Moisture content question for a peppermill by a newbie

[Michael Tucker]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie here so please be gentle! I am in the process of expanding my horizons from turning pens to turning things such as peppermills, confetti lamps and such. I'm doing my research on midi lathes and other tools but I'm also trying to get a grasp on what moisture content of wood is best for these projects. I have found sources of kiln dried cherry and walnut but I really like wood that has more character to it than that like ambrosia maple. Unfortunately, wood like that doesn't seem to be available as kiln dried stock. I have found a lot of threads on DNA drying of rough turned bowls but I'm wondering if this method will work for peppermill or confetti lamp stock that has been rough turned to a diameter of 3" to 4"? If so, can someone point me to a method of how to do it (times to soak and time to dry in a paper bag)?

Also, NCWood on Ebay lists the moisture content of his woods so my question is how dry is dry enough, 10%, 15% 20%, to turn and immediately finish? Is dry enough different for peppermills and confetti lamps?

Thanks for the help,
Mike

[John Keeton]

Michael, first - welcome to the creek!!! I have not done peppermills, but on my multi-piece turnings, I look for wood to be in the 8-10% MC to minimize movement. Since the peppermills require installation of parts in drilled holes, I would think fit is somewhat critical. Kiln dried wood will be 6-8% typically coming out of the kiln, but will reach an equilibrium based on your ambient conditions. If you are in Arizona, that will be considerably different than KY - season also plays a role.

I am sure you will get some input from folks that do the mills.

[philip labre]

Welcome Michael, I love to cook so I enjoy making peppermills and give a lot away. You need dry wood for peppermills but you don't necessarily need solid blanks, they can also be laminated like this one.
DSCN0438.jpg
I found a picture of a laminating press online and built one similiar. I used unistrut and threaded rod from big box stores.
DSCN0436.jpg
I also built a drier from an old freezer and a light bulb. I put a bunch of curly maple and curly ash blanks that I rounded off green and they took about a month to dry. These blanks were cut from the stumps of trees harvested a year earlier so they weren't completely green. They make nice mills too.
DSCN0440.JPG
I've only been turning for about a year, so my knowledge is limited and I hope this helps.

[John W Dixon]

Ooooo I like that uni strut clamping idea! Philip, thank you for posting a picture of that.

John

[Charles Drake]

Hi Michael-I did a test of DNA drying of peppermill blanks a while back and found it worked pretty well. You need to drill an undersize hole through the middle so the DNA can do it's work from both inside and outside. As you would expect, there was deforming but the blank dried quite a bit faster than a non-DNA treated blank without splitting. After it is dry, naturally you will have to drill the correct size hole. You can do a search to find the post. Good luck.

Charlie

[Kyle Iwamoto]

For a peppermill dry wood is important, but as John said, it varies where you live. I would drill and rough turn the mill wait a couple days and finish it off. Let the wood acclimate to where you are. Even dry wood moves if you relieve some stressors. I've had dry wood move enough to where the mill was hard to turn. I like NC wood. Never had a problem with them.

[Michael Tucker]

Thanks for the info, folks! I will start out by getting some interesting wood, rough turning it, DNA treating it, wrapping it up and then letting it dry for a month or two. In the short term I will get some kiln dried stock to get started on. I found a guy (http://www.gvwp.net) that sells kiln dried maple, ambrosia maple, black cherry, walnut and hickory for <$5 for a piece of 3x3x12 stock. FYI, some of this stock isn't listed on his web page but if you email him what you're after he will let you know about it. Now I just need to order my lathe and additional bits and I'll be good to go. I feel like a kid in a candy store... that is until I have to pay for all of the candy!

Thanks again,
Mike