My first peppermill advise

[Brian Deakin]

I am planning to make my first peppermill and to use a crushgrind mechanism
I have two forstner bits a 9/16 and "1 1/16"

The instructions for making the mill require the drilling of holes of different dimensions
My thoughts are to use one fostner bit "1 1/16" in diameter to drill the holes in the base of the mill in three stages and use a bedan to enlarge each of the first two holes

To make the smaller hole in the top to drill a 9/16 hole then enlarge that hole with a bedan

To check the size of the enlarged holes make a corresponding jam chuck to check the dimensions of the stepped hole in the base

[Dave Mount]

You can definitely use undersized bits and enlarge the holes to the required sizes, have done it several times. Don't recall the details, but I think there aren't that many hole size specs that are actually that critical.

Best,

Dave

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Some kits have a mechanism that require a "correct" sized hole. If you're going to make more than 1 mill, my $0.02 is to buy a good forstner of the correct sizes. Drill the bigger hole first and then the smaller hole. The nib of the big bit will center the nib on the smaller bit. Going the other way will not work. If you plan to enlarge the hole anyway, drill with a spade bit. They don't drill straight, but you're enlarging the hole anyways, that won't matter. Spades drill way faster than forstners. Save your forstner, endgrain drilling is hard on them. Have you tried to hollow into a deep endgrain mill? I don't think it will be a lot of fun.

[Dave Mount]

For the kit pieces I used, there were only a short section at the ends of the base that were fussy for size, so there wasn't a need to hollow in deep. Perhaps there are other designs that would require more than mine did.

[Warren Lake]

if not too much bother put a few photos up. Is the mech from Lee? or

[John King]

Buy the correct size bits. Enlarging drilled holes and making jam chuck to check dimensions will take a lot of the fun out of the project.

Buy the book Turing Salt & Pepper Shakers And Mills by Chris West. Everything you need to know about making peppermills. - John

[Brian Deakin]

Thank you to everyone for your replies and advice

I have decided I will purchase a crushgrind mechanism then make a prototype mill using using the smaller forstner I have available
Depending on my success I will decide if it is a good investment to purchase larger forstner bits

The other approach I would like advise is as an alternative would using morse taper drill bits be a sensible approach
The bits and morse taper sleeves can be purchased relatively inexpensively on E bay

[David Castonguay]

+1 on the West book on turning salt and pepper shakers/grinders.

I turned a few last year with Crushgrind mechanisms. I purchased inexpensive carbide forstner bits in the correct size. I also bought the SOrby Crushgrind tool for accurately cutting the grooves in the pepper mill body and head. It works well. I discovered that the bottom mechanism clicked right in, but I still had too epoxy the top.

Fun projects. I'm going to do a few more this fall.

[Brian Deakin]

David thank you for your post

To summarize
Sadly a combination of Brexit and the Covid crisis resulted in a Toolpost a Uk supplier of turning tools to close
Prior to there closure they had a 40% off sale and I purchased a 1"1/16 Colt forstner bit and a no 2 morse taper sleeve
This bit do the majority of the work and will be used to hog out the wood forming the hole which runs the full length of the mill
Additionally as David suggests I will purchase inexpensive carbide bits to drill the other holes

I will also purchase a copy of Turning Salt & Pepper Shakers and Mills by Chris West