Completed Turning

Salt and Pepper Mills

ByMark

There was an article in the Dec/Jan 13 issue of Woodcraft Magazine describing how to make salt and pepper mills using mechanisms purchased at, you guessed it, Woodcraft stores.  This looked like something that would make nice gifts for Marilyn’s side of the family because they were invited to our house for a Christmas party.  The idea was to set the mills on the table and then to give them to the people using them.  The recipients were happy, I was happy, Marilyn was happy, so it was a hit!

The project was fun because I got to do some turning with hard maple for the salt mill and cherry for the pepper mill.  The project went quite well although the mills didn’t match in shape perfectly, but they were close enough that no one noticed.  My spindle turning improved as a result of making 8 mills (6 for gifts, 2 for us).

Cutting Blank
Cutting the blank at the chop saw
Roughing the blank
Turning the square blank to round
Sizing Tenon
Sizing the tenon for holding in a chuck
Refining Tenon
Refining the tenon
Layout
Laying out the top, bottom, V grooves and minor diameter
Separating Top from Bottom
Getting ready to separate the top from the bottom
Sawing top from bottom
Separating the top from the bottom with a saw
Drilling
Drilling the base to accept the mill mechanism and contents
Establishing the minor diameter
Sizing in the minor diameter of the mill body
Turning to Shape
Starting to shape the mill body and top
Completing Shape
The mill continues to take it’s form
Completed Turning
The final shape of the mill ready for finishing
Decorative Burning
The groove at the top of the pepper mill was burned to help identify salt from pepper
Completed Project
Finished mills sit along side some other Christmas gifts

Similar Posts

Closeup of captive ring tool
|

Captive Ring Tool

ByMark

There are many ways to cut captive rings and specialty tools are sold to accomplish the task. I decided to make my own captive ring tool from an Allen wrench, the tricky part being the shape of the grind. I tried many different shapes without success before hitting one that worked. The various grinds were…

Taking shape

Natural Edge Bowl

ByMark

I had a nice piece of Walnut that was dry enough to try my hand at turning a natural edge bowl. Not just a natural edge bowl, but one that wasn’t round, instead elongated which meant that I would be turning “air” as the cut was interrupted 4 times per revolution until I was deep…

Log Mill first cut completed

Carter Log Mill

ByMark

Preparing turning blanks at the band saw from logs can be dangerous because the log wants to roll when the blade enters the timber. I have broken a band saw blade trying to cut a hand held log and fortunately was not injured in the process. Carter Products makes a log mill that I have…

Completed Acorn

Acorn Lidded Box

ByMark

One of the great things about wood turning is the variety of things that you can produce on the lathe. Each piece is unique because you, not a computer, control the tool. The way the wood is mounted in relation to the grain determines the tools used to accomplish the task. Lidded boxes are end…