I thought I’d show you my little magical pasta machine. This is an Atlas 180 pasta machine, by Marcato, no different than what you can buy in a kitchen supply shop. It is the kind that you use to make pasta! But my machine has had two major types of modifications. NOTE: The off-the-shelf Atlas pasta machines now come with removable blades, making it unnecessary to “Monafy” any Atlas made after 2023 or so. You can read more (and see my new Edified Atlas) here.
Monafied Pasta Machines
The first modification my Atlas has had is that it is “Monafied”. There’s a woman named Mona Kissel whose husband does a special modification on pasta machines to create removable blades. This way you can remove the blades for cleaning. This isn’t something that can be done by just buying an attachment. He puts in some hardware, cuts some slots, and installs special metal blades. With a Monafied machine, you just remove a thumbscrew, pop out the blade, wipe it clean, and reinstall. Takes about a minute per blade (there are two blades).
You can buy a Monafied machine or you can send your Atlas to Mona to be modified. You can learn about doing this at www.monakissel.com.
Ed Street Pasta Machines
The second modification that you see in my colored machine up there is that Ed Street has done further modifications. I tease Ed that we should call this “Edified”. (Come on, it’s a perfect pun.) You could also say that it’s been “Edited’.
Ed takes apart Atlas pasta machines, powder coats them in your choice of color, then installs an acrylic base to make cleaning easier. There’s not really a big functional improvement, but hey…it’s pretty. Ed can do this to your machine.
You can find Ed at www.edscolors.com. He customizes each machine individually, by hand, so he’s usually pretty backed up. Email him for more info.
Durability of Modified Pasta Machines
By the way, neither of these modifications alter the basic ability and durability of the Atlas pasta machine. Please remember that it’s designed for making pasta, which is rather soft compared to polymer clay. Yes, it’s better than the inexpensive, generic, re-labeled pasta machines from China (often called clay conditioning machines because…opportunism). But it’s still easy to bend the metal of these machines. So don’t jam huge wads of clay into the poor thing. If you’re bogging it down, you’re shortening its life. Slice your clay into thin slices before feeding it in. Treat your pasta machine with tender loving care!
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