Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

[nissanneill]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Rossco,
great buying.
Now you only need a dough hook and pizzas gallore eh?
My mixer came without a dough hook so I made 2 different ones but really only use one of them, the spiral one.
Should be relatively easy to make if you have a lathe and an oxy set (to bend the stainless esily) and finally a buff to polish the heat stain off

Cheers.

Neill.

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Nice machine you've got Neill!!

I am hoping that I will be able to get a dough hook - maybe 2, plus paddle tomorrow. The guy I got mine from wanted to keep the hook and paddle (can't blame him at the price) but as a last resort I will loan one for a day then see if my engineering friend can duplicate it.

Did a very brief clean up and test run when I got home this evening. The 3 speeds are great but I will probably only use the slowest for dough. It is quite powerful with a 3/4 HP motor. The 20 qrt/Litre bowl (takes 3 Kg dough) looks quite big so I should be able to make my standard 12 x 260 - 270 gram pizzas with no problem. Nice not to have to do 3 x 1 kg in the KA.

Pic attached - just running out to drop off the casing which will be repaired tomorrow...

Rossco

[texassourdough]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Congratulations Rossco!

That big sucker will keep you busy!

Look forward to your reports!
Jay

[dmun]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

A Hobart clone! Good buy. It's good that it's still in production so you can get the dough hook, although it may be interchangeable with the Hobart hook.

[james]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

I want one!

I tried 2Kg in the KA600 Pro a couple of days ago making Focaccia for a school event, and it made an awful noise and smell -- and I ended up hand kneading it to finish. It just ins't made for that volume.

Next year.
James

[nissanneill]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

James,
there was a genuine used Hobart here 'down under' on ebay last week, a bare unit 20 litre capacity with no bowl or beater/hook and went for Aus$51.
I did think about buying it and onselling it but I have enough on my plate at present.
I was going to post it but thought it would cause problems for the members trying to acquire the accessories.
Will let you know when another comes up!

Neill

PS, just did a search and found this one for you. Needs a little cleaning but complete and cheap!
20Ltr Dough Mixer , 3 speed, 240v single phase complete - eBay Mixers, Kitchen Equipment, Restaurants, Business, Industrial. (end time 10-Dec-09 14:29:16 AEDST)

and yet another, local too!

Industrial Bakers Dough hook mixer spare or repair - eBay Mixers, Kitchen Equipment, Restaurants, Business, Industrial. (end time 16-Dec-09 16:12:58 AEDST)
Sorry crew, but I just bought this one from the local seller. It is working well now!

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Update on this one ...

I phoned the Australian agent this morning and was told a price of $285 each (without postage) for a beater and a dough hook. What a shock that was!!! It's madness!!!!!

So thanks for the tip dmun - I will definitely be chasing the Hobart option up right away.

Just as a matter of interest - do attachments like hooks cost around the $300 mark? I realise that this is a $3,000 machine, but just can't justify spending the price of a KA on attachments for what I want to use it for.

Any other suggestions to get this machine flying would be greatly appreciated.

Rossco

A Hobart clone! Good buy. It's good that it's still in production so you can get the dough hook, although it may be interchangeable with the Hobart hook.

[nissanneill]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Rossco,
I think that you will find the Hobart more expensive!!!!!!!!!!
They are not cheap, double anything else around! That is why I made my own.


Neill

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Will this Hobart hook work perhaps???

20Qt Spiral Dough Hook fits w/Hobart A200 A200T Mixer - eBay (item 110468248739 end time Jan-08-10 12:31:16 PST)

Rossco

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Bought 1 beater and 1 dough hook (Hobart 20 QT - clones?) brand new on eBay for $142 (AUD) delivered to the door!!!

Should work OK, but if not will get a friend to mod them for me.

[nissanneill]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Rossco,
I went up to have a look at this dough mixer advertised locally at Mt Barker, it has a few problems but nothing that can't be fixed.
Whilst there, I took the back off the induction motor and no burnt out smell. Apparently it blew his earth leakage breaker when trying to change gears whilst the motor was running. I put in a bid earlier before I left and asked if he had a 'Buy Now' price and I got it for Aus$50 complete.
So, I bought it home, pulled the switch outer assembly off and washed out all the dried up dough restricting it's travels, re-wired the cut off electrical plug and 'whallah', it works like a dream.
Now I have 2 units, this one I will weld up the broken bowl lifter/carriage, clean it up and respray it. It is a Hobart 20l model, done a lot of work but will last forever with the occasional pizza dough mix that we tend to make.
It has 3 speeds (whereas my other one only has 2 speeds) and a very heavy duty 20l stainless bowl.
If your dough hook doesn't fit, being cast aluminium, I doubt that you will get it modified to fit

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Wow - what a bargain Neill .....

Great to have a second machine as a backup. Definitely will make a big profit if you decide to sell it down the track.

As mentioned, I have ordered 2 x attachments for the mixer. Since then I have managed to track down original Thunderbird hooks etc - landed for $100 each. Price for the hook itself was $75 AUD - compared to $285 from the Oz agent. I can get a full set of 3 attachments for less than the price of 1 local one. That is a very big difference!

I will get the the machine ready for action over the festive season - just need to make some space in the garage!!

Will you be cranking the new mixer up to do a batch of dough any time soon??

Rossco

[cynon767]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Upthread somewhere, someone mentioned the nylon gear vs steel gear issue with Kitchenaid mixers. I did a bit of looking into this when I was looking for a mixer recently. It seems the artisan series is meant for light-duty use and has a nylon drive gear assembly which will strip out under heavy load... such as repeated heavy bread or pizza dough mixes. The professional series have stronger motors and (most importantly) steel drive gears, which will stand up to a good deal more use of the sort we here are likely to give it. They won't take the high volume and constant use of the Hobarts and other commercial machines you're discussing, but you can usually get one for a lot less. For home use, I couldn't justify the size and expense of the real high power commercial models; I waited for a sale and sprung for the professional 600.

In our next house, the one with a full-size restaurant kitchen, I might have to reconsider.

[heliman]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

After getting quite a large amount of feedback on the subject of dough making with the basic KA, my current view is that aside from issues like low power/nylon gears, this machine will not produce the really good dough results that I (and many others here) are pursuing. Whilst it will give you pizza dough - it's operation (slapping the dough rather than kneading) is not conducive to top quality dough making. This thread will attest to, and inded highlight, problems with the KA when attempting to make pizza dough.

So, in wanting to make a really nice smooth, silky pizza dough I have turned to other options (not necessarily excessively expensive mind you) to achieve this objective.

This brings to light two primary options. Firstly, to buy a new, inexpensive "Chinese" machine. Himzo in this thread bought a nice machine for around the $700 - $800 mark. Secondly, and the option I went for, was the purchase of a second hand commercial machine. Neill in this thread found one for $50 and mine costed $100. Even allowing for some repairs (and in my case purchasing 2 x attachments for $142) you are well ahead of what you will need to spend on an unsuitable KA.

If you have a need to do light baking at home I am sure the KA will be the right tool for the job. I have been quite happy with mine (owned it for about 7 years now), but it gets very hot when working dough and as mentioned does not produce the goods for my particular need. I will keep the KA though so it's not that bad, but it will give me piece of mind using the Thunderbird knowing it is up to the job.

Definitely worth keeping an eye out for a commercial mixer - they are out there and many people replace them with a newer/larger machine and then want to offload the old one.

Good luck - keen to hear your comments and thoughts on the 600.

Rossco

[Mitchamus]

Re: Kitchen Aid - 1 kg flour

Definitely worth keeping an eye out for a commercial mixer

Hmmmm...... nope not going to bite....