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Home made guitar cutter


David J.

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As a matter of fact there has been a bit of progress.

I used JB Weld epoxy to attach the handle to the frame,

gallery_40084_3407_124432.jpg

and I trimmed the back edge of the cutting table so that the wires would feed into the slots without catching.

gallery_40084_3407_83175.jpg

I still haven't mounted everything on a base yet, but I couldn't resist trying it out anyway. To do this I placed the cutting table on a couple of books on the coffee table to give it height and held an end of the cutting frame in each hand. I made the mistake of adding a thick foot of tempered chocolate and it set before I managed to get it cut. That meant I had to press fairly hard which stretched some of the wires, but it cut the slab anyway:

gallery_40084_3407_101823.jpg

I tightened the loose wires and proved that by adding the rod I achieved enough of a radius that the wire would flow easily and could be retightened.

Perhaps next weekend I will attack the base. I had meant to get to it over the long Memorial Day weekend but ended up making two batches of truffles instead.

While it has taken quite a while for me to get this far because I've had to design it as I go, I marvel at just how little effort or expertise it would take to duplicate.

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  • 9 months later...
bumping the thread up in case there's been any developments here that we'd find interesting 8-)

No big developments. I've been lazy about designing and building a base. Instead I've just been using it hand-held and found it works nicely in that I can rock it to cut from the back, then front, then middle. That works out especially well when the ganache is stiff or I miscalculated and let a tempered chocolate foot set up too far.

Right now it's on loan to Tammy. Perhaps she will post her comments.

I have speculated that the whole thing might be able to be constructed with epoxy rather than having to deal with brazing. A slight channel cut in the side rails for the ends of the cross pieces would ensure that the glue didn't have to hold against a shearing force. If that worked it would reduce the skill set required by a notch, not that brazing is all the difficult.

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Never having used a guitar before, I don't have experience with a real one to compare it to. But even without the base, it made short work of two slabs of ganache for my Valentine's Day production. However, not having as much of the knack with it that David's developed, I think I would have found it cleaner and easier with a base, since I would be better able to take advantage of leverage. But it definitely works as is!

My biggest learning from borrowing David's guitar cutter, is that I don't actually want my husband to make me one, even though he probably could. Because it was way too easy to produce 220 perfect squares of ganache, and way too time-consuming and tedious to hand-dip 220 perfect squares of ganache. Have I mentioned how much I HATE dipping?

So I bought 4 more molds instead, and will up my capacity that way. (I usually make 4 flavors at a time - 3 molded, one enrobed. I'm just going to switch over to all molded except when there's a flavor I really want to do that has to be enrobed, and I'm feeling particularly masochistic.)

Tammy's Tastings

Creating unique food and drink experiences

eGullet Foodblogs #1 and #2
Dinner for 40

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I'm (well, a good friend of mine will do the real work) about to start making two types of cutters, inspired, of course, by your efforts here. one will be a conventional 'hinge' action guitar, the other i think i'm going to take a '4 post' approach, where the corners of the cutting board have vertical guides that allow for a 'screen' to lower on them, effectively cutting both directions at the same time. if the tolerances are tight enough, there shouldn't be any wiggle room and the cuts should be nice. when i get to the point of actually doing it vs drawing it, i'll post pictures 8-)

Edited by Sebastian (log)
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I'm (well, a good friend of mine will do the real work) about to start making two types of cutters, inspired, of course, by your efforts here.  one will be a conventional 'hinge' action guitar, the other i think i'm going to take a '4 post' approach, where the corners of the cutting board have vertical guides that allow for a 'screen' to lower on them, effectively cutting both directions at the same time.  if the tolerances are tight enough, there shouldn't be any wiggle room and the cuts should be nice.  when i get to the point of actually doing it vs drawing it, i'll post pictures 8-)

It sounds like you are planning on duplicating Llyod's design (which is where I got my inspiration). His works great for the punch style, though I would opt for a single row of bolts in each direction to cut down on the effort required.

I'll be watching for your design and pictures!

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Just to let you know, if you plan on using that in a commercial kitchen, don't let the health inspector know about it. Wait until they're all gone before you bust it out, because it's not NSF. Shame on all of you for being handy. java script:emoticon(':biggrin:') smilie <---- why isn't this working? its suppose to be a smile

Sorry guys I was just venting a little about my health department.

Edited by ChristopherMichael (log)
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Just to let you know, if you plan on using that in a commercial kitchen, don't let the health inspector know about it. Wait until they're all gone before you bust it out, because it's not NSF. Shame on all of you for being handy. java script:emoticon(':biggrin:') smilie  <---- why isn't this working? its suppose to be a smile

Sorry guys I was just venting a little about my health department.

And understandably so. Your health department SUCKS. I've been reading your posts with much sympathy and anguish for you.

Tammy's Tastings

Creating unique food and drink experiences

eGullet Foodblogs #1 and #2
Dinner for 40

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My biggest learning from borrowing David's guitar cutter, is that I don't actually want my husband to make me one, even though he probably could. Because it was way too easy to produce 220 perfect squares of ganache, and way too time-consuming and tedious to hand-dip 220 perfect squares of ganache. Have I mentioned how much I HATE dipping?

Well, you could wait for David to 'Alton Brown' an enrober and ask your husband to do that too. Then it might be worthwhile!

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