Dough Mixer Shaft

[[X]Outlaw]

A buddy of mine bought a dough mixer from eBay, really nice industrial quality but the shaft was missing.

This was one of my early project when I started learning how to use the lathe. I must say I wish I picked a material other than 316 stainless to work with. As you can see at the end, I hard quite a hard time parting it off. Here I learned the hard way, when working with SS don't stop in the middle of the cut!

After some test fitting and some careful measurements I was able to produce this for him out of 316 stainless steel. This was the most difficult steel alloy I've worked with to date.

The machine has a feature when you pull the shaft up it should not come out completely but be held in place by a plastic clip. I produced the grove for this clip with a cut off tool ground to the thickness of the existing plastic C-clip. My replacement worked perfect and in doing some research was made out of better material than the original.













Chevy

 

[GarageGuy]

I haven't tried to machine stainless steel yet, but I've heard the stories. The shaft looks great! How did you make it without the original to look at?

GG

 

[[X]Outlaw]

Hey thanks GarageGuy,

I just measured how deep the bore of that mixer attachment is and figured out how much I'd like to leave on top as a nob. Then by taking some rough measurements I figured out how high the grove for the retaining clip should be in order to pull up the shaft for attachment changes. For the diameter I tool a rough measurement with calipers of the bore in the arm then turned a piece of scrap till I got the perfect slip fit I was looking for.

I've heard 303 SS machines a lot nicer but my local supplier does not carry it mainly because it's not really weldable (lead content I guess). I may get a piece from online metals to try it out.

Chevy

 

[ogberi]

Excellent work! Is that the turned finish, or emery cloth?

You answered the questions I was going to ask, but someone beat me to 'em.

By chance, is the original part available, and what does the manufacturer want to cheat you out of to get it? Just curious.

 

[[X]Outlaw]

ogberi thanks

We were unable to find the original shaft since its an older machine. I'm pretty sure if it was the manufacture would charge a ridiculous sum of money for it.

The shaft was finished with fine emery paper..1500-2000 grit if i remember correctly, then polished with compound.

Chevy

 

[Ulma Doctor]

just out of curiosity what brand of Dough mixer was it?

nice work, in hard material, BTW

 

[Micke S]

Very nice work.

A backside though with means for machining is that more people than you would imagine doesn't hesitate to put you to work for many hours just to save a few bucks themselves on parts hew:

 

[[X]Outlaw]

Ulma Doctor...Can't remember the brand right now.

Micke..isn't that the truth. I always give a price upfront, time and tools are expensive.

Chevy

 

[Warren57]

Nice job and you are correct, 316 is overkill, normally used in an acid type environment. I'll bet the original shaft was a much lower grade like 304.
Great looking job!!!


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[caspaincmonster]

It looks like an Electrolux or maybe a Bosch rotating bowel mixer. They are great machines that will handle a huge amount of dough. Those Taig lathes are fine little machines but not really happy with heavy work or difficult materials. I had one and moved on to a schaublin which is significantly more capable. (also expensive, heavy etc)