# Homemade Dough Sheeter?



## mandoslipknot (Dec 21, 2021)

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!!🎄🤶

I have a question that Im hopng someone can help me wth please! I have had back surgery to repair my L4 L5 lower discs last year, and have been struggling to be able to roll my pastries thin enough without the use of a dough sheeter at home. I struggle with rolling the pastry out using my rolling pin as well. I was hoping someone could give me any tips on making my life easier at home as I dont have a dough break here lol. My wife is very handy making lots of things so any suggestions would be appreciated!

I have seen portable ones on Ebay, but most come from USA (Im in Australia) and it would cost me a fortune in shipping!

Cheers in advance,


Amanda


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## Transglutaminase (Jan 9, 2019)

I doubt I'd try to make a sheeter (maybe an old wringer washer / mangle?) ;-)

Depends on the width of your dough.
For low buck, low volume, one can use pasta roller machines, both hand crank & electric.
There are a few that are fairy wide, and Amazon sells a 19" hand crank pasta roller/sheeter.
G'luck!


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

Is this a silly question? What is the difference between a dough sheeter and a pasta (roller) machine? I have the latter and they are easily available in Australia, I'm sure.


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## chefwriter (Oct 31, 2012)

A group called POMMUS or POMM US sells them on Etsy. 12 or 19 inch wide. They are located in Venezuela. I've seen them on eBay as well. Being in Australia you may have to pay the shipping no matter where it comes from. 
Morning glory- As far as I can tell, the difference is in width and on the dough sheeter you can't change the rollers.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

mandoslipknot said:


> MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!!🎄🤶
> 
> I have a question that Im hopng someone can help me wth please! I have had back surgery to repair my L4 L5 lower discs last year, and have been struggling to be able to roll my pastries thin enough without the use of a dough sheeter at home. I struggle with rolling the pastry out using my rolling pin as well. I was hoping someone could give me any tips on making my life easier at home as I dont have a dough break here lol. My wife is very handy making lots of things so any suggestions would be appreciated!
> 
> ...


https://www.ebay.com/itm/1750592726...EnLOaejUV5pdRPIGZmoBlWSZ-U2B0DdRoCU_UQAvD_BwE


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

A dough sheeter is reversible, that is, you have a conveyor belt feeding into a set of rollers and a conveyor belt feeding away from the rollers on the other side. You roll the dough through, set the gap between the rollers to a thinner setting, the reverse the direction and roll it back through, doing this as many times as needed until you get your desired thickness. More importantly a sheeter has 4 scrapers that ride along the rollers, preventing dough from wrapping itself around the rollers, as well as preventing debris from sticking to the rollers which would imbed itself onto the dough.

A pasta machine has two rollers with no scrapers and no conveyor belts that feed into and away from the rollers.

In order to make a dough sheeter you’d need to be pretty handy with a metal lathe, overhead mill and general machinists skills.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

foodpump said:


> A dough sheeter is reversible, that is, you have a conveyor belt feeding into a set of rollers and a conveyor belt feeding away from the rollers on the other side. You roll the dough through, set the gap between the rollers to a thinner setting, the reverse the direction and roll it back through, doing this as many times as needed until you get your desired thickness. More importantly a sheeter has 4 scrapers that ride along the rollers, preventing dough from wrapping itself around the rollers, as well as preventing debris from sticking to the rollers which would imbed itself onto the dough.
> 
> A pasta machine has two rollers with no scrapers and no conveyor belts that feed into and away from the rollers.
> 
> In order to make a dough sheeter you’d need to be pretty handy with a metal lathe, overhead mill and general machinists skills.


nah, it can be done very easily if you are handy with a 3d printer, if not the gears can be ordered.
Use alum rolling pin for the roller, only 1 required.
He gives the 3d files to print your own parts.


