Pasta Maker Foothold

A friend of mine moved away and had asked me to help. She had some stuff she didn't want to take with her, and I saw a mucky pasta maker she had used only once and wanted to throw away. That was the beginning of my career as a passionate pasta artist. But there was a catch. The pasta maker is fixed to a table with a clamp. But the tables of today are not made for this type of mounting anymore. Neither is my kitchen counter. I thought about fixing it to a long board so the movements of the crank handle would be negated. But the size could make it unhandy. I calculated that a weight of 2kilograms was needed to even out the force of the crank handle.

First I had to clean the rolls. To remove the starch I used water with alkaline baking soda. Just a bit on a paper towel and scrubbing. Of course you have to turn the crank to be able to clean all spots.

I had a wooden disc from a tree in my backyard that I felled. It had to dry for a year and I deemed it to be ready. The weight is more than enough and the wide platform will deliver enough stability to fix my pasta maker without a clamp.

The surface needs to be smooth. I did this with a milling machine and the bark came off on some places.

Of course I had to check if the surface was skewed. And if the machine still fits if the bark comes off.

After I saw it was save to remove the bark it came off with the milling machine. At the same time I tried to straighten the line.

As you could see in previous pictures, the drying wood shrinked and the circle had a gap. With 2 batten I closed the sides and then melted bar tin with a soldering iron into the gap. The malleable metal cools down, dries almost immediately and was easy to smoothen with the milling machine.

With the pasta maker on the foothold I drew the border of it on the wood. Then I sized the position of the rubber bases underneath and drew the lines for orientation.

I want to use thinner planks for the fundament and wider planks to push down the pasta maker when its in use.

To enable the movement of the rubber bumbers I drilled a line of tiny holes in the tracks. The planks should be tight but the pasta maker needs to be moveable to remove dust.

After fitting the planks I predrilled the holes in the planks. Then layed the planks on the desired positions and fixed the top holes first. Because then you can still bend the planks into position. Afterwards I drilled in every screw one by one and drilled them out again up to half the size. To finish the job all screws have to be drilled in carefully to avoid breaking the planks with too much pressure.

The foothold keeps the pasta maker in place, even if you use an attachement like the MilleGnocchi. Some dust gets stuck between the pasta maker and the foothold, just hold it over your dustbin and wipe it off. The whole object weighs 3.5kilograms now and is an eyecatcher in my kitchen.