Alex! I went on a day trip to Paris so I dropped by Utopie. It was the best croissant I've ever had in my life! Thank s so much for the recommendation :D
@@CallieMasters5000 It's paris dawg. Be prepared to pay a lot. These people take a raw egg and garnish it with grass and put a 500 euro price tag on it.
@@CallieMasters5000 I bought a croissant, pain au chocolat, and a small apple pie and it came to 5.10euro. If i recall correctly it was like 1ish euro, like 1.20-1.60
@@animato6441 wow that was so stereotyped, maybe next time try to leave the tourist area and visit by yourself the city... it's absolutely not like this where you know people actually live
I'm not sure but it looks like the intersection of the bisectors of two chords... It's a bit of an ask to do that on such a small scale with a pencil that is none too sharp.
ALEX, American engineer here. To find center of circle, trace circle onto paper, fold paper two times, purpendicularly, to make a sector. Place sector onto wood circle and trace!!!
@elnubnub okay, but with mine you need absolutey no tools, not even a pencil if you're cutting corners... think about it. You should eliminate user error.
This is just top quality content. That’s the way food blogging should be. Not just repeating recipes. But investigating them thoroughly. Inventing shit. Perfecting the technique. This is really inspiring, Alex, thank you! You got a very pleased subscriber in Russia :)
*goes to hardware store* "hey, so I'm looking for a really thick rod. It has to be REALLY thick and smooth and pretty long. Wait, what are you laughing about?"
A framed bed of several rollers mounted at an angle (~3°) would introduce the dough into gradual step reductions in thickness. This allows each step in height to be minimal force and flex on the machine. Additionally spring-loaded roller(s) with an adjustable stop means force is limited on each pass. The reductions would continue until the springs are no longer compressed and the roller is at the adjusted thickness. A strong "center rail" under the table would handle the flex better than edge tracks; this is where the force is anyway. Oh and if your wooden rollers aren't exactly centered to the axis, push it up against a sanding block while it is powered to spin. This will "self circularize" them similar to a lathe. Love your everything Alex, keep it up it always makes me smile.
Alex, I have got to say this: Your channel is just fenomenal You are very original, I just love the way you make your videos! The amazingness about this channel of yours, is that you show your hwole progression, all of your failures, what you learned from them, and how you overcome your obstacles, becouse of that, you teach everyone a lesson of never giving up, and that's very important, keep up the good work and salut! (or how we say here in portugal, adeus!)
i love this because when i was watching the last episode i was all like "haha bet he's gonna just build the machine" but wrote it off because it was such a large piece of equipment...never should have doubted you, alex
I used to be a confectioner (Baker specialising in cakes essentially) in England. We called the 'dough sheeter' the laminator which I think is probably closer to the French. Loads of uses for it. You'll need a flour manger and a bit of food grade plastic piping and your pastry game will also raise up!
You need to have both rollers touching the dough. You can achieve this by using a notched belt or chain attached to both roller with a third gear that is adjusted on a horizontal plain. The farther you move the gear away from the rollers, the smaller the gap between them. There needs to be tension on the rollers that want to keep the gap as large as possible, spring tension. I think a bicycle chain and sprocket would be the most efficient.
Both of his rollers are touching the dough though? I'm not sure I understand your idea. I feel like this would just over complicate things. His device already manages a consistent gap between the rollers, with the only imprecision being the handmade off-axis rollers, the slots, or the holes, which aren't fixed by adding a chain. Only needs two gears to make them rotate in sync that he could easily cut from plywood. Having a belt, sprocket, and tensioning device adds a lot of parts that are already avoided in his rotational design.
@@spinafire as you can see the board rides onto of the bottom roller, so both rollers are not in contact with the dough. With this design the dough is only rolled with the top roller and relies on the dough not sticking to the board.
@@jred5153 The board isn't stationary and is traveling at the same speed of the bottom roller surface, so I'm still not sure I understand the issue you are describing. Why does it need to be in direct contact with the bottom roller? It's pretty much "in contact" or at least traveling at the same tangential velocity of the bottom roller (rotational velocity*radius = tangential velocity, the board is merely a spacer and the top is parallel to the bottom and moving the same speed as the roller surface)....unless you're saying, because of how the dough expands when flattened that could be an issue with the board? In which case I think just having the dough floured properly would make this a non-issue, since he's not having to deal with theoretical tolerances of rolled sheet metal or something.
Why does it need to touch the bottom roller. It's being pressed between the board and one roller. Frankly, my question as I watched him build was "what is the bottom roller even doing?" The board is riding on bearings and moved by hand. The bottom roller is superfluous.
Alex, I love your attitude towards problem solving. I would not have thought that building your own laminoir would have even been worth the attempt, and yet you showed that if you are willing to take a chance, do some math, and drill some holes, it is possible. What a guy.
As much as I love over engineering things I might have a simpler solution. What if you just cut 2 rails to the thickness you desire the dough to be and roll your rolling pin along the top of the rails. Picture train tracks with the dough in between the tracks and the rolling pin running along with one end of the pin on each rail.Its not adjustable in height but if you need three heights you can just cut 3 sets of rails. It will take 5 minutes and cost 2 dollars for a single 2x4.
@Chuck Martin you are wrong. Skilled bakers don't need training wheels. Rolling to any desired thickness is a skill all bakers learn. I'm a retired baker.
A discarded roller from a walk behind greens mower would work well and be much cheaper. He could probably find one going to scrap for next to nothing at a golf course.
