pepper mill blank length?

[Benjamin Dahl]

I am going to try to make some pepper mills for the holidays and have the mechanisms for an 8" version. The instructions are somewhat limited and I will mostly use Bob Hallowell's tutorial as a guide. The question I have is for an 8" mill, how long should the blank be? I am planning on 2.5" to 3" wide, depending on design but am unsure if I should make it 8" long or longer? Thanks,
Ben

[Andrew Harkin]

I suppose it depends a bit on what type of mechanism you have, but I typically use the CrushGrind ones, I think it's technically a 10" model. I typically make the main body about 9 inches long and the cap can essentially be any size you want as long as the top piece of the mechanism will fit inside it.

I usually use a single piece for the blank, and assuming my cap is only around 1.5 - 2 inches tall, my blank would normally be somewhere in the 14" range. I would probably need a bare minimum of about 12 inches, but I'd much rather have a little longer blank and have a little wiggle room. I also typically make mine out of walnut, and I have a rather obscene stash of that, so I'm not too worried about wasting a little here and there. If it was something I bought, I'd be much more determined to get into the 12-13" range.

Also, don't forget to take into account how you want the two pieces to come together. I typically use a tenon on the cap that fits into a ring mortise in the body, and wax the mating pieces well before assembly. My tenons are typically only about 3/16" long, so it doesn't add much length to the blank, but I have seen mills done in that fashion with much longer tenons.

[Bob Hallowell]

Ben,
it depends on what you are doing, if you are going to do the layered peppermill I did the tutorial for then it needs to be a little longer for an 8" I would make it 11" glued up. if it is just a standard mill then 9-10" would be fine.
One more thing I find the shorter mills look kinda dumpy being 2.5-3" in dia. I would think more 2 1/4 or 2 1/8 would be more eye pleasing. I am sure someone will disagree on me on this. My 12" mills are normally only 2 1/4 to 2 1/2. the ones in the tutorail were 2 3/8's.

Bob

[Andrew Harkin]

One more thing I find the shorter mills look kinda dumpy being 2.5-3" in dia. I would think more 2 1/4 or 2 1/8 would be more eye pleasing. I am sure someone will disagree on me on this.


No arguments here. I typically try to make them about 3/16" walls at the thinnest points. I think the thinner ones look much more graceful, but still large enough that you can appreciate any figure in the wood.

[Benjamin Dahl]

thanks guys, that is really helpful. The 2.5-3" width was referring to the rough blank, not the final diameter, and I will aim for what you said.
Ben