I exchanged the food processor and the new one does the same thing!!! We experimented with it quite a bit and found the motor is nice and smooth with no blade or any blade but the chopping blade. When we inserted a small piece of paper inside the post hole of the blade before putting the blade on, there was no noise. We called Cuisinart and they are sending us a new blade free (we do not need to send the defective blade back). I have heard many complaints about Cuisinart's customer service but I have called them four times and always got an answer with very little wait. They were very helpful.

I have both, a basic model Cuisinart made in Japan and a Robot Coupe made in France. Both vintage. Both machines are heavy duty and should be able to handle any duties required in the home. Interestingly the parts from the Cuisinart fit and work on the Robot Coupe but not vise-versa. I suggest that all parts and blades be washed by hand. Do not place these parts in the dishwasher. The heat of the dishwasher drying mode will weaken the plastic of the parts. Also be careful when twisting the lid on and off the bowl to prevent the locking/power engagement pin from breaking. Most importantly DON'T DROP IT! If you have a machine with a malfunctioning locking/power engagement pin you could manually depress the button using a pen or knitting needle. Be careful though as you no longer have the safety measures of the power engagement pin to protect you. The question about 3D printing your own bowl....This is not a viable solution for many reasons including: the plastic used has to be food safe. The bowl needs to be strong enough to handle the torque and stress of day to day use. And the plastic needs to be able to handle heat especially if you use the machine to puree hot items. Finding parts for these machines is difficult. Take good care of them and you should be enjoying your smoothies etc. For many many years. Happy cooking!

'Oh sorry, I should clarify that .... it wasn't 20 pounds all at once ' no problem, I figured that. I'd do the same - run a bunch of something thru, dump it in a container and re-load - lol! I ordered the ninja from qvc (4 easy pays). I figured if it didn't work out, at least my money isn't tied up. I'm thinking positive tho so don't pay s/h back. I also thought about the weight of the bowl/pitcher and plastic is good for me. also less likely to break if it slips out of my hands. It does have a huge pitcher that I thought would be good for making juice and sauce/ salsa. I'll probably use the smaller one most of the time. most of the others don't get over 500 w, the vitamix qvc had on this a.m. is 1380 watts and the ninja is 1100 I think. it should be here this week and I hope I have the time/feel up to spending time figuring it out and doing a test run with it!

>>> "I won't hold my breath on receiving it over the holidays, though, and will just have to re-work my cooking/baking agenda"<<< I'll echo what Cavimum said. Note that on Chowhound's similar thread, a user reported the blade breakage happened to him several years ago. Pictures are provided for anybody interested. (Link is here.) He also states: "you can allay your fears by examining the blade each time before and after you use it. The cracks form on the narrow sides next to the rivets, and if there are no cracks, you're good for that day: the problem takes a while to get serious." While Cavimum and I think that approach is sufficiently reassuring for our own "cooking/baking agendas" while waiting for the replacement, YMMV. FWIW, I was able to get through to the Cusinart site this morning by using this direct url: https://recall.cuisinart.com/