01/13/2024
Pepper Grinder Woodturning Project:
This past October 2023, my fellow wood worker friend Rama Chandran asked me to join him to make Pepper Grinders on his lathe. Without any hesitation I said yes. From start to finish, it was an exciting project. We used various types of woods and finished just in time for Christmas.
First, we milled our wood stock (ambrosia maple that we got from Hurricane Matthew), as well as maple, cherry, walnut and Purple Heart that we purchased from a local store. We then cut material to size, glued, squared and prepped for the lathe by attaching the wood blanks to various collet chucks to go through a process to get the design that we wanted. I have to give kudos to Rama for the final stage of the design. He was like an artist on the lathe with his turning tools. We then sanded and sanded more, applied a few coats of a finish that we mixed up (Linseed oil and shellac), sanded yet again and added a few coats of polyurethane. We inserted the grinder mechanism to finish up these beauties which came out incredible.
*I have attached a few photos and videos of our project.
Rama -thanks so much for all your help. I enjoyed our time together. See you soon in the shop buddy.
