Pinzon 5-9-Inch Pasta Maker

I gave my previous pasta maker (priced at $40+ a few years ago, which I liked a lot) to my sister-in-law, so I bought this one for myself - it looks exactly the same but cheaper. In comparison with the previous one, my first impression is that this one feels more flimsy as the metal parts (I doubt if it is stainless steel, it rusted later) are much thinner than the previous one, but this would not matter if it worked well. I used it twice so far, using the wider blades and it failed both times to give me separate threads -- they stick together two by two and I have to manually tear them apart. (I was making Chinese style noodles using just flour so the dough might be softer than regular pasta doughs). What's worse, the machine becomes very rusty after the first use (I wiped it with wet towel paper) and the second time it became super difficult and noisy to turn the handles. It was a real pain and I am not sure if I still want to use it any more. Any ways, I guess it is always true that... Read more

Great mechanical pasta machine, at a great price. Like all mechanical type pasta machines, you have to get used to how to use it, keep your dough consistent and dust the dough and cutters with flour if the dough gets sticky - it takes a bit of practice in general. This is a well-performing machine and is a tremendous value at around $25. To clean, dust off the flour carefully and you can run a piece of felt through the rollers to pick up additional flour.

I bought this pasta maker based on the reviews and I think it's over rated. The knob for changing the roller width is very hard to manage and the clamp does not stay in place. The groove on the clamp isn't deep enough to really hold the machine. When you are cranking one handed and trying to feed/hold the pasta with the other the machine then shakes loose. No good. I'm thinking about moving on to the Kitchen Aid attachment for my mixer instead. I like the idea of two handed pasta making. I wish I wasn't too cheap to make the investment before buying this one. Live and learn.

Living in northeast Arkansas where good pasta-making semolina flour is scarce, my Italian wife found herself at a bit of a disadvantage when our Pinzon pasta maker arrived. Maria finally found a small cache of semolina flour in the cupboard last evening, mixed it with 2 parts of regular flour, and tried it out. Although Maria is an excellent cook, with a good command of Italian cuisine, she had never used a pasta maker or seen one in operation. And, of course, neither had I. The Pinzon 5.9-inch pasta maker comes with a very sketchy one-page instruction sheet that mostly deals with cleaning and maintenance and tells you virtually nothing about how to operate it. So I turned to the Internet and quickly found a couple of how-to videos on YouTube.com. The thing is dirt simple to operate once you understand how it works, but it you've never seen one working, it can be a little daunting. Maria was very impressed with the simplicity of operation and quickly cranked out a pot full of nood... Read more

I bought this product primarily because it was inexpensive and I wasn't sure how much fresh pasta I would realistically be making. Unfortunately, you definitely get what you pay for with this product. The handle is cheap and comes apart from normal use. You can fit it back together, but it is very annoying. It slips out of the machine frequently when turning the handle. The clip to hold it to a table/counter is also cheap and constantly becoming loose so that I had to make adjustments throughout making the pasta. Finally, the machine is extremely hard to clean (I'm still not sure I really got it clean!) and the pasta dough really sticks to it and gets stuck in little places. Because you aren't supposed to get the machine wet, it's hard to know what to do about it! I let it dry and then tried to brush off the dried pasta pieces, but I don't think this was totally successful. Overall, I will probably use this machine again since I have it, but if I end up making a l... Read more