"I need to find the absolute center" > fait des calculs, sort un compas, une règle, un rapporteur, un cercle trigo, une calculatrice, un double décimètre, trace plein de traits, .... > 1 billion years later > "ouais nan en fait ça soûle. Bat les couilles on va faire ça à l'arrache" ^^ En vrai par contre c'est super cool de voir la construction de la machine même si c'est pas une recette directement (pas juste la voir apparaître comme par magie dans la vidéo qui suit). Tu assures :)
@@TheGodCold According to Google: "I need to find the absolute center"> makes calculations, outputs a compass, a ruler, a protractor, a circle trigo, a calculator, a double decimeter, trace full of features, ....> 1 billion years later> "Yeah, nay, it's drunk, bat the balls, we're going to do this" ^^ In real life it's really cool to see the construction of the machine even if it's not a recipe directly (not just to see it appear as if by magic in the video that follows). You rule :)
For your thickness gauge, if you are using multiple holes on the arm, you should colour code the holes. For instance, the 4mm label on the main body is printed in green, so it goes in the green hole. 6mm could be red going in the red hole. Want to use the same hole for 10mm as you have for 4? Print it in green. :) Keep up the good work!
Hi Alex. Your ability to reduce complex procedures to their simple core and coming up with solutions that are both beautiful and straight forward is mindblowing. That 's what engeneering is about. When I watch a video like this one I can 't help but wish for you to be successful. It just makes me happy to see the happiness and relief you feel when you 've made your ideas work. We both know that ideas can 't be forced and sometimes you need to be focused and put in a great deal of time and mental and physical work, but you know what you 're doing. You are a sympathetic person delivering a sympathetic presentation, and you deserve to be happy about it. Believe me, eventually you will be entirely happy with your machine. The first version looks very promising. Thumbs up from a long-term subscriber.😉
You likely should have tried to find a large rolling pin, of the kind that has the free spinning handles. Those already have a hole in the dead center of them and it wouldn't take much to add some bearings, etc., and I think you can get those about the size you need. You could have also looked for rollers from a conveyor belt.
Commercial alum rolling pins already have bearings. Mine is 4 inch diameter and 25 inch length and weigh 4 lbs. With the proper tool the sheeter is not required except to speed production. I also had a made in Sweden rondo sheeter but they cost $30k.
I feel so represented by your channel, Alex. The food, the science, the engineering, the photography, the music, the edition and even the jokes. (I also love the french parts, it gives the illusion that my french doesn't suck) I just want you to know that your work is amazing, Alex. Bye bye, salut!
@@junehess609 Of Course. It's a Somerset CDR-300. It's incredible. We use it to make puff pastry, pie crusts, cinnamon rolls, croissants, you name it. We got it not too long ago. We made 250 Chicken Pot pies last week and WOW!!!! Talk about insane. I can't believe I haven't gotten one sooner. It can do pizza, fondant, all sorts of doughs... This beauty will last a life time, and it's the perfect size. Later tonight I'll have a video up about it!!
I mean. There are rolling pins with those little bits on the ends to ensure that your rolled dough is evenly flat.... A bit more work, but definitely more reasonable for those of us who won't be making very large amounts of croissants on a regular basis :P and they don't require nearly so much storage space :P
Those seem like a good idea but in practice, not so great. Trouble is they're too short and you end up with imprints of the "bits" in your dough. Especially with puff pastry, which gets rolled out much wider than the rolling pin.
You'd be surprised at what a trained baker can do with a commercial rolling pin with no gadgets. The ones who cannot develop the skills end up finding different jobs...like cooking.
Salut Alex, I'm a mathematician, and a woodturner, so finding the middle of circles is my jam, the approach I use is a 'bisect a chord' method. It works like this -- draw any straight line from one point on the outside of the circle to the other, set your compass to be > 1/2 the length of that line and bisect it, draw a perpendicular line through that bisection -- that perpendicular is _always_ a diameter of the circle, then bisect that diameter to find the center. 3 lines and you're done. Only works on stuff that's already pretty round, for irregular stock, you just do it a couple times with different cords then eyeball the center of the triangle you draw. Much simpler than most methods, and always works well. Also, if you're looking for some good, heavy rollers, find a local wood turner -- it's super simple to turn a big piece of a hardwood round and will probably net you a heavier roller, which should make the sheeter more consistent (less likely to get pushed back up when you roll the dough under it, which is why I'd bet you're getting 4.5mm on the 4mm setting -- just some slop in the machine less the roller retract a bit).
Hi Alex, Dough Sheeter 2.0 - 6 rollers: 1 above, 5 below. left conveyor belt x 2 rollers, centre roller, right conveyor belt x 2 rollers; cloth covers for the conveyors; a plate for each conveyor to support the fabric, hold the rollers, and mount them to the central assembly; conveyors fold/rotate upwards for storage; hand crank makes everything that rotates, rotate; offset the hight adjuster so that the top roller moves vertically only and not in an arc; use the central assembly to keep the centre roller and the conveyors as close together as possible and as the pivot points for folding the conveyors; use automotive inner tubing to attach the bottom middle three rollers together so they all rotate in the same direction; leave the top roller to run freely; add a tensioner to the outermost conveyor rollers to tension the fabric and allow the fabric to also move when the crank is turned. Your dough sheeter 1.0 has much in common with several slab roller builds for clay, that I've seen - I've been looking at this for years, and WILL build one, but I think you will build yours earlier than me, so perhaps some of my ideas will help you, and in doing so, seeing your build, might also help me. And! Of course, when in doubt? Blame the tools then get better tools... :-D.
before i finish watching this video, i'd like to thank alex a lot for putting in a lot of effort into your videos. like dude u rlly do A LOT here and it's nice to see that u're having fun along the way and it's really fun to watch. you are really not like other food channels.
