Gingerbread - A New Material Category?!?

Just finished using my new MPCNC to add a new twist on my annual Gingerbread House construction and think this is the first post in that genre :slightly_smiling_face:

Baked and modeled (brick motif) gingerbread in large sheets and treated it the same as any other flat stock. Used Inkscape and Estlcam to model the house components, and my 3D printer to finish up the window and and door mill work. A 3mm end mill made beautiful cuts and fine detail on the the scroll work around the atrium.

Keeping all of the grandmothers at work on their toes by raising the stakes…but look at the bright side; you may be getting interest for MPCNCs for kitchen gadgets.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!










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That’s awesome. You need to build a chocolate or some lind of sugar extruder to replace the 3D printed parts next year. That would be a challenge.

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I looked at edible filament and the only thing out there is cannabis based material. But yes…already planning for next year.

That looks absolutely amazing! Well done! I really love making ginger bread houses and this takes it to the next level.

I really want to try it, but I feel like the gingerbread you used is not similar to the one we typically make in Sweden. Yours looks very thick and not so brittle. So maybe this helps when milling it? Do you have any recipe for the ginger bread that you could share? :slight_smile:

Search the Web for “Construction Grade” Gingerbread. It definitely has a more durable structure when baked, also used more flour and molasses. I also over bake it so it had a harder consistency.

I used this one and was happy with it

Also, one trick I developed is to roll your gingerbread dough in a zip lock bag to get it flat, square and uniform in thickness. Peel off the top layer and transfer to a cookie sheet and then you have sheet stock.
sheet

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Beautiful design and execution. Best tasting sawdust ever!

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My wife and I were thinking of using the CNC to do exactly what you did, only you beat us to it. Congrats, looks great!

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This is awesome.

Agree that the next step is to setup an icing/chocolate extruder. Or use the 3d printer to print molds to pour melted chocolate into.

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You just blew my mind, Solid project, and you go the family involved. A+ for you! seriously a gingerbread galley category…too cool.

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Awesome. How exactly did you get the brick pattern? 3d printed an embossing tool? And then frosting (i presume) in the grooves for mortar?

Pretty Close! I actually bought a brick pattern roller (yes I like gadgets) from etsy a couple of years ago. It is much quicker than stamping which I tried previously, but that does work. I then smeared (technical term) on frosting with a rubber spatula and scraped clean after baking. Esier to do the whole sheet first and let dry rather that trying to do the individual pieces separately. Then wiped down with a damp rag.
roller
frosting

Probably could make one on the CNC if you added the 4th rotating axis… :slightly_smiling_face:

or this is the easy way https://www.etsy.com/listing/525127762/brick-wall-embossing-rolling-pin-laser?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=brick+rolling+pin&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1

Even easier than that, you can replace the Y axis with a rotating axis. Then in CAM, it looks like a flat surface. The most complicated (IMO) is getting the roller to spin based on a stepper motor, but if you had that, it’s just a couple of wires, and changing the steps/mm.

I actually have looked at it…might be fun…and been done

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@leo69 used to be a regular here. I remember a good thread where we talked through the firmware and CAM, but I can’t find it.

I wonder what power I’d have to run the laser to engrave gingerbread.

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The real question is, would it smell amazing or terrible?

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Depends on where Hansel and Gretel are…

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I know burning oak makes me think of the bbq thread.

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YES! That brings me back. Was that three years ago? Specifically, I was remembering this post:

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