October 2015
Mills made for the dining table
Richard Hoodless reports on a bouncy, enthusiastic performance by Les Thorne during September’s meeting.
Les explained that he makes only unique coloured and textured peppermills because a basic model in a shop can be bought for about £10 — he cannot compete at that price!
He uses Crushgrind mechanisms which require a step drilling process as there are three holes of different sizes needed and a recess to be cut for the mechanism.
Les uses rippled sycamore as this gives a good effect when coloured. He explained that he drills a 28mm dia. hole all the way through the bottom piece of the mill with a twist drill and then uses a peppermill mill which cuts the other two holes in one pass. If you use sawtooth bits, drill the largest diameter hole first then the medium size hole followed by the smallest diameter hole.