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## gwnorth668 (6 mo ago)

I too think that an a pair of Teflon coated aluminum rolling pins could be fitted with a pulleys, and a belt, using an old sewing machine motor, and foot switch to control speed and direction. One rolling pin would be stationary, with the other adjustable to make thicker, or thinner sheets as needed. Just make sure the dough is floured to prevent sticking.
Seeeeya RJF


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

Manual Dough Sheeter for Bakery Pizza Maker Pastry Sheeter - Etsy


This Cookware item by DwarfArtShop has 63 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Ukraine. Listed on Dec 30, 2022




www.etsy.com


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

A dough sheeter is designed for sweet dough, pie dough, and puff pastry, it can be used for bread doughs as well. I have used it for marzipan, nougat, caramel, ganaches, and fondant as well. Machines designed for rolling out bread dough work best with bread doughs— that is to say doughs with little or no sugar content, as well as very low fat content.

What separates a sheeter from a machine designed for bread doughs is the scraper assemblies and the run or length of the conveyor belts. On a sheeter there is a full length scraper riding across the length of each side of the two rollers. This is extremely important, because if the dough sticks on any roller, the entire piece of dough will wrap itself around the roller and you have a mess on your hands. The scrapers keep sticky or greasy dough from clinging on to the rollers. The conveyor lengths on sheeters are necessary for laminated doughs like puff or croissant, as well the length comes in handy for cutting out piece work without the need to transfer the dough piece to another table.

Just observations from someone who has worked with sheeters for over 30 years…….


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## JohnDB (10 mo ago)

Yes one could be made....but you would have to also be a hobby machinist to do so. (Mathmatics of various rollers and gears mean lots of geometric equations) Also an electrician to wire up an electric one because then you need motor controls for speed and direction as well as a transmission) 

The belts get pricey as well and need regular cleaning...then belts for the drive train off the motor. (Those are cheaper)


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

JohnDB said:


> Yes one could be made....but you would have to also be a hobby machinist to do so. (Mathmatics of various rollers and gears mean lots of geometric equations) Also an electrician to wire up an electric one because then you need motor controls for speed and direction as well as a transmission)
> 
> The belts get pricey as well and need regular cleaning...then belts for the drive train off the motor. (Those are cheaper)


true, I own a small metal lathe, vertical mill , welder , metal cutting bandsaw etc ,
gears are easy to come and the math is just a matter of knowing where to ask on the internet.
I do all my own elec work and plumbing, I've done soldered copper and PEX. 
We converted our 3 phase sheeter to single phase by installing a big capacitor to kick start the 3 ph motor, a momentary button had to be pushed at start up . The speed can be changed by pulley size, the rondo I had was driven by a fan belt with a small pulley at the motor and bigger one at the top, motor sits in the bottom of the cab. Variable speed is nice but not necessary.

I would avoid the reversible belts completely, just use a ramp feed and fold the dough over it self to feed, we used an Anet sheeter for years like that. It beat the crap out of hand rolling everything for 10 years.

I would encourage anyone going into business to get familiar with tools and applying themselves.
The only thing I didn't get into was refrigeration, too much at risk and too specialized for me.


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## JohnDB (10 mo ago)

retiredbaker said:


> true, I own a small metal lathe, vertical mill , welder , metal cutting bandsaw etc ,
> gears are easy to come and the math is just a matter of knowing where to ask on the internet.
> I do all my own elec work and plumbing, I've done soldered copper and PEX.
> We converted our 3 phase sheeter to single phase by installing a big capacitor to kick start the 3 ph motor, a momentary button had to be pushed at start up . The speed can be changed by pulley size, the rondo I had was driven by a fan belt with a small pulley at the motor and bigger one at the top, motor sits in the bottom of the cab. Variable speed is nice but not necessary.
> ...


