Machine That Makes Almond Butter Smooth Again

Do you also like to eat almond butter? Then you have probably experienced that after a certain time the oil has settled on top and you can no longer get the mush out of the glass.

Here's a little tinkering to get the mass inside the glass liquid again without any effort or mess. The content does not need to be heated. The glass is simply moved inside a rotating drum and after about 1 hour of waiting the content is completely spreadable!

The core of the apparatus consists of a motor and the gearbox of an old cordless screwdriver. A round, closed container with the glass of almond butter inside is moved over the drill chuck of the screwdriver. The rotating drum is turning on the top of two simple wheels. The energy for the construction comes from an universal power pack with approx. 4.5 to 6 volts.

• 16-18 mm spruce boards, 20 cm wide
• gear and motor of an old cordless screwdriver
• round plastic box with lid, about 10-12 cm in diameter, 15 to 20 cm high
• two wheels of about 6 cm diameter
• screws
• small parts
• universal power supply adjustable with 4.5 - 6 volts
• hand saw
• hole saw 6 cm
• screwdriver
• drill

Let's saw two pieces of wood of approx. 20 cm x 25 cm as a base plate and as a stand for the drive.

(Annotation: As you may see in my model, I constructed the stand for the drive from 2 pieces to allow for precise adjustment of the drum axis when assembling. If you do step 5 properly, this won't be necessary.)

Now saw a piece of wood of 20 cm x 9 cm as a stand for the rotating drum.

Into this piece saw an approx. 2 cm deep and 5 cm wide recess in the middle.

Make 2 wooden wheels with a diameter of 6 cm by using a hole saw. These are now fixed in the stand with an approx. 35 mm long wood screw. The centers of the wheels are 7.5 cm above the top edge of the base plate and have a distance of 10 cm to each other. Use some small metall discs between the stand and the rolls for optimal operation.

The drum stand is now screwed on the base with 2 screws at a distance of approx. 3 cm from the left edge of the base plate. It is best to drill holes before screwing so that the wood does not splinter.

Find the middle in the lid of the drum and drill a hole there that fits the axis. Then use a metal screw, fix it inside the hole with a nut and a washer as you may see in the pic.

Place the drum on the wheels so that it is parallel to the base plate. Now hold the drive stand to the axis and mark the position of the axis on the stand. In my model with a 10 cm diameter drum, the position was at 12.5 cm in height.

There are many different models of cordless screwdrivers. My old machine was in a very common shape, formed like a revolver. I loosened all the screws of the plastic casing and after that the motor/gear unit was removable very simply. Take it out and cut the 2 cables, so that there is some cable left for your power supply.

As you may see in picture 1 and 2 the machine unit is build out of 3 parts. From left to right there is the drill chuck, the gear (marked green) and the motor. To mount the unit into the wooden stand only the casing of the gear must be fixed, so that the drill chuck is free to turn.

As you may see in picture 3 and 4 the casing of the gear itself consists of 2 parts. The left part is in a more or less conical shape, let's call the largest diameter of this part "a". The right part has a straight shape with a little smaller diameter, let's call it "b".

To determine the right diameter of the hole inside the wooden stand use diameter "a". But mind picture 5 and be aware to take diameter "a 1" !

(If you don't have a hole saw in the exact diameter use the next smaller one and after sawing use the rounded file to make it as big as needed.)

Once the hole is done we use a half rounded file to shape diameter "a 2" to get the conical shape into the wood.

The gear unit now must be positioned in that way, that the biggest diameter of part "a" (=a2) is even with the wood.

When this is done you can fix the gear with 2 wooden parts as you may see in picture number 6

Put the axis of the drum into the drill chuck and fix it. Lay the drum on the wheels, so that it is roughly in the middle. Now fix the machine stand onto the base plate with 2 screws.

The machine is almost finished!

Use an adjustable power supply and connect the output cables to the cables of the motor.

Adjust the power supply to 4 - 6 Volts and make a test run. It is important that the drum turns clockwise, so that the lid of the drum doesn't open while turning!

Be careful to run the machine with moderate speed otherwise it could fly away ;)

Take the glass where your almond butter sticks in and close it properly. Put it into the drum along with some pieces of newspaper and position it in a diagonal position. Now close the lid and start your machine.

After 1 hour the butter should be smooth again :)

Here's a small videoclip of my project:

https://youtu.be/XPqT8fY0fHQ