Both lathes are up and running. A completely blind turner made two pepper mills today. I knocked the corners off the big blanks and he turned them round. Then I drilled them and used a skew to mark the beads. He chose to put a couple of beads on the bottom and one bead on the top, and turning the center in a barrel shape. He turned the tapers on the barrel with just a little help using a small carbide tool. I rounded the beads and he sanded and finished it. Tom took a picture, but I forgot to get it before I left. (And I just got a new smart phone, and didn't even think of using it to grab a picture!) I'll get the picture next week when I go and post it.
It was one of the little antique pepper mills that screws to the top of a turned base. They are the easiest type of peppermill for them to make, and partially sighted turners can turn them pretty much by themselves. They are really just an overgrown pen blank!
I'm having such fun working with these people! The new lathe is variable speed, which makes it so easy to adjust the speed for the large diameter blanks, then slow it way down to drill out the blanks with a forstner bit, then change the speed to turn the base. Before we had to move the belts every time.
