How is cookie cutter formed?

September 10, 2018 2:55 PM

Some mesmerizing cookie cutter manufacturing gifs for your Monday. one, two, three, more .
posted by quaking fajita (30 comments total)

Woah! That was cool! I don't know how I thought cookie cutters were made, but I wouldn't have come up with that.
posted by arcticwoman at 3:07 PM on September 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

OMG that is so soothing to watch
posted by Hermione Granger at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Ontario politics was a bit of a shit-show today, so thank you for this.

The description should include a warning about the Xmas theme - that was a bit alarming.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:23 PM on September 10, 2018

That was... oddly soothing
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:24 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

The trick (and it seems like a big trick to me) is to make sure that the original circumference of the unshaped circle is exactly equal to the outline of the final shape, because if it isn't, it won't look right. And the 'shapers' must be engaged in exactly the right order. A lot of precise skill to that cool-looking process.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:26 PM on September 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Apologies for the accidental way-too-early Christmas theme. I offer a post from January in recompense. Can you guess which holiday it's for?
posted by quaking fajita at 3:28 PM on September 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Those are to die for.
posted by 7segment at 3:35 PM on September 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Hobby Lobby already has Xmas stuff out, which makes it fair game. They're the groundhog's day hogs of Christmastime.
posted by GoblinHoney at 3:40 PM on September 10, 2018

I notice some of them start with the join between the two ends, but others just do one end at first and make the final join last. And from this one it looks like they still have to tack the ends together after the forming.
posted by ckape at 3:42 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

omg
posted by Songdog at 3:55 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hobby Lobby already has Xmas stuff out, which makes it fair game. They're the groundhog's day hogs of Christmastime

so just as terrible as them being groundhog's day hogs of legalized misogyny, cool, cool cool cool
posted by numaner at 4:04 PM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

way more machinery than I expected to make these. I had assumed it was all bends, not these big presses.
posted by GuyZero at 4:06 PM on September 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

i have commented on the christmas tree one asking for many more of these because i never knew i needed them in my life. i would very much like an array of screens fill a whole wall of my apartment and each screen is a different cookie cutter being pushed with immaculate precision into their very precise shape. over and over and over...
posted by numaner at 4:07 PM on September 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

The feeling I get watching these is how I imagine Nurse Ogawa felt when she was playing that addictive, orgasmic, brainwashing "game" in that episode of Star Trek...
posted by duffell at 4:19 PM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

There are lots more non-cmas videos the further you scroll down. Including how they make the perfect starting circle
posted by not_the_water at 4:22 PM on September 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Pepsi Yule
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:34 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hobby Lobby already has Xmas stuff out...

Because Hobby Lobby caters to crafters, and if you have to wait until after Thanksgiving to start on your Christmas crafts, you aren't going to have any fun.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:39 PM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

That process is wonderful! It feels like something that you could build yourself in a metal shop, but that would take years to get right.

You could use something like a CNC bender for this, but it would be tremendous overkill.
posted by poe at 4:45 PM on September 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

My Grandpa made my Grandma a set of cookie cutters out of tin cans. You couldn't tell them from storebought.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:10 PM on September 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

do you ever feel like a cookie cutter
practically formed
(apologies to Blur)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:21 PM on September 10, 2018

This 'the more you know' is part of metal fabrication. This is what is called a break - a device used to bend and shape sheet metal. Big ones are used to custom fab anything from executive desks to the front of prototype and limited run custom jobs. Its a total art form when you get to manual breaks. Once a form is mastered, it also becomes ripe for automation. So you think... why do they call it a box break? well, think of those tins that Christmas cookies come in - those were bent and formed originally by hand with machines like this. Craftsmen would take sheets, punch them through a mold, trim by hand, and then use the break for a solid assembly which required minimal riveting, soldering, or spot-welding.

The thing is, once you have a blank made, it becomes pretty much a steady, press, lock and done - so these old cookie cutter cutters still work - year after year after year... and as seen in the 2nd video - able to be automated... which means that these dies can be hundreds and hundreds of years old and still make the same shape again and again... And, if you are in a metal shop, when the machine wears out, you likely have the sandcasting, the metal lathe, and the milling machine to recreate the broken part to match the exact specification - maintaining said antique mold.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:57 PM on September 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

Isn't actually a 'brake' rather than 'break'?
posted by Ickster at 6:16 PM on September 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Well, that was certainly unexpected.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:00 PM on September 10, 2018

Including how they make the perfect starting circle

I don't understand how this works. Why don't they have to rotate the ring all the way around. Isn't it possible that some part of the cookie cutter that isn't pressed isn't quite curved right and you end up with not-exactly-a-circle?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:05 PM on September 10, 2018

! Wow ! It makes perfect sense, but this is not how I thought they were made. Fantastic.

(Although, I do see a lot of pinch hazards...(couldn't help but notice, sorry))
posted by Fig at 7:13 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Why don't they have to rotate the ring all the way around.

Guessing that the other half is done by a Bender bot, so it's a known quantity.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:03 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

It must be said...
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:26 PM on September 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'd never given much thought to how they're actually made. Neato.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:35 AM on September 11, 2018

Neat. Thank!
posted by Quasirandom at 12:26 PM on September 11, 2018

There was, I thought, a certain sameness to these videos …

 (I'll get me coat …)

And yes, it's more commonly spelled brake.
posted by scruss at 3:59 PM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]