I Tried to Make an Automatic Pasta Cutter (did NOT go as planned)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2022
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Salut,
Alex - บันเทิง
Hey Alex, why not try a brushless motor (or stepper motor) with position control. You can wait as long as you want for the correct length, then cut quickly.
Yes, this is the way
You could also use a thin wire as a blade
I agree. Like an old film camera or film projector. They move in quick steps.
Also, don't assume that the cutter's axis needs to be in line with the extruder axis
The NEMA motor he used is already a stepper, not necessarily with a position encoder but could provide a step counting based position control.
The problem with your cutter is that it moves too slowly across the extruder. If you look at all the other footage the blade flies by very fast, while yours is on the extruder half of the time. To make it perfekt you would have to stop the blade every 360° and then turn as fast as you can and stop again, so that they can be long enough but also get cut very fast
Basically use one of those CnC computer-controlled motors. Hook it up to a computer, tell it to quickly rotate 360° (or 180° for a two-sided blade) every x seconds then hold, and you're done. Oh, and also, make an anchor hole on the die for the blade (which should sit on the shaft like a propeller, flat with the die) shaft to sit in to prevent any wobbling.
Pretty it up, and you've got an adjustable length pasta cutter.
Actually the last pasta machine I worked with you can set to different speeds
The blade axis can't be the center of the die because the radius is too small, he just needs a sharper blade spinning quickly and with it's axis mounted like 15 cm away from the die so the angular velocity is higher even with the same RPM
Yeah omg this is so obvious
@@ShEsHy he already used steppers in his first try, and if for cnc motor ur talking about servo. That would be overkill since a negligible a mount of backlash is created in cutting pasta
Two options:
- a very long blade with the motor off center so the cutting action is quick and sudden
- a short blade actuated by a brushless motor controlled as stepper or a servo ac motor, cutting very fast across the pasta, then dwelling until the full pasta is extruded.
Basically, reproduce the action you do with the knife manually...
I couldn't explain it better, while engineering, think like an engineer and good results will follow you
Or he could just do what he did at the end as that worked
or a piston moving the blade up and down!
This is absolutely one of the best ways to go about it, and the piston up and down is also a great idea given the small form factor.
@@angrypotato_fz spot on
I think you're thinking about the timing all wrong. The reason the big pasta extruders in the factory work with continuous rotation is because the extrusion rate is high so blade speed can be high during continuous rotation. With your machine's extrusion rate, it would make more sense to spin as fast as you can for one revolution, then program in a waiting period.
You can have the motor set up on the side like how you did the prototype with the big weird shaped aluminum cutter. You even used a stepper motor, so you can set position to 90° and command the motor to spin 360° as fast as it can per cut. You used a wiper motor, think about how intermittent wipers work; the blades turn quickly, but there is a long rest period between cycles.
The extrusion rate is high, and also it is a big die holder, with lots of individual extrusion dies, which means for a given extrusion speed a continuously rotating cutter can have a much higher linear speed to get the same length of pasta.
Actually, using a wiper motor from a car, with all its circuitry, might be the cheapest way to get this done.
Use a box cutter blade, it even has a ø4mm hole on one site for attachment, the Nema 17 stepper has enough torque, if you run it at 24V with a decent blade.
and if you a stepper library on the arduino, you can run a speed ramp, so the blade has a high acceleration to the cut, then ramps down and stops for brief moment until enough material is extruded. Instead of continuous rotation. A pit like giving a good punch at first impact of the blade with the pasta, then just steadily slice through.
@@SarahKchannel Exactly!
Or make a thing like a "wide gap tuning fork" and attache a cheese cutting wire. Then add a sensor that could tell when the wire was right between the two extruders. And when enough pasta have been extrude make a 180 fast rotation.
@@MrMartinglob fast 360 would be better.
@@magicman9486 fast 180 is enough indeed
@@MrMartinglob Sensors are great, but you technically only need to do a homing position at start, as there is most likely no skipped steps. A hall effect sensor would do quiet well as it is contactless and does not care are 'dirt' as much as all other type of sensors.
It’s not that it didn’t work… you just invented a new type of pasta! 😂
“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!”
I would buy Alex’s malextrudi pasta and use it as an April fool’s joke, telling whomever I am cooking for that it is a newly invented pasta shape.
