Making your own dough sheeter

[Tatoosh]

The South African manual sheeter manufacturer, that Saturday Coffee found, replied to my email and their machine is a mere $1679.68 and another $1027.34 for shipping.

The pasta attachment to a Kitchen Aid mixer is looking better all the time.  However, the fruit press I saw on eBay really has me wondering if a small hydraulic car jack with a self-centering set of metal plates might not be a pretty feasible way to approach this.  Put the top pan on a ball joint, sliding guides on each corner to keep the plates aligned, it might just work.  Not real fast but with 5000 lbs of umph, it should flatten even the more recalcitrant doughs. 

On the other hand, I've been looking for an excuse to put a Kitchen Aid in my kitchen.     

[buceriasdon]

I still insist that a press by itself will not work because of the dough's elasticity however I have built presses such as:
http://www.bonnydoonengineering.com/Products/Presses/110505.html
Now if you could find a way to heat the platens, then maybe it could work. For what it's worth I think building a roller/sheeter would be a better solution.
Don

[Tatoosh]

Wow, nice design!  I'm impressed with that and the return springs built into the frame is a very nice touch indeed.  I should defer to your obvious expertise in design, of which I am not qualified by anything but curiosity.  So, with respect to my one redeeming qualification, what would you think the heat range of the platen be?  I suppose there might be a couple of ways to add heat, but getting it spread evenly across the surface of the plates ... err ... platen would be a challenge.  Heated water, a heating unit the same size?  A temperature controller or at least temp probe built in.  That $700 commercial unit is looking better all the time and the $160 add-on to a Kitchen Aid starts to seems economical! 

Thanks for you input, I appreciate it.

[politon]

Perhaps a clay slab roller would work?

http://www.baileypottery.com/slabrollers/drd2.htm

[Jet_deck]

http://www.doughpro.com/products/show/1

[Tatoosh]

I realize this topic is pretty old, but in case anyone is still interested in making their own dough sheeter, I found a place where you can purchase some instructions on making your own slip roll, which is a similar piece of equipment used for bending sheet metal. I haven't purchased the book or even used a slip roll, but I thought someone more mechanically inclined might give it a shot.

Dave

Dave, sounds interesting but do you have a book title or author?  The link you posted says the item (no name shown) has been moved and says to search for it.