In the age of online shopping and near-instant gratification, it’s not very often we see people creating their kitchen appliances from scratch. Let alone—kitchen appliances made from popsicle sticks and razor blades.
Just check out this DIY food slicer from YouTuber Delta Hack. Using popsicle sticks, wood, razor blades, and a simple rotating mechanism, he creates a machine that can surprisingly slice some simple foods into clean cuts:
After gluing four razor blades to a circular piece of wood, he affixes the blades of death onto the rotating mechanism, which is electrically powered by a small battery and a switch. When turned on, these rotating blades are the heart of the machine and will bring an untimely end to all meats, fruits, and vegetables who cross its path.
He then crafts a small enclosure using pieces of wood to prop up the rotating mechanism. He glues the device onto the center platform, giving the blade wheel enough space to rotate. To hide the wires and the battery, he makes a half-circle enclosure around the mechanism using two pieces of wood. This enclosure is then surrounded by popsicle sticks, leaving a small gap for accessing the power switch. While this could make it harder to replace the battery in the future, removing a few popsicle sticks doesn’t seem that hard to do.
To more easily push the sliced foods through, he crafts a small slope in the center using slanted pieces of wood. This slope is where a small triangular food pusher makes its home. Whenever something needs an extra nudge into the blades, all the user has to do is move the food pusher and the machine will do the rest.
The food slicer makes short work of many fruits and vegetables, though it does leave a bit of a mess the smaller the cuts get. Once you’re done cutting, you can remove the blades in order to clean or replace them if they start getting dull.
You can find more build inspiration and DIY goodness over on Delta Hack’s YouTube channel.
