Question about pepper mills

[jbswearingen]

I'm about to turn my first one and have kits for a few more. These will be wood, but I was curious about doing them in PR, and have a question.

You would obviously need to paint the interior, unless you used an opaque PR. But then what do you paint with that is food safe?

Making a blank would be easy enough; just get a 3" diameter PVC pipe and pour.

Has anybody here ever made an acrylic pepper mill?

 

[alphageek]

There is one person and its a interesting, risky thing... I'll see if I can find the thread, otherwise Ed might pop in... He watched that pretty closely - I think it was a guy in Australia that did it. (and I'm not sure it was PR - it may have been alumite for the physical attributes of it).

 

[ed4copies]

You are correct Dean, it was PR and it was Australia.

He did a "drop test" and it chipped off the bottom (no surprise to me).

If you are going to try it, start small (short). You will be VERY surprised at how hot your 3" diameter will become and you may cause heat stress fractures, or brittle results.

Not trying to talk you out of it---just give you a couple of the "expected problems".

 

[Fibonacci]

To reduce heat stress and volume of material needed, it might be worth doing a two part mold where you are casting an annular ring.

You would probably want to make the inside of the mold out of wood or something that would stabilize it for drilling and allow for the resin contraction during curing, but some cheap pine would probably do that trick nicely.

Actually, if you used a chunk of HPDE or wood covered in mold release, you might be able to turn your wood to the desired inside shape, then cast that and only have to turn the outside once it is done.

 

[jbswearingen]

Oh, no, I don't plan on doing it anytime soon. I was just curious as to why I see so many wooden grinders but have never seen a turned acrylic/pr/alumilite/etc. grinder.

Now I know!

 

[eldee]

Have fun Brad. I have my first two waiting for final finishing and assembly when I get off the road.

 

[Dai Sensei]

Full resin blanks for pepper grinders are available at woodnworkshop, they have a internal section cast in that is food safe.

I have not made complete resin blanks, but do do WW pepper grinders using PR. I just coat the inside with a few layers of Shellac, known to be food safe.

Main thing to worry about when using PR or resins is the heat. Even with the WW pours I do it in layers, max 400mls at a time, to minimise heat/cracking.

They are brittle though and care is necessary to avoid dropping them . They do look good though, and attract >2 times $'s of wooden ones :tongue:

Cheers