This is no longer a pasta series. More of an engineering series now.
I still like it to see someone create something out of nothing. Specially him as he is good in montages.
always has been
Always has been
It’s an engineering series that is sometimes about food
And I’m not mad about it…
i love the direction this channel is going, just the sheer amount of help and engineering suggestions in the comments is AMAZING
right, so the issue is the inner part of the blade is traveling very very slowly and on an arc
With that larger pasta extruders, the blade is effectively in a straight motion rather than an arcing one (especially further out)
When you cut with the knife it's fast and in a straight direction
You very much limited by the radios of the machine
Since you can code a bit, i would try making a linear cutting edge that goes up and down
just ping me if you want help
Also, the pasta dough was pushing the blade out of the way, especially on the thick one, which interrupts the cut. A wire might work for such a small machine.
problem with this is it would destroy the pasta on the way up, and if it was 2 sided it would cut too small, or have to do some sort of half rotation backwards up the machine and then come down straight again
Probably easier to scale up the current rotary design so that only a portion of the sweep interacts with the pasta.
@@doodle9495 They were thinking of using a linear actuator, not a rotational motor like a stepper motor. Anything using a rotational motor will have the exact same issue that they pointed out.
The blades used in normal machines are very sharp with a shallow angle. Your knife simply compresses the pasta and tries to sheer it off but it's too soft for that.
This was quite painful to watch. Didn't know him like that.
I’ve never done this before, but just based on occasionally doing modelling clay art, I think that using a wire that moves up and down could work well in some circumstances.
Came here to say this - it’s how my pasta extruded does the cutting. Taught piano wire cuts pasta very effectively.
This is actually a great idea and works amazingly good for several shapes of pasta. Since he can code, a wire cutter that goes down, waits, go up will work fantastically. And he can print a guide so it is always flush with the die. This will also preserve the die.
@@RoboticParanoia yeah, and the surface of the wire is small so it prevents the crush effect and sticking.
I would really like to see him try it even just manually first.
It’s generally what’s used for cakes that are too delicate to cut with a knife.
@@chuuu4610 there are some slow, small pasta extruders that use a stainless steel wire. The manual marcato he destroyed in the beginning of the series also have. Pretty effective for slow extrusion, but needs to be fast. He can have the timed wire cutter for bigger shapes and the knife for smaller ones, that do not require fast cut, such as fusili, caserecce, gnocchette, radiatore (if cut by the side, with the knife parallel to the length of the die shape) etc.
Just stretch the metal wire across two opposite points on the circle, that way it could still spin and cut. His biggest issue was he was tryong to reinvent the blade. Literally just stick a razor and presto.
The problem wasn't the stepper motors. They can have very high torque for their size, even without gear reduction. From the sound your motors made and the fact that you couldn't get as slow as you wanted the problem was the driver circuit xD
Yeah when a motor makes a sound like that it's not looking very good.
I recently automated my roller curtain which needed 3kg of pulling force which I achieved using a NEMA 23 1.16 Nm with the Tmc2208 supplied with 12V 5A. Looks like he was using a l298n h bridge instead of a proper stepper driver. Stepper motor drivers are able to send higher voltages (achieving higher torque) due to current control, and its sine waveform results in really quiet movement. Besides, its way easier to program the stop start sequences to vary the length of the pasta using stepper motors.
Video 1: "I'm going to make dry pasta myself at home!" Video 10: "I'm hiring a few more employees to staff the dry pasta factory I built at home!"
😂
The first thing that came to my mind was to use a wire cutter, like one of these you use for cutting cheese. You could press against the dye and if it can cut hard cheese it shouldn't have any problems with pasta :)!
I literally just posted the same thing 😅 just attach your cheese wire to some chain and gears like a bike. Sharp with a lot of torque and speed control
I agree. Some of the commercial machines I have seen use a wire to cut the pasta.
Sometimes things meant to cut something hard cannot cut something soft. For example, the saw blade for stone wouldn't be able to cut your finger. You can touch it while it's spinning! But it cuts through rock.
@@jacobv_ sure, but wirecutters are used for dough as well. Sure, I cannot try it myself, but I still believe a Wirecutter would do the job perfectly
When cutting anything, surface area is the enemy. The smaller the surface area of the blade, the more effective it is.
