how to refill the pepper section of an olde thompson acrylic saltshaker / pepper mill

[Eric White]

Hello,

After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no
idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil
I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
bottom.
It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an idiot,
but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw the
top
off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the pepper
half.

Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?

Thanks,

[Fluffie]

Is there a little sliding opening on the side?

"Eric White" <ewh...@ssc.wisc.edu> wrote in message
news:8r5m0r$e1i$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu...

[B. Green]

================

On units such as this the metal grinding parts are commonly fused to a metal
shaft that runs up and down the centre; the shaft is usually held in place
at the top by a screw/nut type of device.
This screw/nut comes unthreaded, allowing the grinders to come free from the
bottom, the shaft may or may not come out also; point being that further
disassembly is thence facilitated.
--
--bg
~~~~~
**Reply to group, my incoming server is down and always has been.
=======================

[Sheryl Rosen]

>
>
>Hello,
>
>After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
>twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no
>idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil
>I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
>bottom.
>It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an
>idiot,
>but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw
>the
>top
>off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the
>pepper
>half.
>
>Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
>

>Thanks,
>
>

Um, at the risk of sounding obvious here....have you tried simply LIFTING OFF
THE SALT CONTAINER once the screw is removed?

That's how mine works.

Sheryl
Not a newbie. Just new to AOL.

[Camp Stove]

On Saturday, September 30, 2000 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Eric White wrote:
> Hello,
>
> How to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil

> I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
> bottom.
> It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an idiot,
> but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw the
> top
> off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the pepper
> half.
>
> Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
>
> Thanks,

Turns out mine had the shaft rusted at the top salt section. No surprise since the salt is corrosive. I got it off by putting the salt section in a vice, and hammering the shaft. Tried cleaning but rust dust got everywhere and I didn't want rust dust in my pepper so I chucked it.

[Jeßus]

I'm fairly certain Eric is long past caring about it.

[delbert...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, September 30, 2000 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, Eric White wrote:
> Hello,
>
> After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
> twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no

> idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil

> I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
> bottom.
> It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an idiot,
> but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw the
> top
> off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the pepper
> half.
>
> Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
>
> Thanks,

At the bottom of the shaker is a white rubbery piece covering the fill opening. Using a tooth pic (or something of the like) and pry it out. After filling, replace the white piece.

[Steve 'Julie Bove' Wertz]

Sheryl Rosen wrote:

> >Hello,
> >
> >After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
> >twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no
> >idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil
> >I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
> >bottom.
> >It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an
> >idiot,
> >but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw
> >the
> >top
> >off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the
> >pepper
> >half.
> >
> >Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >
>

> Um, at the risk of sounding obvious here....have you tried simply LIFTING OFF
> THE SALT CONTAINER once the screw is removed?
>
> That's how mine works.
>
>
> Sheryl
> Not a newbie. Just new to AOL.

Wow, Sheryl, welcome back...!!!

:-)


--
Best
Greg

[dsi1]

On Friday, February 23, 2018 at 4:03:32 PM UTC-10, delbert...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> At the bottom of the shaker is a white rubbery piece covering the fill opening. Using a tooth pic (or something of the like) and pry it out. After filling, replace the white piece.

This sounds like sterling advice. I would also recommend that the OP use the pepper mill only on food. Avoid grinding pepper on your houseplants or your wife - especially your wife. This is a very important point. Ignore it at your own risk.

[Ophelia]

"dsi1" wrote in message
news:352fcc10-ccca-4dc9...@googlegroups.com...

==

Tried it, have you? ;p

[penm...@aol.com]

On Saturday, September 30, 2000 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, Eric White wrote:
> Hello,
>
> After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
> twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no
> idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil
> I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
> bottom.
> It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call me an idiot,
> but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. I can screw the
> top
> off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives me access to the pepper
> half.
>
> Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
>
> Thanks,

Hmm, an 18 year old post. I have one of those but rarely use it as I
don't think it does a good job of grinding pepper. Simply unscrew the
top and lift off the salt section, you'll see a series of six
triangular holes for filling the pepper section... had you lifted the
thing above eye level you'd clearly see the series of holes from
underneath. making it very obvious that the salt section needed to be
removed to fill the pepper section. I think it makes a much better
salt shaker than pepper mill as it holds about an ounce of salt....
it's not a salt grinder, fill with ordinary table salt.
I hadn't looked at mine for a long while, perhaps 10+ years... doesn't
say "Olde Thompson, mine clearly says "William Bounds Original
Made On The Third Planet From The Sun U. S. Pat. 3, 157, 256
There is no way to remove the stainless steel pepper grinding
mechchanism without destroying it as it's riveted.
