Churro Maker: Louis Yi, Maggie Su, Morgan Zheng, Sharon Grimshaw

Abstract:
For this project, we plan to build an automated churro maker, which takes in dough (see
Appendix A), shapes and cooks churros according to user-defined input values such as churro
length, doneness, and whether to add the sugar topping. Each step of the process will be a self-
contained mechanism which may be used independently of other components to perform just one
step of the process for increased flexibility.

Project Description:
We will build an automated churro maker:

• Overall mechanism:
o Dough is extruded and cut to a user-defined length
o Uncooked churro falls into a pot of hot oil
o Cooked churro is removed from hot oil
o Cooked churro falls into a shaker to coat with cinnamon shaker
• Extruder/Cutter:
o extrudes churro dough
o snips the dough with a moving blade after a certain length
• Cooker/Lifter:
o hot oil bath to cook the churros
o contains a stirring mechanism to ensure even browning
o After a specified time (possibly based on user input), churro is removed from the
oil by the stirring mechanism and placed in the sugar-coater
o May contain some form of temperature control on the container
• Sugar-coater:
o a pan of sugar and cinnamon which is agitated when churros fall in

Team member responsibilities:

• Maggie CADs design with Louis and machine/assemble components

• Morgan designs and builds the circuitry components and writes the code to control them
• Louis also designs and machines things
• Sharon researches and schedules and presents and blogs things; basically project manager

These responsibilities fit with our goals because they give us the most experience in our
respective majors.

A schedule:
See Appendix B
A projected budget:

Item Quantity Unit Cost Total Cost Sourced From

Baking supplies var N/A $30 Grocery store

Decorator bag and tips 1 $6 $6 Grocery store

Servos 3 $10 $30 ECE stockroom

Motors 3 $25 $75 TowerHobbies.com/DigiKey

One-burner camp stove 1 $30 $30 ECE stockroom

Wire mesh 1 $10 $10 Grocery store

Metal pot 1 $20 $20 Amazon.com

Bowl 1 $5 $5 Amazon.com

Blades 2 $5 $10 Machine Shop scraps

Cylinder (syringe) 1 $10 $10 Target

O-rings 2 $1 $2 McMaster/HomeDepot

Metal rods var $5 $5 HomeDepot

Temperature sensor 1 $5 $5 ECE stockroom

Gears 5 $2 $10 Machined/Lego gears

Total $248

An end-of-life plan: We will put it in the kitchen, which means we need to talk to Nick Tatar
and the CORe representatives. If they are concerned about it staying in the kitchen, we would
still like it to stay on Olin campus, which means we should talk to the PoE professors about it
being saved for next year’s PoE class.
Also, if the churro maker isn’t as awesome as we expect, we can use the pot and the stove and
salvage most of the motors, and leave the rest of our design in the PoE room for parts.
Initial Bill of Materials:

• Extruder:
o 1 motor
o 1 rack & pinion mechanism
o 1 plunger
o 1 dough storage cylinder
o 1 mount (wood/metal)
o 1 extruder tip
• Cutter:
o 1 motor
o 2 cutting blades
o 1 mount (wood/metal)
• Cooker:
o 1 oil container/pot
o 1 motor
o meshgrid material for tray/paddles
o portable stove for heating oil
o rods
o thermometer
• Sugar Coater:
o 1 motor
o 1 tray
o 1 piston + track mechanism

For sketch of proposed design, see Appendix C

Appendix A

Just in case you were interested in making churros

Appendix B
Appendix C