My cheap pasta maker broke after 4 uses, back to rolling by hand

Picked up a $25 pasta machine from a yard sale in Tacoma last month and it worked great for the first 3 batches. On the 4th use the crank gear just stripped out mid-roll and now it only spins half the rollers. I ended up finishing that batch with a rolling pin and a knife, took forever but the noodles were fine. Anyone have a hand crank brand that actually lasts more than a few months without dropping big cash?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia_hill601d ago

I had a $30 hand crank from Amazon strip its gears on batch five, so I feel your pain. After that I dug around and found an old Atlas brand machine at a thrift store for $8, and it's been going strong for two years now. The trick is to look for metal gears inside, not the plastic ones they sneak in on cheap models. You can pop the side cover off before you buy to check, most sellers don't care if you're careful. If you want new without breaking the bank, I'd say save up for the $60 range and skip anything under that, trust me. Rolling by hand is honest work but it ain't worth doing every time you want pasta.

johnson.eva4h ago

Someone on a cooking forum was saying the same thing about checking the gear material before you buy, even mentioned taking a tiny flashlight to see inside the casing. Old metal parts really do outlast everything new these days, it's wild.