I't a very attractive unit, I may start using it again.
There's that acrylic unit, along with the three I use most often:
https://postimg.org/image/4ielpal0d/
Looking down through the salt section on top whn empty one can make
out the pepper filling openings... I'm amazed someone could'nt figure
that salt section needed to be lifted off to fill the pepper
section... must be an extremely low IQer.
Miche has acclimated very well, he's become the hallway monitor, there
he is sound asleep on the job:
https://postimg.org/image/46x5cajx9/

[ggr...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, September 30, 2000 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, Eric White wrote:
> Hello,
>
> After way too much time spent thinking "How hard can this be?" and
> twisting this and pulling on that I have to admit I'm stumped. I have no
> idea how to open the Olde Thompson acrylic salt shaker / pepper mil
> I've got. It's a model that's got the salt on top, pepper grinder on the
> bottom. It's round, about 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. Call > me an idiot, but I just can't figure out how to refill the pepper section. > I can screw the top off to get to the salt section, but nothing I do gives > me access to the pepper half.
>
> Any suggestions (short of smashing it to bits)?
>
> Thanks,

OMG I felt so stupid that I couldn't figure out how to refill this little salt shaker/pepper mill! But thanks for the tip Sheryl Rosen. I realized that the lid unscrewed but I just needed the confidence to pull a little harder (I didn't want to break it) to seperate the salt from the pepper section. My mill is full now!

Glenda

[dsi1]

I have not nor do I remember writing that post. It sounds like it was writ by a rather snotty twit. Hopefully, Google will fix GGs and get their attributions in proper order so that people won't get the wrong impression about me.

[Ophelia]

"dsi1" wrote in message
news:8a3d0009-336e-4d17...@googlegroups.com...

===

Oh dear :((

[a_sc...@hotmail.com]

You don't have the same model obviously. There are no holes in any plate between the salt & pepper sections. Why insult people when your item isn't the one that is being discussed? That seems a bit idiotic to me...

[a_sc...@hotmail.com]

There is nothing rubber on this model. The bottom holds the metal pepper grinder with space around the acrylic edge for the ground pepper to come out.

[dsi1]

On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 8:14:36 PM UTC-10, a_sc...@hotmail.com wrote:
> There is nothing rubber on this model. The bottom holds the metal pepper grinder with space around the acrylic edge for the ground pepper to come out.

I used to have one of those. The square top is great because it's easy to grip. All pepper grinders should have a big square top. Unfortunately, the grinder didn't work very well any grind settings. My guess is that the diameter of the grinder section was too small a diameter. I've been using a cheap plastic disposable pepper and separate salt grinder that my daughter bought. It's a lot of fun to use.

[Dave Smith]

Hope into your McLaren and go back to the OP in 2002. He might still
be waiting for an answer,

[Bob Giesen]

a_sc ... is right about the different models. As for the timeliness of some responses, what's posted here benefits more than the OP. One can never know when someone else might come along who can be helped with a little knowledge or sound advice. Eighteen years later, I found this thread via a web search. My own mill would not come apart, so I wanted confirmation that I was doing it right, lest I break it by forcing it. Alas, it broke anyway, where the top meets the bottom, when I held the salt section tightly in one hand and rapped the top of the shaft (with the finial and disc beneath it removed) -- just like Camp Stove's solution, but I have a pretty good grip, so I didn't have to use a vice. I have been fine with pre-ground pepper most of the time for too many years, resulting in too little use of this. (This was the first time I tried to refill it -- ever.) Sadly, it was a gift that I'll have to pitch. Thanks, anyway, to those who contributed.

[jmcquown]

On 1/24/2021 9:17 PM, Bob Giesen wrote:
> On Monday, April 20, 2020 at 8:30:43 AM UTC-5, Dave Smith wrote:

>> On 2020-04-20 2:09 a.m.,.com wrote:
>>> You don't have the same model obviously. There are no holes in any
>>> plate between the salt & pepper sections. Why insult people when your
>>> item isn't the one that is being discussed? That seems a bit idiotic
>>> to me...
>>>
>> Hope into your McLaren and go back to the OP in 2002. He might still
>> be waiting for an answer,
>

> Dave is right about the different models. Still, what's posted here benefits more than the OP. One can never know when someone else might come along who can be helped with a little knowledge or sound advice. Eighteen years later, I found this thread via a web search. My own mill would not come apart, so I wanted confirmation that I was doing it right, lest I break it by forcing it. Alas, it broke anyway, where the top meets the bottom, when I held the salt section tightly in one hand and rapped the top of the shaft (with the finial and disc beneath it removed). I have been fine with pre-ground pepper most of the time for too many years, resulting in too little use of this. (This was the first time I tried to refill it -- ever.) Sadly, it was a gift that I'll have to pitch. Thanks, anyway, to those who contributed.
>
Nice to know you actually learned something by stumbling across an old
post. :) Sorry you have to pitch the gift. I never understood the idea
of a combined (or acrylic) salt & pepper mill.

Jill

[J. Park]

Our Olde Thompson one piece salt and pepper mill had been refilled with pepper by us on many occasions, but for the last x years we have not been able to get the plastic top holding the salt off, to get at the refill section for the pepper. [There is no rubber or plastic part at the bottom of this Olde Thompson shaker model to fill the pepper.] After unscrewing the top metal screw cap over the salt section we could no longer pull off the top plastic salt section: We tried everything including force but all to no avail....I'm guessing the top salt section is just now fused to the metal rod which goes down the length of the shaker and turns the pepper grinder at the bottom (there is an inner plastic layer that surrounds the metal shaft which runs through the top salt section: it was obviously designed to keep the salt from corroding the metal shaft, but must have somehow failed to do so). In short, after many efforts to unfreeze it, we just had to throw it out....Too bad, it was good when it worked, one of the best pepper grinders we've ever had (among many many we bought after that one refused to work). We sympathize with those who have had failures with this, or a similar model.