Your final design is so close to being spot on, but if I were to try improving it, I would make the blade thinner, set it to an angle closer to the face of the extruder, and potentially look at using a stepper motor that rotates 360 degrees as fast as possible and then stops for 3 seconds to allow the pasta to extrude to cutting length again.
All that said, this cutter is definitely doing the job as intended, so there's no need to continue chasing perfection.
As CityPlannerPlays often says, "don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough".
Good work Alex, Salut!
A razor makes sense. Maybe cut down so it's just the 5mm above the edge.
This has become, actually pretty fast, in a "how to have a mini pasta factory at home" series
Awesome!
When cutting it with a knife the whole blade of the kinfe was at a right angle to the pasta, or flush to the extruder dye so it didn't let the pasta Stick, or be carried by the blade. If you made the "blade" on your current set up thinner (blade to spine), think blade out of a disposable razor rather than hand held old school straight blade razor as a 20 degree facing the dye then put it at a right angle to the extruded dough you won't "catch" the pasta and carry it, especially on the upswing. Think 12:00 to 6:00 cut vs a 4:00 to 10:00 cut.
Will agree the blade that you made need to be at an angle to get a better cut like a the angle of the knife
agreed, make the blade surface smaller,give the pasta less surface area to stick too.
can use wire like from a wire cheese slicer as well.
I totally felt that triumph! It seems like something so simple or trivial, but in reality it’s totally complicated and takes way more time to create and perfect. Love the dedication to the craft and not giving up. The answers always come when you’re well rested. Edit: Or when you post the video and hear from all of the pasta cutting experts in the doobly doo.
I don't have any brilliant suggestions or contributions regarding the pasta cutter, but I just want to give kudos over the brilliance of "malextrudi". "Mal" meaning bad and "extrudi" meaning thrust or pushed out, combined together to mean "poorly extruded". But, at the same time, it is also mALEXtrudi. A brilliant play on words that would've made Shakespeare proud. Also, the life lesson at the end about REST being a necessary and integral step towards success... BRILLIANT! Absolutely brilliant.
This is exactly what makes this series so amazing. It's fun, interesting, quirky, just a tad crazy, but also teaches us about the scientific process and ways of approaching problems, the value of persistence and resilience, and about life (and pasta) as well. Absolutely, positively, BRILLIANT.
I often consum 3D printing and DIY content on YT. And occasionally I watch Alex's channel for cook inspirations. Now my 2 preferred contents are merging together...😊
Congrats Alex! This installment was hilarious. I was going to suggest putting the blade at a higher angle versus perpendicular to the die / face plate but looks like it worked out fine at ~45 degrees.
Alex, I LOVE your pasta series AND your passion for learning and improving in diverse taks is such an inspiration to me. Much love from Latin America!
This is no longer a pasta series, it's a pasta Saga! I am not sure if I am watching a creative endeavour or Alex descent into madness. Grear video as always!
You don’t give up on something and that’s what makes you great. You figure out how to get it done and don’t give up till it’s done. No retreat no surrender
Love the amount of pasta videos lately
Alex, remember the aggregation of marginal gains.
Good night's sleep +1%
Sharper blade +1%
Better blade shape +1%
Non-stick properties for the blade (carbon steel blade seasoned like a wok! Or just a non-stick coating on stainless steel) +1%
Blade alignment +1% (including support for the motor so it does not bend the blade out of alignment!)
Consistent pasta dough +1%
Clean pasta extruder +1%
Variable motor speed +1% (faster when cutting, slower when not cutting)
You will make the best one-man domestic dried pasta factory in the world. I believe in you.
You, sir, are AWESOME! I've been following your journey in this project and your resolve and drive to learn and design/engineer is truly inspiring!
I truly admire you, Alex. A long time ago, I discovered your channel because of the food and its interesting facts. Right now your content is even richer! Maybe some people don't like how you take further your topics, going really deep, but I think this is beautiful! I learn so much, thank you! Btw, I am from Brazil 🙂
To have more control on the pasta length, you may need to introduce a "pause" between cuts instead of just controlling the blade rotation speed.
Also didn't you think of using the blade of a utility knife
a wire that moves up, then down, then up, then down.
You give us hope! So grateful for each of these steps, each of these videos.
It is so pleasing to watch your iterative process. Great work!
