Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/10/3d-print-a-measuring-cube.html
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For people who spend more time at their computers than actually cooking.
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better yet, buy a scale and cook by weight.
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That’s possibly the most impractical gadget I’ve ever seen. And I’ve visited the BoingBoing Shop.
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My kitchen drawers are already full of teaspoon and teaspoon-fraction measuring spoons that don’t fit in my spice jars, thanks. And for larger measurements I usually am in need of more individual cups, not fewer, in order to avoid cross-contamination of ingredients between their storage containers.
So yeah, clearly designed by someone who has never cooked but saw a set of measuring spoons once and thought, “Wow, finding the right one must be a huge efficiency issue! I bet can solve that!” i.e., an engineer.
ETA: giving it some thought, my ideal measuring cup set would be made of weighty metal, dishwasher-safe, gently oblong-shaped, and come with duplicates of the more-used increments (something like 1 x 1-cup, 2 x 1/2-cup, 1 x 1/3-cup, 4 x 1/4-cup). Maybe I’ll see if such a thing can be found on Amazon.
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Oh yes, it’s a very satisfying concept. Mathematically.
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It can go on my toolbench, alongside the Golomb ruler.
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…or you could just buy, say, 3 of the standard set of cups.
trying to measure wet and dry ingredients with only 1 cup of each size is annoying though, yeah.
I have two of these measuring spoons:
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Finally a reliable way to measure out 1/5th of a cup of ingredients.
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Not to mention that the most common kinds of plastics used for home 3d printing machines aren’t really food-safe or long-term water resistant.
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Can’t see that working out well with clean as you go.
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Yes, let’s see it in use.
How do I get 1/4 tsp of chili powder out of the jar and into that little depression, and then strike off any excess … and then get the excess out of the neighboring compartments so I can dump it into the mixing bowl?
Oh, you say I should use a spoon to get it out of the jar and painstakingly dribble it into that depression? How about we just make several spoons of various sizes to make it easier to do that?
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I have multiple “sets” of measuring cups and spoons, with some of them permanently inside the ingredient they measure the most. Like the 1C measure that is in the flour canister.
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How very useful! I will trade my measuring spoons for your 3D printer!
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I really like the concept, but if you’re 3D printing at home it’s highly unlikely to be food-safe - especially for the kind of granular ingredients you’d be measuring
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I downloaded it when it was first posted on Thingiverse. Then I loaded it into Blender and saw how huge it is, which makes sense when you consider all the volumes it must encompass. Then considered trying to scoop ingredients into it, cleaning it, etc.
It was a big “nope” for me.
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But if I keep 1/2 cup measures in the sugar and flour, then I have to have at least one additional 1/2 cup measure for other ingredients as needed… so that’s at least three sets. I have never in my entire life needed more than one 1/3 cup measure, and now I have three of them in my drawer, taking up space such that I can never find a 1/4 cup when I need one.
It’s a racket, I tell ya…
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Yep, you methodically fill the space using another, smaller measuring spoon, taking extreme care not to over-fill it. That would be how you’d have to use every measure, unless it’s for a liquid that you can directly pour in (but you probably don’t want to use it for liquids, as it’s not likely to be food safe). Then you have to wash the entire thing. Yeah, it’s real useful. Whoever came up with this doesn’t cook, at all.
It’s a neat concept - but it should have stayed a concept, as it’s totally unusable, even with the issue of food-safe materials (or lack thereof) aside.
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I’d prefer to skip the thermal decay of ABS; and PLA may be unstable over a suitably long period (though generally deemed biocompatible about it); but if something like polystyrene is food-unsafe we have a long list of other issues.
That said, the fact that a lot of filament printers have trouble getting smooth, non-porous surfaces seems like a real cleaning problem. You really don’t want to have to hunt ingredients into a zillion crevices.
Someone please send one of these to Alton Brown so he can mercilessly mock it.
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