My youngest brother is big into curling, which is kind of like shuffleboard on ice. He asked me to make him a pepper mill, and my older daughter had the brilliant idea to make the top look like a curling stone — she figured out how to paint it to look like granite. My other daughter helped me turn the body, and I cast the handle in brass. It was my first ever sand casting, and my first ever brass casting. I love the way it came out, the more so because the kids were involved.
I did the casting at the last minute, right before we left to deliver the pepper mill, so I was extremely happy when I took the handle out of the sand and saw that it had turned out good enough to use. There wasn't time to make another.
And here's the CAD model I designed it in.
Here's the finished mill on a table.
Along the way (November and December 2021)
Here's the design iteration from late November: dark walnut body, a granite-looking curling stone on top, and a brass band and handle.
By the third week of December the top was made and waiting on paint.