Well, with a rotary phase converter and Variable Frequency Drive you can control the motor speed quite effectively....which is one reason I say you need an electrician. But also since we are used to the speeds and feeds (yes, a pun) that the sheeter doesn't really need to be Variable speed....but reverse is a necessity....I wouldn't want to roll it up on a pin every time I fed it through and the starting dough is kinda bulky and thick for handling....especially if it's 10 lbs of dough. 
Keeping the dough from stretching in odd ways is a definite necessity for laminated dough. 

I'm not sure that a manual machine would really be a good thing. You definitely can't stop while the dough is in the rollers. And the weight of the gear train for the dough belts with the dough would either be very heavy or you would be cranking forever. I'm sure a balance can be had somewhere but I'm studying the math now....it's not exactly something that is common knowledge. It is engineering. 

BUT 

If you ever decide to make a set of prints...
I'm open to making one myself. I'd probably still put some stepper motors on it and make it electric....can't help myself.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

rostaylor said:


> There is a hole in the market for the 500.00 price point. I dont need the electric motors and stuff just a nice basic one like in the pic above. I have the general design in my head, just need to work out the details. I think alot of people here on TFL would like a manual sheeter if we can get it for under 500.


if you really think about it, you are exerting 20- 40 lbs of pressure down on a rolling pin, then exerting a fair amount of torque to move the rolling pin forward while still exerting pressure on the dough. If you want to design a manual sheeter you’d need pretty big rollers and a robust gear reduction system, and it would have to have its own stand or be clamped on to a countertop to resist to forces of the rollers. On the other hand you’d need at least a 1/2 hp motor with smaller moving parts and no stand or need to clamp to the counter $500 is not much when you look at raw materials, parts, hardware, and especially machining costs and lets not even think about a motor.

A “ standard” pie is 9” across, top and bottom crusts would be around 12”, so for a home based baker you’d need at least 12” rollers. Most home bakers have a 1/2 hp motor though—built into their Kitchenaid mixers. Whirlpool ( owners of Kitchenaide) have put out a pasta roller attachment for several years now, which is basically two opposing rollers with a gap adjustment that relies on gravity to feed the ( pasta) dough through the rollers. You can’t adjust this gap wider than 1/4”, and the reason for this is a legal one: Anything wider and you could get your fingers caught between the rollers.

If anyone can do a home style sheeter for $500, it would be Kitchenaid, and it would be an attachment for their mixer


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

JohnDB said:


> Well, with a rotary phase converter and Variable Frequency Drive you can control the motor speed quite effectively....which is one reason I say you need an electrician. But also since we are used to the speeds and feeds (yes, a pun) that the sheeter doesn't really need to be Variable speed....but reverse is a necessity....I wouldn't want to roll it up on a pin every time I fed it through and the starting dough is kinda bulky and thick for handling....especially if it's 10 lbs of dough.
> Keeping the dough from stretching in odd ways is a definite necessity for laminated dough.
> 
> I'm not sure that a manual machine would really be a good thing. You definitely can't stop while the dough is in the rollers. And the weight of the gear train for the dough belts with the dough would either be very heavy or you would be cranking forever. I'm sure a balance can be had somewhere but I'm studying the math now....it's not exactly something that is common knowledge. It is engineering.
> ...


yeh we looked at phase converters, very expensive.

No need to roll the dough as it comes through, just flip it onto itself same as doing pasta sheets.
2 passes is usually enough to get it moving then finish with the pin.

The manual machines don't have belts, that wouldn't work...something would snap, probably your arm or the crank.
The easy way out is put a motor on a manual machine and thru bolt it to the table end., all the gearing is already done.

I initially used a 120v pizza roller, it wasn't too bad but the speed was way too high, so I bought a speed controller only to learn you can't use them on AC motors.variable speed controllers need a DC motor but when 120v is rectified the output voltage drops to 90v, so thats a limitation, 90v is a bit feeble. Thats why a kitchen aid mixer is so feeble compared to a hobart 20 qt mixer, they both run on 120v but the hobart is cap start AC, KA is only a 90V motor.


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