If I had to make a croissant, my best effort would've probably been what alex made in the first attempt. That would've been perfection for me. But watching this series I know why I'm so engrossed by your videos. Where I think the story ends, that's where yours begins Alex, and that's the sign of true passion. Seriously the level of dedication for the craft you have goes so deep that you've built your own personal machines just because you weren't satisfied with what was already a pretty decent croissant or batch of pasta. I didn't even know one could do that. Cheers from Pakistan.
Honestly the most relatable thing Alex has ever done as a cook is going through the trouble to build this machine, because it's STILL easier than french pastry skills compétences en pâtisserie française nooooooooooooooooooooooon
nice but how are you going to solve the problem of the liquid content of store bought butter vs the butter the patisseries use? because that the real problem with homemade croissants
I will never bake, build this, or understand how French hardware stores are so tidy but I loved watching the engineering and your characterizations Great vid
One thought I had while watching is that your tray is basically just a drawer. So you could mount drawer slides instead of using the under roller. This would eliminate a lot of wobble and give better evenness. This would also create space under the tray for a series of gears that could move the tray forward and back when driven by a pretty small motor or hand crank.
Quite a start dude. I can already see that it is going to turn out like the pasta machine did and be pretty damn good. Looking forward to seeing the end result.
I like how he, unlike any other youtubers, keeps the title as 'relaxed' as possible when he can just go for it and be like I BUILT A DOUGH SHEETER TO SOLVE MY CROISSANT PROBLEMS! and I wouldnt be annoyed because it IS a big thing to make a hand made dough sheeter
Alex, Wouldn't expansion and contraction of the wood due to moisture content along with any type of warping being present (such as having a bow or twist) affect the machines reliability and or accuracy? Or is it so insignificant that it doesn't matter?
When I was in college, I asked an Engineer why a 12v turbine fan had failed. He said “the magnet was pressed on with no adhesive, and it must have been a humid day”. I said “plastic expands and contracts with humidity”? He said “oh, yes. After nine months, the plastic spindle contracted and the magnet fell off”. So, YES, humidity and wood rollers would affect his accuracy.
Why not just make a rolling jig? A platform with spacers of varying thickness, place the dough in the jig, and use one of those rollers like a rolling pin?
Translating the roller instead of the bed? Now that's some good DIY thinking. I think the end goal is to have the roller spin mechanically, and with this setup he just needs two gears to make everything function. Having a translating rolling pin works great manually but I don't think it would be as easy to mechanize.
can someone explain to me the purpose of the bottom roller? if the two rollers stayed vertically aligned with each other i could understand that the bottom roller was there to provide support and a counter force between the sliding table and the top roller. but with the top roller now NOT vertically aligned with the bottom roller the thing that's countering the pressure from the top roller are the alignment bearings on the underside. if those underside bearings are enough to support the sliding table and resist the force from the top roller then why even have the bottom roller anymore?
You are right, the bottom roller is serving no purpose atm. Infact the whole machine could be a lot simpler by just adjusting the top roller vertically and the table moving along the bearings much like it is doing now. Anyways it's part of the charm of these videos to see the machine being perfected as it goes.
It should actually be a series of bottom rollers (minimum of two - one aligned/outside with/of the tallest setting and one aligned/outside with/of the lowest setting) or a flat plane with ball bearings & roller clamps at either end of the action point, as some sort of friction reduction is required on the bottom side of the sliding table.
The bottom roller creates even, direct pressure at the point where the top roller contacts the plate. The dough itself pushes down on the plate when it goes under the top roller, and without a bottom roller to counter that pressure, the plate would bow, leading to uneven thickness in the dough.
To find the center of a circle, use something with a 90 degree angle like a standard sheet of paper. Cover the circle with the paper just until the corner of the paper touches the edge of the circle. Mark the points where the two straight edges of the paper land on the perimeter of the circle. No matter where those points land, they will be diametrically opposed. That means a line drawn between them will cross the exact center of the circle. Do that twice, make the two lines intersect, and you have it. Geometry is tight!
Why do you need the bottom roller???? Alex, for god's sake, find a place to laser cut plywood... I promise it will change your life... the precision...
@@EricHonaker that makes sense. i was under the impression that the original machine had a proper canvas belt and the tray was static with rollers at the ends. It would be a lot easier to implement, actually.
As a woman who has built her own furniture(I built a standing desk and side table) I am deeply impressed by your DIY skills on this channel sir👏👏👏❤️ just WOW ❤️
I love how his quest to make certain foods properly drives him to engineer certain machines to accomplish the job. I'm in college studying engineering currently, and watching Alex go through his process inspires me to be better.
Alex, pro tip for cutting plywood: put masking tape (blue tape) on the cut line before you cut. This helps keep the outside layers of the plywood from splintering when the saw blade exits the cut.
Alex, I am speechless. We have so much in common. Can't wait to see you make this electric. you can try using linear guide rails to mount your play bed and a motor reversing mechanism with two limit switches. also to make it more sturdy, you may install another piece of ply as a top cover (maybe). Awesome job, keep it up.
Moving the top roller in a radius is such an easy and beautiful solution. I'd have probably been stuck for an hour trying to build a tensioning system with an idle roller or sth.
Salut, Alex! I just wanted to let you know about the two settings a real dough shelter uses. One of them is the conveyer and the roller moving at the same speed to flatten the dough, and the other setting is the conveyer moving slightly faster to stretch the dough out. While your machine works, it’s hard to get an even, flat dough because of the way it works. I’m not very handy with DIY, but I wanted to give you a tip for a more consistent dough. Hope it helps!
FWIW, to find the center of a dowel, (generously) cut the corner off of a box, mark a line 45 degrees from one corner, then cut far enough in along that line so that when the piece is placed on the end of the dowel, the cut portion crosses the center. Now mark a few lines on the end of the dowel along that 45-degree line and Voila! You have just found the exact center.
