by LoboCNC, published
Spiral cutters are great for making curly fries, zuccini vegatable noodles, and even for just shredding onions. This spiral vegetable cutter is both compact and very efficient, producing very little vegetable waste. It fits snugly over a standard 32oz yogurt container so that you spiralize neatly and directly into a storage container. It uses widely available mini-snap knife blades for the cutters: 6 small sections are snapped off to form the vertical cutters and the remainder of the blade is used for the horizontal slicer.
CAUTION: Be very careful assembling and using this device - the blades are extremely sharp!
Printer Brand: MakerGear
Printer: M2
Rafts: No
Supports: No
Resolution: 0.2mm
Infill: 15%
Notes:
Print 1 of each part using natural (unpigmented) PLA: cutter, plug, pusher and ring. Update: Initially, I inadvertently uploaded mirrored version of the cutter and plug. These files have now been corrected.
Assembly
First wash off a new mini-snap knife blade thoroughly to remove any grease.
Carefully snap off 6 sections. Make sure the sections have snapped off cleanly along the score line.
Using needle nose pliers (don't use your bare hands), insert the dull point of each knife section into each of the 6 slots in the cutter so that the honed edges are pointing away from the slot.
Put a dot of superglue on each side of of each vertical blade to secure them in place.
Place 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 the top and bottom 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 the it on a flat surface with the straight-side up and 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 then cut 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, voila, spiral cut strands should descend into your tub.
CAUTION: Never use the spiral cutter without the pusher - pressing your vegetables in by hand is is incredibly dangerous!
Food Safety
PLA is a bioplastic generally considered food safe, but you want 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 will often creep 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 does start to grow in your spiral cutter, you can try soaking it in vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, and letting it dry in the sun will alway help kill off anything growing.
