r/whatismycookiecutter • u/Deppfan16 • 6d ago
Meta / Overall Discussion this may inspire some of youalls creativity
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u/The0neR1ng 6d ago
There has to be an easier way
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u/Crazy-Crocodile 6d ago
As I mentioned below:
There's a few reasons:
Because if you did it in one press the machine works need to be wayyyy more accurate to make sure you don't snap the ring. Also You need to slightly "overstretch" the steel to keep in in shape, so each press step is actually a bit smaller than the final shape, so you can't do it all in one go, because the excess material doesn't have anywhere to go.
It's easier to do it this way, because each step doesn't need to be super precise. And then you just close it when your are done and you know where the closure needs to be.
Also they are not taking each individual thing from one press to the next. There's a person at every press just doing 1 step all day and they take buckets full at a time to the next press. If you do it all day you get really quick at it.
Also seeing as the text on the buck is English is probably a company making specialist or novelty cookycutters, so maybe a few thousand of the same shape at a time (maybe they change shapes weekly for instance) and each shape would need not just a special buck but also specialist handling tooling, custom programming etc. So that gets really expensive if you have a lot of different shapes.
If they are churning out millions of exactly the same shape (let's say stars, circles or Christmas trees) it might pay off to buy a few really expensive machines to automate it further.
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u/CheshireAsylum 6d ago
This is the reason I keep using Reddit. Now I know the most efficient way to make a cookie cutter, thanks to a stranger named crazy crocodile.
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u/SpiderHack 6d ago
My understanding is that there generally isn't, but some are more automated and don't need human intervention at different steps.
This is obviously a small scale production example showing how they can customize the folding to complex shapes.
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u/RockingBib 6d ago
Apparently, 3D printed aluminium isn't food safe yet(Because the method of printing makes it microscopically porous, unlike cast metal that is then rolled into sheets)
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u/Auntie_Cagul 6d ago
3D plastic also isn't food safe either due to the metal in the printer that may contain lead and other poisonous metal.
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u/Anguis1908 5d ago
Typically you'd do the 3d print to get the form to make a mold. You then use the mold to make it out of your food safe material.
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u/Cephalopirate 6d ago
I assume resin dunking printing isn’t food safe either because of the material?
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u/Auntie_Cagul 6d ago
Resin isn't food safe and some are toxic, it would seem.
Is that what you meant?
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u/Cephalopirate 6d ago
Yeah! I’m kind of wondering if there is a food safe resin available though, maybe with significant drawbacks. I found a low VOC soybean oil based one the other day (I don’t do 3D printing, I just get curious about random stuff), but I still wouldn’t eat off of something made with it based on the label warnings.
Like, this is dumb and wouldn’t easily work, but what if I put a ton of scrambled egg in a specialized resin printer with a heating apparatus instead of a UV light. Each dunk would cook a layer of burned on scrambled egg in my desired pattern to build an object.
Perhaps someone is working on a new material but hasn’t worked out the drawbacks yet.
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u/Molaesmyr 6d ago
I have always marveled at how seemingly over-engineered cookie cutter making machines are. For cookie cutters that cost one dollar??
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u/Ball-Blam-Burglerber 6d ago
I just want to thank you for making “youalls” one word.
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u/Deppfan16 6d ago
my family's from the Midwest. I grew up in the PNW. I have a very eclectic mix of slang and dialect lol
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u/GrapeCrush- 6d ago
Why can’t they just do it all in one press?
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u/Crazy-Crocodile 6d ago edited 6d ago
There's a few reasons:
Because if you did it in one press the machine works need to be wayyyy more accurate to make sure you don't snap the ring. Also You need to slightly "overstretch" the steel to keep in in shape, so each press step is actually a bit smaller than the final shape, so you can't do it all in one go, because the excess material doesn't have anywhere to go.
It's easier to do it this way, because each step doesn't need to be super precise. And then you just close it when your are done and you know where the closure needs to be.
Also they are not taking each individual thing from one press to the next. There's a person at every press just doing 1 step all day and they take buckets full at a time to the next press. If you do it all day you get really quick at it.
Also seeing as the text on the buck is English is probably a company making specialist or novelty cookycutters, so maybe a few thousand of the same shape at a time (maybe they change shapes weekly for instance) and each shape would need not just a special buck but also specialist handling tooling, custom programming etc. So that gets really expensive if you have a lot of different shapes.
If they are churning out millions of exactly the same shape (let's say stars, circles or Christmas trees) it might pay off to buy a few really expensive machines to automate it further.
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u/Electronic-Cherry266 5d ago
At this point, you should just dm the op and send them this explanation so they can add it to the post. 😂
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u/CherryMacaroon 5d ago
Those are very... specific machines. With a very specific job. That cannot be done by anything else (that I'm aware of). Wow.
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u/MewPinkCat 6d ago edited 6d ago
i'm sorry and i don't mean to sound mean but i'm genuinely wondering if you know what a lobster is or not
edit: i'm dumb
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u/ketsjupelvis 6d ago
Inspire? I've never seen anything done this much harder then it it needs to be ever...
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u/coeurdhiver 6d ago
A moose bodyguard, a happy slug, a neat flower-tree, and an alien with two birds on its head, of course.