Pepper Grinder

thingiverse

October 2019 I refined the model further. Each printer/filament combination can have varying tolerances. Even on my printer, the fit is tight and parts require gentle manipulation to ease them up. September 2017 In my opinion, this grinder performs exceptionally well. Place peppercorns in the bottle and snap the cap into place. Firmly hold the top and bottom and twist them back and forth for freshly ground pepper. Please read the Post-Printing section below. Here are some standard 3D printing and food safety guidelines to keep in mind ... I would recommend using a food-safe plastic. PLA is generally regarded as safe, but I have heard that some PLA filaments may cause issues. Please verify. ABS is NOT safe for consumption. I have printed both PLA and ABS versions of the grinder, and both grind effectively. Permeability is a significant problem. I rinsed one of the prototypes in water and water entered the print volume. Even after drying it with a blow dryer, water was still present and caused pepper dust to cling to the parts. This is not sanitary. KEEP IT DRY. PLA is not dishwasher safe. Even if you keep it dry, all the small bumps and creases are likely ideal places for bacteria to grow. Consider how you can address this issue. Perhaps acetone vapor will seal it up; I have not tried that yet. I have ground a considerable amount of pepper with my prototypes, and this design was iteration number 26. After all that pepper grinding, I haven't observed any significant damage to the parts. If you are concerned, print a version in a bold color to see if tiny plastic fragments are getting mixed into all that delicious pepper. So far, I have not seen any. I will be using this over time to assess its durability. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. The design is currently non-adjustable. I may add adjustability in a future design if everything else works out well. Printing the current design at 90% will result in a finer grind. As an aside, the person who sits next to me at work is from Thalassery, India. Thalassery used to be called Tellicherry, and his family owns a farm there that grows peppercorns. Sometimes the universe truly amazes me.