Olive Salt Grinder

[Rob Price]

This will probably end up being a gift for someone this Christmas. The olive is a chunk I bought online from Jerusalem. I know there's lots of debate about "Bethlehem" olive, so I'll acknowledge the debate and I really don't want to hash it out here. The box shipped from Jerusalem, good enough for me. It wasn't expensive. Using the basic crushgrind shaftless mechanism. I recently had a shaft on a salt grinder break on me after only 6 months of use, so I decided I'd go with the more sturdy looking shaftless design (and about half the cost!).

Similar design to my first mills I posted a few months ago. I still haven't nailed the curve, but it's much better this go around. there was a fair bit of sapwood in this piece, so the 'back' of the mill is pretty plain but the other sides look great. I hate the maple plug on top. haven't figured out what I want to do up there, it works for now, I will probably bring the edge down and give it a sharper look, more dome like, to fit the piece better. That's easy enough to re-do.

Finish: 4 coats of shellac sealer followed by 5 coats of General WTF, buffed with Behlen's buffing polish. (I was worried about the water based poly sticking to the oily wood).

Comments appreciated. Thanks for looking.

[Jim Burr]

Beautiful Rob!!! You did a great job of matching the grain and the WTF should hold up well!

[Tom Caldwell]

Beautiful work, Rob. I have a couple of these shaftless mechanisms but haven't used them yet. What is the purpose of the separate cap piece? Is it removable for filling the mill or is it just to cover the hole used to center the work?

[Peter Fabricius]

Beautiful job Rob...
I recently saw some grinders, same style as you have made and the top was held in place with 3 small rare earth magnets holding onto three steel inserts, I think the steel inserts were nails cut short and the heads polished, then pushed down into the grinder in a groove cut into the top. The top plug is now held in place by the magnets and can be a fairly loose and short tapered tenon down into the grinder body.
Just a thought, to get the top out they had ground two finger spots so you can grab the top to remove it.
Hope this is clear.
Peter F.

[Kathy Marshall]

Beautiful mill Rob!

[Baxter Smith]

Very nice job on a great piece of wood!

[Rob Price]

Thanks for the comments. I'm starting to get the hang of the WTF. it should be plenty durable, it's a hair too glossy for my personal tastes, but this is something that's going to get handled a lot and needs the durability.

The hole on the top is for filling. You can remove the grinding mechanism and spring and fill from the bottom. I may try a mill without the hole in the top, but it does make for easy centering when turning the body. It's held in place by a silicone gasket that sits in a V groove on the plug. Just snug enough to keep it from falling out. The other idea I had was the plug can be used to identify salt and pepper if you use the same species for both. I think I'll complement this one with a taller walnut mill for the pepper so the plug won't matter as much. I just don't have any more olive for the plug.

[Marco Cecala]

Did you glue the mechanism in? From what I have read, it will snap in when using metric bits and need glueing with inch sizes. Your experience?

[Rob Price]

I used epoxy to glue it in. To get it to snap in you need a special tool to cut grooves for the tabs to click in to. I may turn an old file into such a tool at some point. I read where one guy uses a sharpened Allen wrench.

[Marco Cecala]

I used epoxy to glue it in. To get it to snap in you need a special tool to cut grooves for the tabs to click in to. I may turn an old file into such a tool at some point. I read where one guy uses a sharpened Allen wrench.

Thanks Rob, by looking at the instructions it should be easy to make.

[Richard Jones]

What cap? I can't see it for all that gorgeous figure!!!

Sweet!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful wood and mill.

[Steve Schlumpf]

If this is going to be a gift - then the recipient is going to be thrilled! Very nice mill - beautiful wood!