Small electric drill with a (self made) gear drill bit that is affixed to an underside track on the machine. Simply make it go side to side by using the drill's built in buttons. The center can run on rails from old drawers with ball bearings.
Salut Alex ! The best croissant I ate in Marseillan Plage. I have the same urge to make good croissants at home. I now take 2 wooden sticks of 5mm and put them on each side of my doh and rol my rolling pin over the doh until it's 5 mm. Works well too, but I love the machine you made.
Salut Alex! As an engineering student who likes to cook, I always love your methodical approach to these kind of problems! A great video as always :) An easy way to find the center of a round object is to use a speed square and put the right angle (90 degree) corner on the edge of the circle. Now draw two points/small lines where the edges (from that 90 degree angle) touch the edge of the dowel. Then you can draw a line between these points. Repeat for any other location of the right angle on the circumference, and draw a second line. Where the two lines intersect is the centre of the circle (since the diameters always cross the centre). For anyone interested, this works due to the geometry of Thales' Theorem, which describes that any right angle inside a circle must cut off the diameter (or rather the diameter of a circle subtends a right angle to any point on the circle). Hope that helps! Cheers from The Netherlands! :)
When you came to the problem of adjusting the distance i immediately thought of a chain adjuster. It allows for more or less belt, chan ect. to be used and still keeps it tight around the gears.
well this was thoroughly entertaining! I found this video while searching for a croissant solution for my small bakery. I need a tabletop solution for laminating dough (right now I'm doing it by hand and while my arm muscles are doing great, it's not super efficient). Can't wait til you have the wonkiness perfected!
you realize what this means?! croissants with faux wood grain pattern!
And bit of saw dust for that extra flavor.
That means another great Video from TOT! 😎😉👍🏻😍
This Old Tony I smell another collab build...
I see where this is going... It tastes like a collab! :)
Big time. Me want collabo 2.0.
"What's up, guys. Salut it's Alex and my microwave broke so I'm building a nuclear reactor for maximum molecular breakdown..."
Lol
This is too accurate.
Bruh, no joke I want a NukaBox in my house now.
this has to be top comment
I actually read this in his voice lol
Alex! I went on a day trip to Paris so I dropped by Utopie. It was the best croissant I've ever had in my life! Thank s so much for the recommendation :D
How much does it cost? €1, €2 or more?
@@CallieMasters5000 It's paris dawg. Be prepared to pay a lot. These people take a raw egg and garnish it with grass and put a 500 euro price tag on it.
@@CallieMasters5000 I bought a croissant, pain au chocolat, and a small apple pie and it came to 5.10euro. If i recall correctly it was like 1ish euro, like 1.20-1.60
@@animato6441 wow that was so stereotyped, maybe next time try to leave the tourist area and visit by yourself the city... it's absolutely not like this where you know people actually live
@@lucasvivante8988 this guy clearly hasnt travelled, or when he did he just followed a tour group around lmao
Alex's haircut is so perfect for those crazy invention videos.
what haircut!?
He is Colin Furze, cook version.
This channel has become an engineering channel
Will Bales i think he studied some kind of engineering, but not sure, do you know by any chance? (Genuinly asking cuz curious)
It was always an engineering channel 😉 You just weren't paying attention! 😜
Can't wait for AvE to drop by.
Salut , pourquoi pas utiliser simplement le rouleau a patisserie puisque le but est simplement d 'écraser en roulant comme devait le faire les anciens
@@jpp9239 c'est ce à quoi je m'attendais, 2 rouleaux de patisserie auraient fait l'affaire mais le prix aurait surement été plus élevé...
"I'm looking for a tiny, but powerful electrical input"
You're going to attach it to a drill, aren't you? That would be typical Alex :p.
definitely! just like the pasta machine
The drill is an essential cooking tool
A linear actuator underneath the slide would be better.
Eventually you could automate it.
4:08 Actually used geometry in real life.... aaaaaand it didnt work. Maths
A for effort though!
I'm not sure but it looks like the intersection of the bisectors of two chords... It's a bit of an ask to do that on such a small scale with a pencil that is none too sharp.
Did it wrong. Draw lines, every 90° angle to that should meet in the middle.
its like a sine bar but whit a crosant inbetween
Give "Thales's theorem" a quick search and you'll find the easiest way to find the center of a circle!
I feel like I can always learn something or a lot of things from any of your videos. Not only do I learn but they are really entertaining and funny.
Healthy Recipe Channel so true
I either get inspiration or a great laugh from his vids.
The building montage was MASTERFUL! Your filmography and editing has really become fantastic Alex!
Alex, make a burger series. Which is better, a thick beef patty or a thin smash burger with maximum Maillard reaction crust?
Seconded!
Aren't there already a zillion of these on youtube?
_ musique but none by Alex. And I’m sure he would inject his very own style.
Thick patty is better in my opinion. I've tried the smash burgers several times but I'm not a fan.
Check out internet Shaquilles thick burger with the in n out style crust
ALEX, American engineer here. To find center of circle, trace circle onto paper, fold paper two times, purpendicularly, to make a sector. Place sector onto wood circle and trace!!!
@elnubnub okay, but with mine you need absolutey no tools, not even a pencil if you're cutting corners... think about it. You should eliminate user error.
@@woophereigo9755 it wouldn't work as he uses metric and you use imperial
(come on it's a joke)
@@83hjfThanks for assuming; I use metric. But lol
This is just top quality content. That’s the way food blogging should be. Not just repeating recipes. But investigating them thoroughly. Inventing shit. Perfecting the technique. This is really inspiring, Alex, thank you! You got a very pleased subscriber in Russia :)
CALLED IT!!! Wooooot!