Sometimes I forget that Alex is an engineer lmao
He studied telecommunications and wireless networking. Somewhat related to software engineering (though just barely), but hardly anything like mechanical engineering.
@@photonicpizza1466 I seem to recall him saying he worked as a software engineer before, which is what I was referencing.
Regardless, by definition he is an engineer.
@@zackbryans4982 He worked as a web designer. Not even software engineering, just very light programming.
And by your definition, most engineers are absolutely useless with mechanical systems like this. Even a proper software engineer is abysmal at considering important things like shear stress etc. “Engineer” is a very broad term, and using it this mindlessly is asinine.
@@photonicpizza1466 Are you okay? You seem way too worked up about this.
By definition an engineer is "a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or public works." Wouldn't you know it, Alex designed, built, and maintained multiple machines over the course of this youtube channel.
Alex inventing a new machine for his procedure
my engineer brain: "i would totally overengineer this"
Alex engineer brain: "i'm totally overengineering this!"
I was thinking a Geneva gear offset from the main drive to give a rapid movement and a nice pause.
Or a crank and piston and cheese wire wiping up and down
I'm an electrical Engineer myself and I like cooking, this is the perfect channel for me, I love it.
The pasta series is the best you done to date! Do not stop, plenty more to be done in the pasta series. Keep it up
Maybe, try to imitate what works well by hand : a blade set almost flat on the die. Maybe something which cuts 2 pastas by which moving up and down. When it cuts, it does so in short and quick motion. Size changes with delay between movements.
You were onto a winner with the saw blade but you're forgetting one essential thing:
ANGLE,
If you don't cut it with the blade facing forward you'll smoosh the part of the pasta you just cut onto the part of the pasta that is still being held by the extruder, the last prototype worked a bit better because of that (the pasta was ejected away from the extruder).
To put that into perspective try cutting your pastas with the knife at a 90° angle from the extruder, same result.
Good luck
Timing is everything. Love this channel.
Thank you for showing all of your iterations.
I’m hoping he realizes that this setup can’t have a constant spinning blade. It needs to quickly spin and stop to allow the pasta to extrude then quickly spin again.
You can make the blade slighty canted
maybe mount the motor next to the extruder and run the motor faster? 🤔
Yeah, when he said "stepper motor" I thought that's what he would do. "Hey Alex, use a brushless motor with a position controller!" Then he could make the lengths of the pasta exactly what he wanted.
Just ask the pasta nicely to cut itself
It is always great to see one of your videos come out. I enjoy them all. Thanks for sharing.
I love watching your prototyping and troubleshooting journey. I found your channel through your collaboration with This Old Tony and although I don't cook, I get super excited with every new video you release. Keep up the fantastic work!
SHARPEN THE BLADES! or use a razor blade
Edit: NM hadn't finished the video...
Alex, you are making one of the best TH-cam series that has ever existed. Please keep up the good work and never give up on your content. I would happily watch your trials with this pasta battle for days!
I am so loving your new series!
A perfect combination of Engineering, Food, Passion and Humor.
What an original and beautiful series.
Respect 🙏
This is what I love about your videos, Alex- you're not afraid to show all the failures along the way! Well done and keep going.
Excellent process
Never cease to amaze!! Great job, Alex!!
such a great serie Alex!!
Can really see your experience on doing these kinds of projects, it really amazing fun and looking forward watching every of your videos. Take care!
I absolutely love that you share the true journey. Failures and all.
MAN! I loved that video so much. I REALLY felt with you and enjoyed every minute of that series. thank u alex
I really admire your determination. Truly inspiring! ❤️
omg i love this series
Glad you didn’t give up, Alex! Your perseverance is quite inspiring 👍
Nice work! Your editing style and story telling is so entertaining. I'll be waiting for next video.
Great work Alex! You are super amazing! I admire your genius and your determination toward every goal! I follow your episodes with the highest interest a human being might have :))) And I’m proud of you!! All my admiration and congratulations to your work and channel!! You are simply extraordinary man!!
Alex, i Had tears in my eyes when IT worked im so glad thank you my guy
You did it! 🙌 Never doubted you for a second. This was so fun to watch 😁
As always, I loved the video. Thanks for including all the 'less-than-perfect' engineering moments. You do beautiful work!
It’s amazing! Reminded me of my time as a polyethylene process engineer where the extruder that is used in making polyethylene pellets have knife to die contact maintained by hydraulic pressure.
