Rich Siegel
@siegel
I use Macs to turn caffeine into bugs. Occasional KitchenAid mixer content tagged #Mixerology. He/him.
I agree, I think the powder coater did a fantastic job. It turned out even better than the swatch led me to expect. There's an "illusion" series of multi-stage finishes that has always been my favorite. Here's one that I built a while back, "Illusion Cherry Red". But those sparkles…
I did a one-off build as a gift for a family member. Took a 1990s-era Ultra Power, and had a trusted friend do a custom powder coat. When the color parts came back I reassembled with a bunch of internal upgrades, 230V/50Hz conversion, and a new bowl with stainless accessories. #mixerology
I think this is it for me. Family heirloom, purchased the year I was born. I had it overhauled by an expert last year and it's looking and running like new. It's fed by USB signal from the computer, and plays to a pair of nearfield speakers on my desktop. Always in arm's reach while I'm working.
A little Friday #mixerology: evidence that pantry moths will nest wherever they can. (It’s a little hard to tell, but this is a closeup of a motor brush, with a pantry moth cocoon in the bevel.) I hate pantry moths, so I had no choice but to burn the house down.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I won't say it was easy; that deposited film was pretty gnarly.
Fortunately, the fire wasn't in the apartment where the mixer resides, and there was no sign of heat damage to any part of the mixer. This made the job a fairly straight-ahead overhaul, with lots of extra time spent cleaning and polishing. Here's a preliminary pass on the top housing.
A little Friday night #mixerology. This 1991 "Red Band" family heirloom machine was in an apartment building fire in NYC. The owner wondered if it was salvageable. Spoiler: yes, it was.
Paging @ianbetteridge.com , Mr Betteridge to the nearest courtesy phone for an important phone call.
Done and back together! The bowl light does look kind of cool. Here too are some comparison photos of the new and old stainless flat beaters. #mixerology
After fifty years of electromechanical speed controls, the K45 model type gets an electronic speed control. This is the underside; the bowl light LEDs are on the other side. The speed control slider is at the top; you can twist the knob to switch between continuous and stepped speed control.
Here's the motor unit, after removal from the housing. Behind the inlet board there's a fan shroud, and at the top (bottom, when the mixer is upright) is the fan exhaust which lines up with the vents in the rear cover.
Under that rear cover, instead of the old speed control plate, there's a board mounted on the back of the motor. There's an MOV for surge suppression, a fuse, a power inlet for the mains cord, and outputs to the motor and speed control board (not visible, inside).
In back, the rear cover has a change to the design of the vent. (We'll see why in a minute.)
The molding for the power cord strain relief is changed slightly, and the ground is anchored inside the lower housing. (The light diffuser is visible to the right.)
Inside, the gear train mechanics are identical to the current Artisan. It's light on grease and uses the same cost-reduced plastic bushings in the pinion drive.
That bowl light is pretty slick. There's a new casting for the lower gear housing to accommodate the hole and diffuser for the LEDs.
I bought and took apart one of those new "Artisan Plus" mixers that KitchenAid shipped the other day, mostly because I was curious to see what the internal differences were from the not-Plus Artisan. First, here's a short video showing the thing running. #mixerology