Food. Woodworking. Math. There is no better combination. Totally in love.
*goes to hardware store* "hey, so I'm looking for a really thick rod. It has to be REALLY thick and smooth and pretty long. Wait, what are you laughing about?"
A framed bed of several rollers mounted at an angle (~3°) would introduce the dough into gradual step reductions in thickness. This allows each step in height to be minimal force and flex on the machine. Additionally spring-loaded roller(s) with an adjustable stop means force is limited on each pass. The reductions would continue until the springs are no longer compressed and the roller is at the adjusted thickness. A strong "center rail" under the table would handle the flex better than edge tracks; this is where the force is anyway.
Oh and if your wooden rollers aren't exactly centered to the axis, push it up against a sanding block while it is powered to spin. This will "self circularize" them similar to a lathe.
Love your everything Alex, keep it up it always makes me smile.
Alex, I have got to say this: Your channel is just fenomenal
You are very original, I just love the way you make your videos!
The amazingness about this channel of yours, is that you show your hwole progression, all of your failures, what you learned from them, and how you overcome your obstacles, becouse of that, you teach everyone a lesson of never giving up, and that's very important, keep up the good work and salut! (or how we say here in portugal, adeus!)
i love this because when i was watching the last episode i was all like "haha bet he's gonna just build the machine" but wrote it off because it was such a large piece of equipment...never should have doubted you, alex
Omg he actually drives a car
That surprised me too. Ha! I'm surprised he didn't build it.
We saw it also in the dry age machine video.
A Smart one
He also drove one during the making bread and butter series.
@Mycel he's always in his bike
i keep watching this series because i feel it helps me see how beautiful croissants through a Frenchman's eyes, it is truly astounding
I been spending all my time watching Alex crossaint video over and over
I used to be a confectioner (Baker specialising in cakes essentially) in England. We called the 'dough sheeter' the laminator which I think is probably closer to the French. Loads of uses for it. You'll need a flour manger and a bit of food grade plastic piping and your pastry game will also raise up!
You need to have both rollers touching the dough. You can achieve this by using a notched belt or chain attached to both roller with a third gear that is adjusted on a horizontal plain. The farther you move the gear away from the rollers, the smaller the gap between them. There needs to be tension on the rollers that want to keep the gap as large as possible, spring tension. I think a bicycle chain and sprocket would be the most efficient.
Both of his rollers are touching the dough though? I'm not sure I understand your idea. I feel like this would just over complicate things.
His device already manages a consistent gap between the rollers, with the only imprecision being the handmade off-axis rollers, the slots, or the holes, which aren't fixed by adding a chain. Only needs two gears to make them rotate in sync that he could easily cut from plywood. Having a belt, sprocket, and tensioning device adds a lot of parts that are already avoided in his rotational design.
@@spinafire as you can see the board rides onto of the bottom roller, so both rollers are not in contact with the dough. With this design the dough is only rolled with the top roller and relies on the dough not sticking to the board.
Roborovski looks like only the top roller is touching the dough
@@jred5153 The board isn't stationary and is traveling at the same speed of the bottom roller surface, so I'm still not sure I understand the issue you are describing. Why does it need to be in direct contact with the bottom roller? It's pretty much "in contact" or at least traveling at the same tangential velocity of the bottom roller (rotational velocity*radius = tangential velocity, the board is merely a spacer and the top is parallel to the bottom and moving the same speed as the roller surface)....unless you're saying, because of how the dough expands when flattened that could be an issue with the board? In which case I think just having the dough floured properly would make this a non-issue, since he's not having to deal with theoretical tolerances of rolled sheet metal or something.
Why does it need to touch the bottom roller. It's being pressed between the board and one roller. Frankly, my question as I watched him build was "what is the bottom roller even doing?" The board is riding on bearings and moved by hand. The bottom roller is superfluous.
Alex, I love your attitude towards problem solving. I would not have thought that building your own laminoir would have even been worth the attempt, and yet you showed that if you are willing to take a chance, do some math, and drill some holes, it is possible. What a guy.
As much as I love over engineering things I might have a simpler solution. What if you just cut 2 rails to the thickness you desire the dough to be and roll your rolling pin along the top of the rails. Picture train tracks with the dough in between the tracks and the rolling pin running along with one end of the pin on each rail.Its not adjustable in height but if you need three heights you can just cut 3 sets of rails. It will take 5 minutes and cost 2 dollars for a single 2x4.
@Chuck Martin you are wrong.
Skilled bakers don't need training wheels. Rolling to any desired thickness is a skill all bakers learn.
I'm a retired baker.
Cet homme a beaucoup de courage et de détermination. C’est très admirable.
The music in this video was perfect. That machine is genius! Im always surprised with your ingenuity
Any cooking video that starts with a trip to the hardware store is my kind of Cooking video. Love you Alex
For better rollers look for Chrome rollers from the print industry.
A discarded roller from a walk behind greens mower would work well and be much cheaper. He could probably find one going to scrap for next to nothing at a golf course.
Personally, I would just check something like Craigslist for used bike rollers they can sometimes be had for incredibly cheap
The world needs more chef/engineers! It was wonderful watching you working to solve such a 'pressing' issue. 😜
"I need to find the absolute center"
> fait des calculs, sort un compas, une règle, un rapporteur, un cercle trigo, une calculatrice, un double décimètre, trace plein de traits, .... > 1 billion years later > "ouais nan en fait ça soûle. Bat les couilles on va faire ça à l'arrache" ^^
En vrai par contre c'est super cool de voir la construction de la machine même si c'est pas une recette directement (pas juste la voir apparaître comme par magie dans la vidéo qui suit). Tu assures :)
Could you please translate what he said for us, non-Moonrunes speaking peasants
@@TheGodCold According to Google:
"I need to find the absolute center"> makes calculations, outputs a compass, a ruler, a protractor, a circle trigo, a calculator, a double decimeter, trace full of features, ....> 1 billion years later> "Yeah, nay, it's drunk, bat the balls, we're going to do this" ^^
In real life it's really cool to see the construction of the machine even if it's not a recipe directly (not just to see it appear as if by magic in the video that follows). You rule :)
@@TheGodCold A bit more accurate than Google> yeah no whatever it's a pain in the ass. Nevermind (don't give a f*) let's just wing it.