Really cool project!!!
Best video for a while, loved every minute
I really enjoyed watching your iterative design process ^^ Congratulations on a working prototype! Of course, with these things it is good to step away for a while, but I'd certainly enjoying seeing you revisit this!
I love how you show the failure as well as the success!
No wonder why the pasta makers were so generous with their knowledge. If anything it serves as deterrent to any competitors or even home pasta makers. Their sales will go up after sharing this journey and nobody in their right mind will try this at home. Love this series. My respect for dried pasta has increased dramatically.
Hey Alex, thanks for your hard work and dedication you put into your videos.
It's really enjoyable :)
I've watched a lot of your series' and this here is the best in my eyes. Kudos Alex! Salú!
Thank you for listening to my feedback on your pervious video. No intro and and long recap, and the sponsor at the end. And you solved all the problems you encountered in one video. You are back man, to the high standards like always before!
what I love about Alex is that he not only shows us the amazing result at the end of the process but also shares all the failures on the road to success
Merci
So satisfying
This is so much better than anything on television its crazy
This was awesome.
My favorite episode in the pasta series so far! Thanks, Alex! I needed that laugh!
Alex, your production is top notch! I can only imagine how many days and weeks it takes to film and edit your videos. Well done and you deserve all the success you've achieved! Hello from Canada!
Maybe a glass or two of the beverage of your choice, a meal, a long nap. A few days away from pasta and a fresh idea, a new day, you'll feel like a new man! 💕💕💕
Have a nice vacation/time to relax Alex. We’ll be here to see the final product when you decide to come back to pasta.
I like that you rarely fully give up
I am loving all your videos! I am retired in Thailand and one of my hobbies is old style shaving... With safety razors... You need to incorporate your cutting machine to use ultra sharp thin stainless steel blades in your system to perfect... CIAO!
This video make me so happy
I love this man
2 years ago, when for the first time i saw one of your cooking videos, i knew you are engineer. There are no other specie on the earth with that strive for knowledge. Last several videos were amazing, mixture of cooking and engineering. Keep up the good work man. A lot of regards from fellow engineer.
This series is getting long. It's clear you are so passionate about this. Lovely to see. It also made clear why they are not selling a cutter for this machine.
Also, as some have mentioned...... this disc seems too small to cut with continous motion, but also starting and stopping is difficult. If you could stop, and then quickly spin 360 and then stop again (repeat) then that could work for larger pasta.
As an industria design student and culinary aficionado i love this, keep on going dude
Great job man! Really impressed. I figured it was going to be an issue of torque above all else but your comparison to scissors makes a lot of sense. And the property you're describing is within your shots of the commercial cutters from your trip to Italy.
Oh yes I love this ep !
Awesome vid!
Bravo Alex. Love watching you and you approach to making food. This pasta series has made my pasta dishes top shelf….. with the family at least. It take a bag of the male exteudate pasta off you hands. A la prosima.
Alex, what you need is intermittent motion, not constant rotation. Bigger pasta machines don't need to do this because the rotor turns fast enough, but your die is so small that the entire die is probably the size of the axle of the pasta cutter on commercial machines. Since you have a high torque motor, do this: Have the blade on a spring-loaded pivot, and let it compress the spring as the rotor turns, then at the right time, have it pull past the stop and swing forward to slice the pasta from the outlet.
Do this once every 180˚, and you'll get intermittent motion with a quick fast cut that works well with your small pasta die.
Way to go Alex you're the bomb of pasta!
This guy is awesome 🤩
Mark Rober of food!!! loved the last 2 videos where you actually face some bigger problems. Making your own wok looks like child's play compared to this dry pasta series. Amazing work Alex!
Alex! I think you are really inspiring with showing all the failures throughout the process. It is important that engineering includes failures during the iterations.
Keep it up!
The best cooking show ever
4:42
And you have already invented a new pasta! 🌹
Now the community has the honor
of giving the new pasta its honorable name!
Great inventions came from failed attempts.
Has a whole new meaning for me now!😉
Love it.
I'm getting more and more excited for the TOT episode
I admire the DIY spirit but I'd have sold the machine and gotten that "one step up" one w/ the attachment after the 2nd attempt hahaha - your patience and ingenuity are FANTASTIC!