Rolling Pin Depth Guides for Perfect Pastries Every Time

I love to bake. Ever since I was little, I have loved the relaxing process of rolling out thin sheets of soft dough with a heavy pin and then cutting out cookies. As fun as it is, there is always the daunting task of getting the sheet of dough to be an accurate, uniform thickness. With a traditional rolling pin, getting the dough to be a specific thickness can be quite challenging because you don't really have a great indicator of the thickness at any point in the dough. Some bakers recommend using a ruler to measure the edge of the dough, but often it will be thicker in the center of the sheet than in the edges, leading to uneven cookies. Inspired by products online, I decided that spacing guides on the ends of the pin would solve the problem of uneven thickness. With the guides on either end, the rolling pin is kept a constant distance away from the work surface, ensuring an even and consistent thickness across the entire dough sheet. Designing and printing them myself allowed me to make guides with uncommon thicknesses, and being able to decide the dimensions allowed them to fit snugly on a rolling pin I already have. In this Instructable, I will show you how you can design and print your own custom guides, so you can rest easy knowing your baked goods will come out perfect every time.

For this project, you will need:

1. Access to a 3D printer
2. 20-30 Grams of Filament
3. Digital Calipers or an Accurate Ruler

When using the guides, it is essential that they fit snugly onto the ends of the rolling pin. Take a pair of calipers or another millimeter-accurate measuring guide, and note the diameter of each end of the main body. If your rolling pin has a silicone layer around the outside, add an extra 2 millimeters to the diameter to account for the squish factor. Then, take note of the diameter of the handles on either side, making sure to measure the thickest part if the handles are not uniform.

For this project, I made the CAD model in Autodesk's Fusion, as it allowed for easy exporting to my 3D printing software. If you would like to create your own custom model, go right ahead, but for beginners to CAD, open the attached STEP file in Fusion or another CAD modeling program. If you choose to use the included model as a base, go through the sketches and change the dimensions to your values, and the model will change to your specifications. There are 3 important values to keep in mind when designing your guides: The thickness of the outer ring, the diameter of the inner recess, and the diameter of the cutout for the handle. I also found that engraving the thickness of the guide into the inner ring helps to keep them organized.

The Outer Ring

The thickness of the outer ring will ultimately determine the thickness of your final rolled dough. You can make them any thickness you want, and even create new ones for specific recipes when a dough thickness is specified. The standard set of thicknesses that I have found to be most commonly used are 1/8, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, and 3/4 inches.

The Inner Recess

Every rolling pin is a different size, and so the diameter of the pin varies. The diameter of the inner recess of the guide must be very close to the diameter of the end of the pin to ensure a snug fit and prevent the guides from falling off or shifting around during rolling. Set the diameter of the inner recess to a couple of millimeters more than what you measured in Step 1 because after being 3D printed, the part can slightly shrink. These extra millimeters of tolerance will make sure that any shrinking or warping doesn't affect the final print.

The Handle Cutout

As with the diameter of the pin, each rolling pin will have a different size of handle. Set the diameter of the handle cutout to about 5 millimeters more than the thickest part of your handle to allow the guides to be easily put on and taken off.

Now that you have your model made, it's time to bring it to life. For the filament, pick a food-safe filament in any color that you like. Filaments like PLA tend to be food-safe as they are derived from cornstarch, but make sure to confirm with the manufacturer's information as sometimes additives can make the filament unfit for contact with food. In your Slicing software of choice, prepare your model for printing. For your print, make sure to set the infill to a high density because these guides will need to be strong to withstand hard use and washing. In terms of printing orientation, print them face up to avoid using support material.

It's time to put your prints to the test! Wash your prints with soap and warm water, and they are ready for use. Just be sure to wash them by hand afterward and not put them in the dishwasher, a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

Happy Baking!