For your thickness gauge, if you are using multiple holes on the arm, you should colour code the holes.
For instance, the 4mm label on the main body is printed in green, so it goes in the green hole. 6mm could be red going in the red hole. Want to use the same hole for 10mm as you have for 4? Print it in green. :)
Keep up the good work!
Team up with this old tony and get him to machine parts for you like before. I WANNA SEE THIS COLLAB
Hi Alex. Your ability to reduce complex procedures to their simple core and coming up with solutions that are both beautiful and straight forward is mindblowing. That 's what engeneering is about. When I watch a video like this one I can 't help but wish for you to be successful. It just makes me happy to see the happiness and relief you feel when you 've made your ideas work. We both know that ideas can 't be forced and sometimes you need to be focused and put in a great deal of time and mental and physical work, but you know what you 're doing. You are a sympathetic person delivering a sympathetic presentation, and you deserve to be happy about it. Believe me, eventually you will be entirely happy with your machine. The first version looks very promising. Thumbs up from a long-term subscriber.😉
You likely should have tried to find a large rolling pin, of the kind that has the free spinning handles. Those already have a hole in the dead center of them and it wouldn't take much to add some bearings, etc., and I think you can get those about the size you need. You could have also looked for rollers from a conveyor belt.
ehrichweiss Conveyor rollers came immediately into my mind. They even come in stainless steel and with bearings preinstalled.
Commercial alum rolling pins already have bearings. Mine is 4 inch diameter and 25 inch length and weigh 4 lbs.
With the proper tool the sheeter is not required except to speed production.
I also had a made in Sweden rondo sheeter but they cost $30k.
I feel so represented by your channel, Alex.
The food, the science, the engineering, the photography, the music, the edition and even the jokes.
(I also love the french parts, it gives the illusion that my french doesn't suck)
I just want you to know that your work is amazing, Alex.
Bye bye, salut!
Oh my. I just bought a dough sheeter! They are amazing! Yours looks great. Can't wait to see how it develops. Like your ramen pasta roller!!
Easy Freezer Meals can you share details? I’d love to see it!
@@junehess609 Of Course. It's a Somerset CDR-300. It's incredible. We use it to make puff pastry, pie crusts, cinnamon rolls, croissants, you name it. We got it not too long ago. We made 250 Chicken Pot pies last week and WOW!!!! Talk about insane. I can't believe I haven't gotten one sooner. It can do pizza, fondant, all sorts of doughs... This beauty will last a life time, and it's the perfect size. Later tonight I'll have a video up about it!!
Easy Freezer Meals that is awesome!!!!
dog shitter*
You're the most extra person on the Internet at the moment, and I enjoy every moment
I mean. There are rolling pins with those little bits on the ends to ensure that your rolled dough is evenly flat.... A bit more work, but definitely more reasonable for those of us who won't be making very large amounts of croissants on a regular basis :P and they don't require nearly so much storage space :P
Those seem like a good idea but in practice, not so great. Trouble is they're too short and you end up with imprints of the "bits" in your dough. Especially with puff pastry, which gets rolled out much wider than the rolling pin.
You'd be surprised at what a trained baker can do with a commercial rolling pin with no gadgets.
The ones who cannot develop the skills end up finding different jobs...like cooking.
Salut Alex, I'm a mathematician, and a woodturner, so finding the middle of circles is my jam, the approach I use is a 'bisect a chord' method. It works like this -- draw any straight line from one point on the outside of the circle to the other, set your compass to be > 1/2 the length of that line and bisect it, draw a perpendicular line through that bisection -- that perpendicular is _always_ a diameter of the circle, then bisect that diameter to find the center. 3 lines and you're done. Only works on stuff that's already pretty round, for irregular stock, you just do it a couple times with different cords then eyeball the center of the triangle you draw.
Much simpler than most methods, and always works well.
Also, if you're looking for some good, heavy rollers, find a local wood turner -- it's super simple to turn a big piece of a hardwood round and will probably net you a heavier roller, which should make the sheeter more consistent (less likely to get pushed back up when you roll the dough under it, which is why I'd bet you're getting 4.5mm on the 4mm setting -- just some slop in the machine less the roller retract a bit).
Finally been waiting a whole week for this 😍😍
Hi Alex,
Dough Sheeter 2.0 - 6 rollers: 1 above, 5 below. left conveyor belt x 2 rollers, centre roller, right conveyor belt x 2 rollers; cloth covers for the conveyors; a plate for each conveyor to support the fabric, hold the rollers, and mount them to the central assembly; conveyors fold/rotate upwards for storage; hand crank makes everything that rotates, rotate; offset the hight adjuster so that the top roller moves vertically only and not in an arc; use the central assembly to keep the centre roller and the conveyors as close together as possible and as the pivot points for folding the conveyors; use automotive inner tubing to attach the bottom middle three rollers together so they all rotate in the same direction; leave the top roller to run freely; add a tensioner to the outermost conveyor rollers to tension the fabric and allow the fabric to also move when the crank is turned.
