!
Bruce

[Greg Just]

Nice looking pepper mills. This is what I do to keep things lined up. I normally use Crush Grind mechanisms, but I think this will work for other pepper mills. I round thewood into cylinder and divide between top and bottom. I drill the holes in the bottom section drilling from both ends. I then form a tenon on the top piece that snuggly fits the hole in the bottom. I then mount both pieces and true up the cylinder and this gets both sections centered to each other. I then finish the design I have chosen. Hope this helps.

[Dale Coons]

Wes, nice mills. I don't think your problem is the bore. I'd guess you aren't getting the "bottom of the top" and or "the top of the bottom" turned square--if you look straight on at the top of the bottom of the mill it would look like a donut--the area toward the hole in the center may stand proud of the area on the outside, so the middle touches the top before the outside, leaving the visible 'crack'. If you undercut a hair on the two ends that meet so that the outside diameters touch (and the inner diameters don't) you'll have a seamless joint. I hope this makes sense.

That's been my experience anyway. I usually round the cylinder between centers, and turn a tenon for a scroll chuck. Then mount in the chuck and bore from one end (go as far as I can with the bit to start the hole, then add an extender to get thru), remount using a jam chuck on the drive end and a cone in the tail, and retrue the cylinder. Its not usually off by much, but doing that re-squares everything and I don't worry about having my holes meeting in the middle somewhere being off a bit.