Mike Przybyla: How I Turned a Pepper Mill in Only 15 Years and Still Kept Most of My Fingers

Starting Comments

Mike started woodturning fifteen years ago. He was first attracted to turning pens on a Jet lathe. That activity led to an interest in collecting exotic woods. He has established a catalog of woods he has collected with an informational write up on each species. His catalog now contains several hundred items. He also claims to have reached an age where he is more interested in talking frogs than in pretty princesses. Although he has taken 15 years to complete his first pepper mill he has gone through three lathes in the process.

Educating a woodturner

Mike's education as a woodturner has evolved over several areas: the nature of wood, turning techniques, shop safety, and design elements.

Mike has learned that wood structure is similar to a bundle of straws. Cutting "down hill" against supported fibers results in a smooth cut whereas cutting "up hill" into unsupported fibers results in lifting the fibers rather than cutting them cleanly. He has also learned that burls usually contain voids, punky spots and other problem areas. Stabilization with resins and glues can produce good results but will not work well with woods having very tight or interlocking grain that will not absorb the stabilizer.

Mike learned it is very difficult to learn turning techniques from books. Strange terminology and unclear illustrations complicate the process. Videos are better, but live demonstrations and symposia are the best learning venues.

Mike has learned valuable lessons concerning shop safety because his mother "didn't raise any dummies." He has learned from a number of minor injuries. They were kept minor only by virtue of his "lightning-fast reflexes." From those lessons he has established several shop safety rules:

1. Turn power machines off anytime you are turning away from them.
2. Don’t work with dull tools.
3. Don’t wear gloves while turning.
4. Holding tools and sandpaper tighter doesn’t prevent accidents.
5. Don’t go to the emergency room on Saturday nights.

Michelangelo's basic design maxim that a sculptor's task is simply to remove all the excess stone that doesn’t look like a statue also pertains to woodturning. The woodturner must simply remove the excess wood to reveal the beautiful object nature has embedded in the wood.

Unfortunately, Mike has learned that sometimes a piece of wood only contains ugly toothpicks. Pepper mill design considerations include showing off the natural beauty of the wood, creating a size and shape that feels pleasing to the eye and to the hand, minimizing the waste of exotic wood, and hiding the joint line between the upper and lower section of the mill.

Mike likes to create mills about 2½" in diameter since they are more comfortable in the hand than larger mills. He also favors an hour-glass, or "feminine" shape. The rounded upper section of the mill should always be slightly smaller than the largest diameter of the base section of the mill. Mike prefers to use the crush grinder mechanisms so there is no nut at the top of the mill. Fineness of grind is adjusted by a nut in the base of the mill.

Turning the mill

Mike chose to use a 12" blank of walnut burl. He fills voids with colored C/A glue. He turns the blank to a 2½" diameter cylinder. Applying the common 1/3-2/3 design principle he scores the cut line while the blank is on the lathe but then cuts the blank into a 4" top section and an 8" bottom section on a band saw to minimize grain mismatch. Before making the cut he makes an X mark across the cut line to show the original grain orientation and to remind him which faces are to mate with each other.

The most challenging part of turning a pepper mill is boring the holes through the center of the blank. Mike has found that the Colt brand Forstner-type bits do an excellent job. He also warns that the crush grind mechanism is manufactured to metric dimensions but the instructions Craft Supplies provides with the mechanism are dimensioned in English units. The mechanism will fit better if you bore the proper metric holes.

The upper section is gripped on the top face in a four-jaw chuck. Mike first used a 23mm bit to bore a recess into the upper section of the mill just deep enough to receive the drive collar of the mechanism. This is a critical diameter. He then used a fluted bit to bore a hole into the top section above the collar recess. The hole should be large enough in diameter and deep enough in length to provide clearance for the drive shaft that extends above the drive collar but without piercing the top of the mill.

The borings in the lower section of the mill occur in three steps with the blank held in a four-jaw chuck:

1. A 1¾" recess is bored 1" deep into the bottom of the base. This provides enough clearance to facilitate turning the adjusting nut in the base of the mechanism.
2. A 38mm hole is bored in the base to receive the grinding mechanism. This diameter is critical. The hole should go 1½" past the first recess, a total depth of 2½" from the base of the mill.
3. A 26mm hole is bored through the remaining length of the lower section of the mill using a bit extension. Mike prefers to drill all the way through from one end rather than boring both ends toward the middle as some turners do. It is important to clear chips frequently to avoid binding the bit in the piece.

With the borings completed the lower section will now be held with a four-jaw chuck fitted with pin jaws. The jaws will grip the wood in an expansion grip inside the bored holes. Time did not permit demonstrating the turning of the mill profile. But Mike offered the following tips.

1. The narrowest diameter of the lower section should be at about the 2/3 height from the base.
2. The upper section is best gripped with a jam chuck that fits into the 23mm recess. Mike likes to use a negative rake scraper to shape the rounded top of the mill.
3. The joint line between the upper and lower sections of the mill can be hidden in a series of three grooves. One groove is cut just above the joint in the upper section and two grooves are cut at the joint in the lower section so that the joint line is at the upper edge of the center groove.

Mike likes to finish his mill with either Master's Magic spray lacquer or with a C/A glue finish. When the C/A glue finish is sanded with fine grits and steel wool it will have a milky appearance. Mike removes that using automotive polish, medium and fine grit, topped by a coat of Renaissance wax.

Tool Sharpening Tip