Your dough sheeter 1.0 has much in common with several slab roller builds for clay, that I've seen - I've been looking at this for years, and WILL build one, but I think you will build yours earlier than me, so perhaps some of my ideas will help you, and in doing so, seeing your build, might also help me. And! Of course, when in doubt? Blame the tools then get better tools... :-D.
Smart, handy and can cook, what more does a woman need.
muscles money and a good looking maxilar perhaps
@@fhanum9716 No thanks, those things come and go.
+hiyasweets not all of them think the same lol
"A really thick rod, smooth and long."
Oh, sorry, that's what he was looking for at the hardware store! ;-)
Yup, this is what I’m here for -home made gadgets of things that already exist, for an obscure purpose. Awesome!!!
You need this old tony again :)
Yes please
That was exactly my idea. :D
Right! ...how do you summon someone on UA-cam?...
Check the machinists handbook.
Longer roller set for the pasts machine should do it
before i finish watching this video, i'd like to thank alex a lot for putting in a lot of effort into your videos. like dude u rlly do A LOT here and it's nice to see that u're having fun along the way and it's really fun to watch. you are really not like other food channels.
"I need one of those" *shaking the screen* MOOD
I love how he's super creative and just as good as other UA-camrs who are primarily shop youtubers and he's just a cook
Idea for a new series: Mastering traditional vienna schnitzel. It looks really easy but it is very hard to master. Good luck!
Seriously ?
If I had to make a croissant, my best effort would've probably been what alex made in the first attempt. That would've been perfection for me. But watching this series I know why I'm so engrossed by your videos. Where I think the story ends, that's where yours begins Alex, and that's the sign of true passion. Seriously the level of dedication for the craft you have goes so deep that you've built your own personal machines just because you weren't satisfied with what was already a pretty decent croissant or batch of pasta. I didn't even know one could do that. Cheers from Pakistan.
I looked at the title of the video, and IMMEDIATELY knew it was from Alex. so EXTRA
Honestly the most relatable thing Alex has ever done as a cook is going through the trouble to build this machine, because it's STILL easier than french pastry skills
compétences en pâtisserie française
nooooooooooooooooooooooon
nice but how are you going to solve the problem of the liquid content of store bought butter vs the butter the patisseries use? because that the real problem with homemade croissants
I will never bake, build this, or understand how French hardware stores are so tidy but I loved watching the engineering and your characterizations Great vid
Feel like this could be achieved by putting two long shims on either side of the dough and then roll it out by hand with a rolling pin.
They make plastic spacers for rolling pins that do exactly this
look at his fingers at 4:25, we can clearly feel his passion and he's absolutely serious about what he's doing
Longer episodes please!!!!!!!!
One thought I had while watching is that your tray is basically just a drawer. So you could mount drawer slides instead of using the under roller. This would eliminate a lot of wobble and give better evenness. This would also create space under the tray for a series of gears that could move the tray forward and back when driven by a pretty small motor or hand crank.
"No, I'm not fully satisfied deep inside"
same
Alex, the most down to earth genius this world has conceived.
'I want to make Croissant'
'Off to the hardware store'
Quite a start dude. I can already see that it is going to turn out like the pasta machine did and be pretty damn good. Looking forward to seeing the end result.
I bet AvE would make one for you
But consider the crude humor which would ensue.
Shipping might be the more challenging task.
I like how he, unlike any other youtubers, keeps the title as 'relaxed' as possible when he can just go for it and be like I BUILT A DOUGH SHEETER TO SOLVE MY CROISSANT PROBLEMS! and I wouldnt be annoyed because it IS a big thing to make a hand made dough sheeter
Btw great work Alex! Damn this guy can cook and make stuff
Alex, Wouldn't expansion and contraction of the wood due to moisture content along with any type of warping being present (such as having a bow or twist) affect the machines reliability and or accuracy? Or is it so insignificant that it doesn't matter?
When I was in college, I asked an Engineer why a 12v turbine fan had failed.
He said “the magnet was pressed on with no adhesive, and it must have been a humid day”.
I said “plastic expands and contracts with humidity”?
He said “oh, yes. After nine months, the plastic spindle contracted and the magnet fell off”.
So, YES, humidity and wood rollers would affect his accuracy.
i'm so glad that alex's channel is growing. these videos are insanely good.
Why not just make a rolling jig? A platform with spacers of varying thickness, place the dough in the jig, and use one of those rollers like a rolling pin?
Translating the roller instead of the bed? Now that's some good DIY thinking. I think the end goal is to have the roller spin mechanically, and with this setup he just needs two gears to make everything function. Having a translating rolling pin works great manually but I don't think it would be as easy to mechanize.
:O
@@spinafire You are definitely right, I'm just surprised he didn't at least mention it.
Alex makes my favorite kind of content. Cooking and creating
can someone explain to me the purpose of the bottom roller? if the two rollers stayed vertically aligned with each other i could understand that the bottom roller was there to provide support and a counter force between the sliding table and the top roller. but with the top roller now NOT vertically aligned with the bottom roller the thing that's countering the pressure from the top roller are the alignment bearings on the underside. if those underside bearings are enough to support the sliding table and resist the force from the top roller then why even have the bottom roller anymore?
You are right, the bottom roller is serving no purpose atm. Infact the whole machine could be a lot simpler by just adjusting the top roller vertically and the table moving along the bearings much like it is doing now. Anyways it's part of the charm of these videos to see the machine being perfected as it goes.
Wait.
Lol @alex
It should actually be a series of bottom rollers (minimum of two - one aligned/outside with/of the tallest setting and one aligned/outside with/of the lowest setting) or a flat plane with ball bearings & roller clamps at either end of the action point, as some sort of friction reduction is required on the bottom side of the sliding table.
The bottom roller creates even, direct pressure at the point where the top roller contacts the plate. The dough itself pushes down on the plate when it goes under the top roller, and without a bottom roller to counter that pressure, the plate would bow, leading to uneven thickness in the dough.
