Issue # 73 - January/February 1982
RELATED CONTENT
THE HEALTHY PLATE: Recipe for Spiral Pasta with Roasted Pumpkin and Plum Tomatoes...
A Mother's Mini-Project, building your own bread slicer, cutting board....
Build a woodstove out of mud-cast bricks using a plywood frame and sheetmetal stove pipe....
A hive of bees will produce honey and help pollinate your garden and orchard, but beekeeping is als...
Yes, there's more than one way to skin a spud, if you . . .
By Richard Bolmer
After reading Cathy Johnson's article on making potato chips a few issues back (see MOTHER NO. 67, page 87), I thought some of MOM's readers might be interested in a gadget I designed for cutting spuds into spiral slices. As anyone who's made potato chips knows, the secret of success is getting the meat of the vegetable evenly thin, so that it'll fry quickly (before it absorbs too much oil) but still hold together.
My handcranked gizmo is, admittedly, a bit complicated, but it's fun to use and works great. To make your own spiral chipper, you'll need a block of hardwood (I used birch) measuring 3/4" X 1-1/4" X 15-3/4", a 3/4" birch dowel that's 10-1/2" in length, a 5/16" I.D. X 3/8" O.D. X 2-t/4" compression spring, a 12-114"-long piece of 5/16-18 threaded rod, a 1/4" X 2-7/16" hardwood dowel, a 7/16" X 2-5/8" scrap of (preferably) stainless steel that's 1/32" thick, a 1/8" X 1" steel dowel pin, a piece of flat metal measuring 1/8" X 1/2" X 3", a 2"long wooden crank handle, a 1/4" X 2-1/2" coarse-threaded machine bolt with a nut and flat washer, a 5/16-18 hex nut, a No. 6 X 1/2" roundhead wood screw, and some assorted brads.
First, cut your block into three sections ... one 11-1/4", the second 3", and the third 1-1/2" long. Then trim a 1-1/2" piece from the threaded rod, and divide the 3/4" dowel into three equal parts.
Next, drill three 3/4" holes through the 11-1/4" block (which will be the contraption's base) at the points shown in the illustration, and bore a 1/4" opening halfway between the two 3/4" cavities that are closest together. Finish up the base by center-boring a 7/16" hole, 3/8" deep, directly over the just-drilled quarter-incher.
Then take your 3"-long block and bore holes at each end-centered and 2-1/4 inches apart—using the 3/4" bit. With that done, chisel a 5/16"-square channel longitudinally down the center of the same piece of wood ... drill a 15/64" hole through the billet at the midpoint of this groove . . . and remove 3/8"-from each end of the chunk, cutting right across the holes and reducing its overall length to 2-1/4 ".
Trim the third piece of hardwood to 3/4" X 3/4" X 1-1/2", then cross-drill two 1/2" openings through the block, each centered and at a point 1-1/4 inches from one end. Then center-bore a 1/4" hole about 3/4" deep into the flat end of the pierced rectangle, thread it with a 5/16-18 tap, and lop off the cross-bored tip 1/4 inch from the end to create the four wooden "fingers" indicated in the drawings.
With that task complete, carve a crescentshaped depression—3/8" deep and approximately 2-1/8" in length—in one of the 3/4" dowels, making its midpoint about 1-3/8 inches from one end of the post. Then drill two 7/64" holes, parallel to the concave face of the indentation, at points 3/8 inch and 2-1/4 inches from the dowel's short end. You can also take this opportunity to bore a 21/64" hole 3/8 inch from one end of each of the remaining two posts.
