rhm

I thought you people would enjoy this thank-you gift I made for a warmshowers host who collects both pepper grinders and classic bikes.



Ingredients:

--one Haro BMX hub shell (found in a dumpster)
--one Campagnolo shifter (the only thing I was able to rescue from a totally trashed POS Atala I saw in the Philadelphia trash one morning while walking my dog about 15 years ago... wingnut, washers, etc. all gone; the shifter was tied to the downtube with its own cable; the garbage truck was about 30 feet away when I yanked on it hard enough to break the cable. The Valentino derailleur was still there, and it went to the landfill.
--the guts of a pepper grinder (found in a dumpster). See below.
--assorted little bits of lamp hardware (you guessed it, found in a dumpster).


One more photo. Check out the brand name on the pepper grinder hardware!

bednarz

very cool!!!

High Fist Shin

That's great! Very clever!

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

way cool.

TheDL

Now you just need to publish the "How-To"

Very nice.

norskagent

Is it indexed or friction?

Grand Bois

Peugeot has been producing pepper mills since 1840.

Hubbard

My wife would love that. Very clever!

FlatTop

Your inventiveness has got my wheels turning now...

djeucalyptus

awesome! Reminds me of the chris king shakers, but infinitely better. The shifter as a grinding mechanism is genius! (and Peugeot grinders are top notch, to boot!).

bigskymacadam

Market this thing.

fuzz2050

I'd buy one in a heartbeat, although I'd prefer a different hub. Maybe if you shoved those innards into an old Helicomatic or something.

droobieinop

https://peugeot.125west.com/

wow whatta ya' know?

cyclotoine

freakin' awesome, I'd love a little how to as well, the quest begins for a peugeot pepper grinder.

gerv 

You could add pepper, olive oil and basil... ride your bike around the block and you've got pesto.

TheDL

This site gave me the idea, if you had a black hub for pepper and a silver hub for salt

mkeller234

Very cool!

tolfan

Ya how to ?

Hydrated

I like the grinder, but where in the world do you find the "Phil Wood Waterproof Pepper" to go in it?

rhm

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Well, first of all, thanks, guys! I appreciate all the kind words. I agree that the hub I used is not very attractive; I wanted something big and beefy; I wanted something black; and I wanted something that wouldn't hut a vintage bike enthusiast's sensibilities. Imagine the uproar if I'd used a perfectly good Campy large flange hub! Here's what you have to do.

First of all find yourself a peppermill from which you can scavenge the hardware. I luckily found three of them in a dumpster several months ago, so I'm pretty well supplied; but be of good cheer: will find something satisfactory the next time you visit a yard sale, flea market, or thrift shop. Ideally you want one that's approximately the height of the shell you want to use, i.e. a bicycle hub.

Disassemble the peppermill and save all the bits. I used the grinder mechanism at the bottom, the shaft, and the nut that goes at the top. There will be a couple other pieces, guides and bearing plates and whatnot, which you may or may not need.

Let's assume you are using an aluminum hub shell. Remove everything: axle, dustcaps, bearing races, etc. Now would be a good time to clean and dry the thing thoroughly.

Compare the diameter of the grinder mechanism to the cavity where the bearing races were. Somehow, you have to make the bearing race fit into the hub. I did this by cutting the hub with a sharp knife, by hand, eventually removing about 1 mm of aluminum in little curls until the grinder mechanism almost fit. Then I pressed it in with brute force (in a vise).

If you're lucky, you may get a peppermill with a square shaft, but my grinder shaft was round with a flat spot stamped into it somewhere near the middle. This is where the torque is transmitted. I took a piece of 3/8" lamp pipe, cut it to the right height with a hacksaw, and cut a slot into the bottom of it (again with the hacksaw), so the lamp pipe fits over the grinder shaft and the slot registers with the flats on the shaft; so when you turn the lamp pipe, the shaft turns. Cutting it to the right height is tricky, and critical; and depends entirely on the dimensions of the random bicycle and peppermill bits you're working with.

I happen to have a 1/8IPS tap (same dumpster, different occasion!) that fits the lamp pipe. So I ran that through the shifter so it threads onto the lamp pipe. At the top of the piece of lamp pipe I threaded a stack of assorted lamp nuts, the Campy shifter, and another nut, and tightened them all down together until they lock. If you don't have the tap, don't worry about it; the nuts should do the job by themselves. Important: they have to be really tight; that's what transmits torque from the shifter to the lamp pipe. The outer diameter of the bottom nut matched the inside diameter of the hub bearing race pretty well (this is also important; it's the only think keeping the mechanism from sloshing around side to side). I pressed one bearing race back into the hub, upside down, using the two dustcaps as spacers. When all assembled, the knurled nut at the top (part of the peppermill) presses the groove at the bottom of the lamp pipe over the flats on the shaft.

If anyone's serious about trying your hand at this, send me a pm, I can send you a (not-for-publication) drawing. Oh, and if anyone does this, or something similar, post some pictures!

jebensch

Actually, Peugeot already makes quite nice pepper and salt grinders. But if you can take the long away around with bike parts making your salad, kudos and all the more better!

Antipodes

If you see Emmy around town, ask her - she has one.

Charles Wahl

Don't forget the toasted pignolias and garlic!

noglider 

I have the tall wooden Peugeot pepper mill.

When I was a kid, I had a Peugeot watch.

leunkstar

and I thought I was impulsive
But same for me. I have a nice Normandy high flange hub ready to roll!