Instant like for the sponsors on Patreon that helped bring us this development in the croissant series.
Well, while they do say a bad workman blames his tools... A good workman would use the best tools they could get, right?
To find the center of a circle, use something with a 90 degree angle like a standard sheet of paper. Cover the circle with the paper just until the corner of the paper touches the edge of the circle. Mark the points where the two straight edges of the paper land on the perimeter of the circle. No matter where those points land, they will be diametrically opposed. That means a line drawn between them will cross the exact center of the circle. Do that twice, make the two lines intersect, and you have it. Geometry is tight!
Why do you need the bottom roller???? Alex, for god's sake, find a place to laser cut plywood... I promise it will change your life... the precision...
I think once he gets the input (motor, crank, whatever) the bottom roller will drive the conveyor tray.
@@EricHonaker that makes sense. i was under the impression that the original machine had a proper canvas belt and the tray was static with rollers at the ends. It would be a lot easier to implement, actually.
As a woman who has built her own furniture(I built a standing desk and side table) I am deeply impressed by your DIY skills on this channel sir👏👏👏❤️ just WOW ❤️
This is super cool but where you gonna store this thing bro?? 😂
Given that all parts are held together with nuts and bolts, it safe to assume that they can be broken down for storage.
Anh Trieu yes that’s true. who the hell wants to do that?
@@NOTANOTHERCOOKINGSHOW Well, let's just hope you make croissant often enough to justify the counter space this contraption will permanently occupy.
Anh Trieu truth. I’ll leave that to Alex! I’m gonna go get a croissant now...
Somewhere on the wall shelves, as shown with the other stuff he's built.
This is the only cooking channel that rarely shows food and that's why I love it.
Salut
I love how his quest to make certain foods properly drives him to engineer certain machines to accomplish the job. I'm in college studying engineering currently, and watching Alex go through his process inspires me to be better.
Hey Alex, please build me a custom desk. I'll pay you..
je suis passionnée par ta capacité à trouver des solutions simples logiques et pratiques à des problèmes qui en semblent démunis
Alex, will you be my Dad?
French guy cooking is my favorite engineering channel.
Alex, pro tip for cutting plywood: put masking tape (blue tape) on the cut line before you cut. This helps keep the outside layers of the plywood from splintering when the saw blade exits the cut.
Love the processes. Seeing the wheela turn is gold
Alex, I am speechless. We have so much in common. Can't wait to see you make this electric. you can try using linear guide rails to mount your play bed and a motor reversing mechanism with two limit switches. also to make it more sturdy, you may install another piece of ply as a top cover (maybe). Awesome job, keep it up.
I now know how Frenchmen have invented such great things. It is sort of their culture and in their blood.
Came because of YT recommended, stayed for the accent, dad jokes, excellent editing, catchy music and ingenuity.
I love how accessible your solutions are..
Moving the top roller in a radius is such an easy and beautiful solution. I'd have probably been stuck for an hour trying to build a tensioning system with an idle roller or sth.
Absolutely love your videos Alex! Your creativity is an inspiration. And my wife loves your cook book I bought her for Christmas.
Salut, Alex!
I just wanted to let you know about the two settings a real dough shelter uses. One of them is the conveyer and the roller moving at the same speed to flatten the dough, and the other setting is the conveyer moving slightly faster to stretch the dough out. While your machine works, it’s hard to get an even, flat dough because of the way it works. I’m not very handy with DIY, but I wanted to give you a tip for a more consistent dough. Hope it helps!
FWIW, to find the center of a dowel, (generously) cut the corner off of a box, mark a line 45 degrees from one corner, then cut far enough in along that line so that when the piece is placed on the end of the dowel, the cut portion crosses the center. Now mark a few lines on the end of the dowel along that 45-degree line and Voila! You have just found the exact center.
As Martin would say....deep down the rabbit hole you go. Good Luck Alex!
I understood that reference *wowee*
Small electric drill with a (self made) gear drill bit that is affixed to an underside track on the machine. Simply make it go side to side by using the drill's built in buttons. The center can run on rails from old drawers with ball bearings.
I actually love your DIY more than your cooking and you are a great cook. Thank you for making and sharing.
I had no clue that Alex was a Wire fan. I adore him even more now.
Salut Alex ! The best croissant I ate in Marseillan Plage. I have the same urge to make good croissants at home. I now take 2 wooden sticks of 5mm and put them on each side of my doh and rol my rolling pin over the doh until it's 5 mm. Works well too, but I love the machine you made.
Salut Alex!
As an engineering student who likes to cook, I always love your methodical approach to these kind of problems! A great video as always :)
An easy way to find the center of a round object is to use a speed square and put the right angle (90 degree) corner on the edge of the circle. Now draw two points/small lines where the edges (from that 90 degree angle) touch the edge of the dowel. Then you can draw a line between these points. Repeat for any other location of the right angle on the circumference, and draw a second line. Where the two lines intersect is the centre of the circle (since the diameters always cross the centre).
For anyone interested, this works due to the geometry of Thales' Theorem, which describes that any right angle inside a circle must cut off the diameter (or rather the diameter of a circle subtends a right angle to any point on the circle).
Hope that helps!
Cheers from The Netherlands! :)
When you came to the problem of adjusting the distance i immediately thought of a chain adjuster. It allows for more or less belt, chan ect. to be used and still keeps it tight around the gears.
well this was thoroughly entertaining! I found this video while searching for a croissant solution for my small bakery. I need a tabletop solution for laminating dough (right now I'm doing it by hand and while my arm muscles are doing great, it's not super efficient). Can't wait til you have the wonkiness perfected!