I have been using a second hand bread maker to make my dough with for about 4 or 5 years now. I don't think I've ever used it for anything else other than dough mixing.
I quite like them because they mix relatively slowly compared to lots of other options, and they are dirt cheap. (Ideally I'd like 28 rpm fork mixer, but that's a whole different league)
The only thing I never liked about my bread maker is that the dough making cycle has a few stops and starts and rests etc before it goes into a continuous mixing phase. Also it doesn't go long enough and finishes sometimes before the dough is ready, so I have to re-start the dough cycle again (and the stops and starts again etc.. you get the picture).
What I really wanted was a bread maker that starts mixing when I switch it on and keeps doing that until I switch it off. So I started doing some searching on the internet and found some really cool info on modifying bread makers.
http://www.homeroasters.org/php/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=528.
I had a go at it, and my bread maker now works exactly the way I want it too.
The re-wiring was not too difficult and most people should be able to do this.
The usual caveats apply: You're dealing with mains power, so be safe rather than sorry, and if you're not comfortable doing it, get a buddy who knows a bit about electronics to do it for you.
Hope its of use to somebody, it certainly was for me.
Peter
