In this video I make a device that automatically cuts the crust of toast and removes it by just pulling the handle. This De-crusting machine works with one slice at a time.
When I first had the idea for this project I knew I wanted to do it with a lever handle. This limits to linear or rotary motion, but both with a fairly small stroke so I came up with the square block that holds four knives and cuts the crusts.
This left me with one challenge for the project:
This challenge was to separate the crust from the bread. With a square knife the crust would just stay in place with a hole cutout. I mounted the blades with one centimeter overlap in every corner so when cutting it would cut four straight pieces instead of one square one. To separate the pieces from the bread I made the small white fingers, or crust pushers. These are actually small levers that move outward when you push the top.
The whole knife block can slide about once cm. up and down on its bracket. When it pushes down on the toast first the knife cuts through the toast and when it blocks the pushers get pushed outward because the machine still pushes down on the knifes. By having a large spring in between the plates the force can be adjusted.
Check out the video to see how it works!
