Cuisinart Recall

[rotuts]

this is that the new blade looks like 

 

[boilsover]

23 minutes ago, rotuts said:

this is that the new blade looks like 

 

If those white dots reflect holes in the blades themselves, it looks more likely to crack and calve off splinters of steel....

Edited December 20, 2016 by boilsover (log)

[rotuts]

no     its plastic / the same material as the central shaft

 

[rotuts]

I have two Cuisi blades :

 

one that came with the machine and a replacement

 

i use the older one for dry work   ( grinding dry breadcrumbs )

 

and the newer one for Wet Work   

 

 

I decided to call them to see if they would send me a second replacement blade.  I offered to send them an email pic

 

with both blades in the pic

 

the person had to check but w no further question  they are sending me a second replacement

 

if you have two , yet only one machine , consider this

 

[Yiannos]

48 minutes ago, boilsover said:

If those white dots reflect holes in the blades themselves, it looks more likely to crack and calve off splinters of steel....

 

I disagree, looking at the pictures of the old style with the metal rivets, it looks like the rivet material is much harder than the metal used in the blade and the rivets won after years of use and abuse. Having the softer plastic posts helping to secure the blade should prevent that cracking as the plastic will give long before the metal in this new design. You saw the same kind of thing years ago when KitchenAid replaced the metal primary gears in some of their mixers with a fiberglass type of material. The metal gears worked fine until something jammed up during use, in which case the toughness of the gear helped destroyed the other transmission innards. The fiberglass gear is designed to break before the damage is done, is easy to replace on it's own, and in this way acts as a fail-safe protecting the more expensive parts of the machine.

[boilsover]

12 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

 

I disagree, looking at the pictures of the old style with the metal rivets, it looks like the rivet material is much harder than the metal used in the blade and the rivets won after years of use and abuse. Having the softer plastic posts helping to secure the blade should prevent that cracking as the plastic will give long before the metal in this new design. You saw the same kind of thing years ago when KitchenAid replaced the metal primary gears in some of their mixers with a fiberglass type of material. The metal gears worked fine until something jammed up during use, in which case the toughness of the gear helped destroyed the other transmission innards. The fiberglass gear is designed to break before the damage is done, is easy to replace on it's own, and in this way acts as a fail-safe protecting the more expensive parts of the machine.

 

You have a point about the soft plastic.  However, the metal web on these new blades is even narrower than that on the old riveted blades.  Less meat = shorter crack required to break away.

[Yiannos]

Yeah I see what you are saying, time will tell I guess...

[boilsover]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

no     its plastic / the same material as the central shaft

 

 

Yes.  I presumed the white dots we see in your photo are the ends of some sort of retaining pegs which fit through holes in the blade.  Is this incorrect?

[rotuts]

as far as I can tell

[palo]

I guess it's better to have plastic pieces in your food than metal pieces, Good call.

 

p

[Soupcon]

I had a piece of one of the blades break off... like a chip in a knife blade. Yes they are sending me a new one. No questions asked. I traded in my 1970s cuis/robot coup about 10 years ago as the housing was cracked and I figured that one day it would cease to work at the wrong time.

[rotuts]

I think this time is the glue/epoxy that holds the gizmo together rather than rivets  

[Shelby]

Got this email yesterday.  So, it seems that even if I didn't get an immediate confirmation from Cuis, I'm still on the list for a new blade.

 

December 22, 2016

 

Thank you so much for your ongoing patience. We want to keep you advised of the status of your free Cuisinart replacement blade. Our blades are fabricated using precise manufacturing processes, which of course means, that they take some time to produce. We are producing new blades as rapidly as possible to meet the demand resulting from this replacement program.

When your blade is about to be shipped, we will send you an email so you can anticipate when it will arrive to the address you indicated on your replacement blade registration.   In the meantime, you are able to use all other cutting implements and accessories that may have come with your Cuisinart food processor.

Cuisinart strives to provide you with the best service possible and if you have any questions or concerns please contact us via our email address: Cuisinart_Cserve@conair.com

 

Sincerely,

 

 Cuisinart

[ElainaA]

@Shelby  I got the same email yesterday. It was a relief as I was afraid my recall response had been lost.

[dcarch]

For knife metal, the harder the metal, the longer it will remain sharp. The problem is that the harder the metal the more brittle it becomes.

 

That is probably what happened. Cuisinart in trying to make the blade sharp longer, and used a very hard metal.

 

The replacement blade is probably a very soft steel blade. So don't expect the blade to be very sharp very long.

 

dcarch 

[MelissaH]

I, too, got the same email as @Shelby and @ElainaA. No original confirmation email, but I am also relieved to know that I'm in the system.

[rotuts]

I don't have tools to evaluate the hardness of steel.

 

I looked an my new blade,  and the old  did a scratch test on the back side no where near the cutting edge

 

is a gross sense , it seems to me the metal is similar

 

I think some of the old rivets were not as tight in the manufactures hole as others , which gave a tiny tiny give each thine the old blade

 

started to whirl , which led to some failures.  too bad we don't know the lots of the failed blades.  booth my old blades are fine

 

using 40 X to examine the area around the rivets.

 

the blade I use for  ' dry '   ( bread , oats etc ) is still very sharp  ( Lets Shave one hair on your Arm ! ) but the ' Soft ' use blade  ( Wet Work !n )

 

a bit sharper.   these are the old blades

 

the new blade is much sharper.  I see their point about carefully disposing of the older blades .

 

Im only guessing , but Im betting the new blades rely not just on the plastic plug that keeps the blade secure to the rotary housing  

 

but some sort of better epoxy along the entire blade's length in contact w that plastic.

 

I got the second email with my second request to cover the 2d blade I own.

[dscheidt]

22 hours ago, dcarch said:

For knife metal, the harder the metal, the longer it will remain sharp. The problem is that the harder the metal the more brittle it becomes.

 

That is probably what happened. Cuisinart in trying to make the blade sharp longer, and used a very hard metal.

 

The replacement blade is probably a very soft steel blade. So don't expect the blade to be very sharp very long.

 

dcarch 

It's the 21st century.  Differential hardening of tools is pretty well established technology.  (it's how the Oliver Chilled plow, the plow that caused the dust bowl, was made, in the 19th century, for instance.) so are various welding methods, to put a hardened cutting edge on a softer tool body.There's no reason to think the solution is a blade that won't stay sharp.  For that matter, we don't know that the problem was caused by too hard a blade in the first place.

[rotuts]

rivets

 

its the rivets.

[lindag]

My blade arrived yesterday...that was really fast!

[dcarch]

2 hours ago, dscheidt said:

It's the 21st century.  Differential hardening of tools is pretty well established technology. ---------- For that matter, we don't know that the problem was caused by too hard a blade in the first place.

 

Very true. However, differential hardening, may also need differential tempering. All will add additional cost in machining.

The pictures shows cracking of the metal, which would seem to me that the metal is too brittle.

 

dcarch

[boilsover]

On 12/20/2016 at 8:11 AM, rotuts said:

this is that the new blade looks like 

 

 

Strange...  My replacement blade arrived today, and it's different from yours-- mine seems to have the steel blades completely bedded in the plastic hub.

 

Mine's marked: "Cuisinart DLC-7 Metal Blade DLC-001BIA"

 

 

[rotuts]

interesting.  my cuisi is an11 cup model.  at the time there was also a 14 cup model

 

maybe the DLC-7 is a 14 cup model ?

 

still .....

[boilsover]

Yup, all the 7s are 14 cup, I think.

[lindag]

Mine is also the 14 cup and it's a DLC-7.  It makes sense that the blade is different for the different sized machine, I guess.