# laminating turning blanks



## Grandy48 (Jun 5, 2012)

Anyone have suggestions on laminating turning blanks for pepper mills? Or know of any web sites with instructions. Thanks


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## TomC (Oct 27, 2008)

How many layers are you wanting to laminate? I believe if you search under turning for pepper mills you will see several with 4 to 5 layers of different woods. Maybe you can be more specific in what you are asking.
Tom


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

You can laminate all you want or as little as you want. It's just a matter of gluing up the wood. Glue some up and turn it to get a feel for what happens to the straight lines when you turn. You can also glue them up and then rip them at an angle to get lines that are angles in your pepper mill.


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## grandy (Sep 4, 2010)

Tom,
I guess I'm not real clear on what I'm asking. I've seen so many pretty designs on peppermills and not sure how they went about the laminating. Do they just glue different woods and see what turns out or is there a method.
John,
Maybe you're right, I just need to glue some together and see what happens. Just wasn't sure if there was a certain way to do it.
I really appreciate the advice.
Sandra


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

Do a Google search for Laminated pepper mills. I found quite a few different designs. That should give you some good ideas. What I've found when doing laminated work is it's important to understand what happens when you turn flat wood into shapes. When you do a few you start to understand how the shapes evolve and then you'll have a better idea of how you glue up to get those shapes.


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

Cut some curves in the blank with a narrow bandsaw blade and layer up some veneer with white glue, then clamp up with a vise to squeeze out all the gaps and excess glue. The curves of the veneer working with the curves you turn will make some interesting patterns, especially if the outside of a veneer curve matches a turned curve.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

Grandy48 said:


> Anyone have suggestions on laminating turning blanks for pepper mills? Or know of any web sites with instructions. Thanks


 
Click on my name and go to my albums. Click on all albums I have some laminated S&P mills for anyones review.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Grandy,
just depends on what you like looking at. I like the layers to be around 3/8" thick, some people like 3/4". Pick some nice contrasting colors and start gluing them up. It helps if you take a couple of pieces of smooth plywood and screw them together to form an "L" (90 degrees). Put a sheet of wax paper over the inside corner of the L and stack your pieces there as you glue them. It will help you keep the pieces lined up as you go to clamp them. 
Here's one for you:

Mike Hawkins


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## grandy (Sep 4, 2010)

Bob Willing said:


> Click on my name and go to my albums. Click on all albums I have some laminated S&P mills for anyones review.


Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. I'm starting to get somewhat of an idea. Beautiful work.
Grandy


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## grandy (Sep 4, 2010)

firehawkmph said:


> Grandy,
> just depends on what you like looking at. I like the layers to be around 3/8" thick, some people like 3/4". Pick some nice contrasting colors and start gluing them up. It helps if you take a couple of pieces of smooth plywood and screw them together to form an "L" (90 degrees). Put a sheet of wax paper over the inside corner of the L and stack your pieces there as you glue them. It will help you keep the pieces lined up as you go to clamp them.
> Here's one for you:
> 
> Mike Hawkins


Aewsome peppermills. guess I need to just practice. 
BTW, when was the pic with Bob Hanna taken.I remember him
from my younger days. When my husband was alive, he was a motorcycle racer.small world.


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## mark81253 (Mar 21, 2012)

This is an example of a random lamination I made. I just took some different species of wood and started cutting at various angles and gluing. The plate is a bunch of scrap pieces glued up in random also.


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## Ben M (Apr 19, 2012)

mark81253 said:


> This is an example of a random lamination I made. I just took some different species of wood and started cutting at various angles and gluing. The plate is a bunch of scrap pieces glued up in random also.


Mark, that plate is impressive. 

Can you explain how you glue that up? Does it go from pile-of-blocks to giant-glue-ball in one step? Does each bit need its own clamp? Or is there a sequence of sub-assemblies?

More generally, how good does the glued surface need to be---tablesaw, bandsaw, jointer?


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## TomC (Oct 27, 2008)

Ben M said:


> Mark, that plate is impressive.
> 
> Can you explain how you glue that up? Does it go from pile-of-blocks to giant-glue-ball in one step? Does each bit need its own clamp? Or is there a sequence of sub-assemblies?
> 
> More generally, how good does the glued surface need to be---tablesaw, bandsaw, jointer?


Most of my glue ups are jointed or run thru the planer to get proper thickness. I do have a glue line rip blade that should have adequate surface for gluing.
Tom


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

grandy said:


> Aewsome peppermills. guess I need to just practice.
> BTW, when was the pic with Bob Hanna taken.I remember him
> from my younger days. When my husband was alive, he was a motorcycle racer.small world.


Grandy,
That pic was taken about 5 years ago. I met him at a motorcycle dealers show in Indianapolis.
Mike Hawkins


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## mark81253 (Mar 21, 2012)

Ben M said:


> Mark, that plate is impressive.
> 
> Can you explain how you glue that up? Does it go from pile-of-blocks to giant-glue-ball in one step? Does each bit need its own clamp? Or is there a sequence of sub-assemblies?
> 
> More generally, how good does the glued surface need to be---tablesaw, bandsaw, jointer?


Ben- I start by glueing up sub assemblies- typically three pieces of like thickness wood. The edges to be glued I run through a jointer. Once glued if they are to be added to on the top I run them through a thickness planer and then sand them. I then start building up the piece by glueing together sub assemblies until finally I have something that I can rough out on a band saw and mount on the lathe. It's generally an elongated process that takes a few days.


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