Put it this way .... my husband's father was a tool and dye maker. Very painstaking in what he did. My husband looked at the cutters and said that they probably cost a great deal more to develop than one would ever think. He thought the package was a wonderful deal. I use those tools 3-4 times a year to make sheet pasta for lasagne and ravioli, and use the cutters for fettuccine. Love my home-made pasta! I freeze whatever we don't use.

About the roller, I do it all myself. I'm 5'2" and don't have a problem. Don't need another set of hands, either!

I use the Electrolux "Assistant" rather than a KA so no advice on that; but I do have an Atlas manual pasta roller that I've used for close to 30 years. Never needed another pair of hands. It rolls beautiful pasta. Mine has a clamp to prevent it from slipping on the work surface.

/tricia

I have a manual roller that I use, although the Kitchenaid pasta roller works well. My problem is that I'm 5'1" and my counter is too tall, I don't have a shorter table or anything to set the mixer on, so it's too tall for me to reach comfortably.

I haven't gotten the knack of the "extruder" yet, my pasta comes out and clumps right back up, and I can't cut the strands, lay them out and still catch the stuff still coming out. I'm not so coordinated I guess, because I just can't figure out how it's ever going to work without an assistant. I've lent it to a couple of people who think it works great, though, so it must just be me.

Now the slicing attachment? That works like a charm, I can do scalloped potatoes for 30 (or 300) without a blink! (Thanks, Beachlily!)

Annie

Sister bought a bunch of KA attachments a while ago and gifted me a few. She kept the pasta roller cuz she LOVES it! Gave me grinder with pasta extruder thingies. First time I tried using it... not so successful. Pasta came out and immediately became ONE mass of stuff. Worked more flour into dough 2 more time without much success??

Also gifted a slicer/shredder thingie, but already have several different disks for Cuisinart food processor.

There's absolutely no need for any of those--KitchenAid, Atlas machine, etc.

All you need is a good rolling pin and a knife. It's far faster and easier. to make and roll the dough by hand, than to get those things set up, used and cleaned. I have 2 atlas machines, and never use them.

Before you make up your mind, make one batch of pasta using a board, fork and rolling pin and see if it isn't super easy, less expensive. And there's the safety issue. I don't know about the KA attachments, but you CANNOT WASH an atlas--for me, that makes it a one use item. No way I'd feed my family food that has come in contact with a utensil that was used previously for a mixture that included raw egg, but was never washed. Yuck!

The pasta attachment works fine but I much prefer my cheap old manual roller.

The extruder was re gifted long ago......I hated the darn thing.

The roller and cutter set works great. Clean-up is easy. The instructions say not to get them wet - probably because there is no way to get water out of the innards. Just brush off any residue with the brush that comes with them.

I'm 5' 1" and find it easy enough to reach on the counter.

I love mine, but I don't use it much. I don't know why, but I just don't make home made pasta much. When I do, I have fun, so I should do it more often.

I'm the same height, Annie, and it doesn't bother me. I don't know why. There are other things that bother me height wise, such as kneading dough - I used to get a step stool to stand on when kneading dough, until I got my butcher block, which is a bit shorter than my counters. I have to put a wine bottle down in the sink to open it. But, I've never noticed the pasta roller being too tall. Now I probably will, thank you very much! lol

Sally

LOL, Sally, I'm sorry. Maybe it's not my height, maybe my arms are too short or maybe my counters are taller, or maybe it's my carpal tunnel that hurts when I use it, I don't know, but by the time I set thqt big Kitchenaid on top of the counter, and reach up to feed the dough through the rollers, it's a stretch.

It's not impossible, but it's not comfortable after a little while.

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Fri, Oct 25, 13 at 2:33

I can certainly understand that.

Sally

I am 5ft and no inches so vertical challenges are very important. However my counters are only 33 inches tall so using the mixer itself has not been an issue. I can easily see into the bowl lift etc. But I should try it out. Costco has a decent return policy so I am thinking to try it out and see.

Lalitha