Multiaxis Spindle Turning for Salt & Pepper Mills

[David Manor]

I recently came across these "unique" salt & pepper mills at a dinner party. As I have been spending some time studying Barbara Dill's articles and videos in my endeavor to learn the techniques of multi axis spindle turning, I was wondering if @barbara dill or, any forum members could give me any guidance on how to turn similar shapes to use for salt & pepper mills.

















The big challenge for me is how to achieve the core hole through the centre of the spindle whilst turning the perimeter shapes. I haven't been able to work out yet the positioning, and number of axes to be used to end up with a turning that will accommodate the conventional Danish grind mechanisms.

I have uploaded 4 photos each of the shorter salt mill (205 mm) and the taller pepper mill (255 mm) which show 4 aspects of each mill's turning.

Any tips or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

 

[Clifton C]

What fun. When I start a pepper mill, I rough round between centers, tenon each end then drill appropriate holes. To turn multi axis, I think I would start the same way, then turn tight fitting plugs for each end. The part of the plug outside the mill could be any diameter, within reason, for your additional axis points. The "twisted" mills with only three axis are not that difficult and might be a good place to start, then jump off the rails and go crazy...
cc

 

[hockenbery]

Ditto what Clifton said. Get practice with 3 sided off centers and off centers with a twist.

They appear to be turned on two centers so will be oval. You may need to adjust the offset. Start with a 1/4”
Male a plug to cover the drilled holes?

After turning to a cylinder off set the centers 1/4”
Turn the green profile. Off set in the opposite direction 1/4” turn the red profile
Measure to leave at least a 3/16 wall thickness
This will leave edges which can be features.
Put back on center and some light sanding will blend the edges
Then sand with the lathe off with the grain.

If you want to do lots of them you can make and offmset plugs for your chick and live center.

 

[hockenbery]

Another way to do this this is with an inside-out style turning.
This is a technique I used to make matching columns for hour class holders

You mount 4 together ( paper glue joints or mechanical clamping
Turn the profile..
Break the glue joint reglue with the turned part inside.
Turn matching profile
Put them between centers maybye do a little turning and sand the edges away.

 

[David Manor]

Thank you Clifton C and Hockenbery for your responses. I must apologise for the deluge of repetitive photos - I though that my first photo upload wasn't responding, nor the second, so, I repeated them a few times, and it turned out that about 3 of them did work!!

I am going to try out both recommended techniques to see whether I can come up with something similar to what I looking to achieve. I'll let you know in due course how I fare.

Thanks again

 

[David Manor]

I tried both techniques and found that using 4 parallel axes produced the best and most attractive outcome.
But, what has really got me stumped now is how the angular shaped mill top was made - I just cannot see that this could be another multi-axis turning - looks like it could have been carved??
Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[John King]

See attached. - John

 

[hockenbery]

I tried both techniques and found that using 4 parallel axes produced the best and most attractive outcome.
But, what has really got me stumped now is how the angular shaped mill top was made - I just cannot see that this could be another multi-axis turning - looks like it could have been carved??
Any suggestions would be welcome.View attachment 28686

Good to hear you are caving some success.

Could be done with be done a specialty Chuck.

But I think you can get it with some multi centers.
Maybe changing the axis on some

Something Like this diagram
There could be some refinement with disc and drum sanders

 

[David Manor]

Thanks very much for your response.
I tried every which way to implement your suggestion for producing the mill top using the multi-axes shown on your diagram, but, i was not able to come up with anything remotely similar.
The photo I sent was just the side view - I attach a front & top view to show this aspect. If you still think that it can be achieved by a multi-axis turning, I would appreciate it if you could lead me through the process you envisage as I'm very new to this form of spindle turning

 

[hockenbery]

The top view helps
The point is what I get with Two sided napkin rings which have two points from two centers off set the same.
With these I preserve a space to drill a 1.5” hole.
I annotated the slide I use in demos below.

It looks like you can get the top shape using the centers shown.
The on the top needs to turn away the center points.
Sanding on axis 3 will blend in the corners.
You’ll have to play a little with tuning the sides on axis 4 will blend in the corner edges left on the side and round the point.

Hope this does it for you. Also when I do napkin rings I do 4-6 from the same spindle parting in to divide them. If you get into production on these you could turn multiples from the same spindle. This leaves center points 1,2,3 only on the end ones which can move these center points to the narrow side if you only turn the side on center 4.

 

[David Manor]

Sorry for long delay in responding - had a few health issues which kept me out of my shop - am back now and have been trying to progress the turning of the top using your kind suggestions. Sad to say I'm still stymied trying to reproduce the challenging shape of the top. I have got the oval shape in the top view, but getting the curved cutaway sections just eludes me - just cannot find the axes which allow me to cut away the curves under the front and back points

Any further suggestions would be very much appreciated

 

[Hy Tran]

I suspect the top piece was done with something like the Escoulen eccentric chuck (manufactured by Vicmarc).

I would also look at at some of Mark Sfirri's work.

 

[Paul Tiefel]

Very cool idea - thanks for sharing. I will try this with a piece of Spectraply.