Sunday, April 13, 2008

My pasta machine has died...

It's an Atlas 180 with the aluminum rollers. I noticed a while back that I would get shards of metal out from the hole where the turning handle goes in so I noticed that I was stripping it a bit. But, a couple of weeks ago it finally stripped completely. When I turn the handle with the least bit of resistance it spins the handle only.

I took it apart to have a closer look at it and the roller and the inside of the roller are aluminum. The turning handle is steel. The aluminum is obviously not strong enough to handle the steel.

I am not gentle with pasta machines, but my friends who have watched me clay at my worst say that I'm not particularly hard on them either. My Michael's cheapy that I've had for years doesn't show anywhere near the same wear and I've abused that one even worse.

I've only had it a year and paid good money for it. I can send it back to where I bought it from, but that'll cost $20 in shipping. I don't know how much a replacement part is, but it's another $20 to get it back. So do I want to be $40+ in the hole for something that I view as a manufacturing defect that isn't likely going to be fixed due to the mismatch on the metals? Probably not.

But I miss the 180 width immensely. Going back down to a 150 is hard. Bev's stamps no longer fit through width wise.

So I'm in search of a 180 with steel rollers. I guess the other option is to buy a motor for the 180. But, I've torn the thing apart trying to figure out how to pull just the roller off and I'm not sure I can get it back together again so that it runs as smoothly as it did.

Anyhow, if anyone else has had challenges with the aluminum rollers, I'd be curious to hear about it.

And, if this is the only thing I've got to whine about today, then I'm doing OK.

Cheers,

Sandy

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