Spiral Vegetable Cutter

thingiverse

Spiral cutters are a great tool for making curly fries, zucchini vegetable noodles, and even shredding onions effectively. This spiral vegetable cutter is compact, efficient, and produces minimal vegetable waste. It fits snugly over a standard 32oz yogurt container, allowing for neat and direct storage into a container. The device uses widely available mini-snap knife blades for the cutters: six small sections are snapped off to form the vertical cutters and the remainder of the blade is used for the horizontal slicer. CAUTION: Be extremely cautious when assembling and using this device, as the blades are extremely sharp! Print Settings: Printer Brand: MakerGear Printer: M2 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.2mm Infill: 15% Notes: Print one of each part using natural (unpigmented) PLA: cutter, plug, pusher, and ring. Update: Initially, an inadvertently uploaded mirrored version of the cutter and plug was uploaded. These files have now been corrected. Post-Printing: Assembly: First, thoroughly wash off a new mini-snap knife blade to remove any grease. Carefully snap off six sections, ensuring they have snapped cleanly along the score line. Using needle-nose pliers (do not use your bare hands), insert the dull point of each knife section into each of the six slots in the cutter so that the honed edges are pointing away from the slot. Place a dot of superglue on each side of each vertical blade to secure them in place. Position the remainder of the blade in the upper slot with the sharp point towards the center of the cutter. Slide the plug piece into place on the rim of the cutter. Glue the blade and plug into place with superglue. (Apply glue to both sides of the blade - it will wick into the gaps.) Allow the glue to dry completely for several hours before using. The inside of the ring has a taper on one side and is straight on the other. Place it on a flat surface with the straight-side up, then press the cutter into it, blade side up. How to Use: Cut a flat spot on whatever you want to spiral cut (potato, zucchini, etc.) and another flat spot on the opposite side parallel to the first cut. Place the cutter/ring, blade-side up, over a 32oz yogurt container and gently press your veggie onto center stub of the cutter. Center the pusher over the other side of your veggie and press in place. Now simply press down lightly as you rotate the pusher, and spiral-cut strands should descend into your tub. CAUTION: Never use the spiral cutter without the pusher - pressing vegetables by hand is incredibly dangerous! Food Safety: PLA is a bioplastic generally considered food safe. However, it's best to use natural (unpigmented) PLA because who knows what they put in the pigment. The other big issue with food and 3D printing is cleaning. PLA will melt in your dishwasher, so you have to hand wash your spiral cutter. (Using a brush works best.) Unfortunately, water often creeps into the crevices left by 3D printing, and stuff can take a long time to dry out. Also, things (both benign and harmful) can grow in the crevices even after cleaning (just like with a cutting board). As such, only use the spiral cutter with vegetable products (no meat spirals). If mold starts to grow in your spiral cutter, try soaking it in vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, and letting it dry in the sun will always help kill off anything growing.