Lathe Turned Salt & Pepper Set

The term pepper mill generally conjures the image of a waiter holding a baseball bat-sized mill over my salad as he vigorously grinds out pepper and tells me to say “when.” The salt and pepper mills in this project are a bit more discreet. Each one is sized to fit comfortably in your palm. And instead of a two-handed rotation action, the mechanisms in these mills work by simply pressing a plunger with your thumb (see photo below). In fact, the only turning you’ll have to do with these mills is at the lathe, when it comes to shaping the bodies of the mills. It’s a good opportunity to dust off that minilathe sitting in the corner of the shop and put it to use.