# Tabletop sheeter question



## prado (Apr 20, 2007)

I am an old school laminator and roll all my doughs by hand. But I'm having to up production of laminated doughs and am looking into getting a tabletop sheeter. I've never used one and wanted to know whether I would continue to let the doughs rest between turns or whether it was kosher to just make the turns and feed the dough through again. Any other general tips, advice and guidance would be genuinely appreciated.


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## erik (Jan 23, 2006)

I do alot of croissant on a tabletop sheeter right now, and have done puff and danish with a sheeter as well. I usually like to still give things a rest in between folds, but sometimes when I'm doing 30+ batons of criossant I'll consider the first ones rested by the time I reach the last, and just start over from the top  
One other thing, the sheeter you get may have 2 speeds. One speed will have both belts moving the same, the other sill slow down one. This second speed is very handy when you are getting your dough thin. Helps keep it from shredding.


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## prado (Apr 20, 2007)

thanks erik. I am anticipating alot more productivity but I'll miss the muscles. If you have any other thoughts on the use of a sheeter, and no detail is too small, I'll take it. oh, any thoughts on "thunderbird" or empire bakery's equipment? I have to say, just the name thunderbird gives me pause but their pricing is looking very tempting (usually a bad sign with equipment).


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

I always let my dough rest between turns whether I use a sheeter or not. The sheeter warms the dough up slightly....don't forget that. The warmer the dough is, the more the butter squishes into the dough layers and you don't want that. You let the dough rest not only to relax it, but to keep it cool which is important.

Regarding Thunderbird.....I used a Thunderbird 60 qt mixer for two years and thought it was a piece of crap, so I'm personally a bit wary of Thunderbird equipment now. They do have attractive prices, but I think there's a reason for that.......:crazy:


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Ah... T-bird. The 30 qts now have a 1 yr p & L warranty and 64 months on the tranny. Price here is about $3,200 CDN, a Hobart 30 qt is around 6 grand.... Still have my 'druthers and will probably pick up a used Hobart 30 qt for around $3,000

I just priced a bunch of tabletop sheeters here in Vancouver. T-bird came in at $4,859, CDN $ the "economat" version of Rondo (Sewar/Rondo, made in Burgdorf, Switzerland) came in at $6,500. A stand-alone Italian jobbie, not table top but portable and still quite small came in $5,800, unfortunately I don't know the brand, but it is closely related to Essmach. Fritsch (of Germany) makes a great little table top, the Fritsch mini-rollfix 50, but no one wants to quote me a price, must have a lousy factory rep for this territory, I guess.

Things to look for: Synchronized belts. Tables that are larger than 26" ( so you an sheet out a base, or foccacia for a 18 x 26" pan) And scrapers. Scrapers are those little plastic blades that ride on the rollers, there are 4 of them, and they wear out, just like brakes on a car. Some sheeters have good scraper assemblies, and it only takes 5 minutes and 20 bucks to change a scraper, and some models are a P.I.T.A, and expensive to boot. Most of the Euro sheeters run on 220V 3 ph, and draw very little amperage, and are very robust machines and the motors don't wear out. The Asian ones tend to have 110 V 1ph motors and sometime are underpowered. 

Hope this helps


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