Using piano wire to cut chocolate

[Jim Yanik]

"Steve Barker" wrote in news:Q7ednfdH4L1da4zbnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

toy train transformer,they have a variable output.

[Jim Yanik]

"Roger Shoaf" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Chocolatiers melt chocolate all the time.It doesn't hurt it.

[Richard J Kinch]

The 0.025 inch nickel-chromium resistance wire I sell on this page for ice-cutting grids would be suitable for this project:

You could power this by simply hooking an inexpensive wall-wart transformer from Radio Shack to the resistance wire.

I also sell a flat ribbon form of this wire, which might (or might not, have no experience in this application) work even better as a hot knife:

You'd need to improvise some type of bow holder, like a cheese knife or coping saw.

I expect this will work, since even if the melted "kerf" is mostly refusing after the wire passes by, since you have interrupted the fine structure which would easily and cleanly snap apart. And if you put a little downward pressure on each side of the cut, you'd tend to spread the pieces, since chocolate is subject to low-pressure plastic flow (or "creep" in engineering terms).

Send me one o' those mega chocolate bars, and I'll be happy to research and design a complete implementation!

[ls1mike]

innews: [e-mail]:

I buy the ten lb bar at the thrift store attached to the Blommer's Chocolate Company in Chicago. It's usually around $40. It's nice to be able to get real chocolate so cheap. Freshness is a plus, too.

[mm]

I don't remember Blommer's.

But there used to be a barge on the Chicago river filled with cocoa or brown sugar or something for the candy company just north of the river and a bit east of Michigan Ave. Is that still there?

[ls1mike]

This is at the northeast corner of Kinzie and Des Plaines. The aroma of chocolate as you walk past is absolutely intoxicating! I don't know the history of this factory, but I know it's been here for more than a few years. I'm not sure about the one you're referring to.

Incidentally, I made the trip today. I'm riding the train home with the bar at my side as I type this. It was $39.80 for the 10# bar - a bit cheaper than last year, if I recall correctly. If all goes according to plan, I will probably be on a sugar and caffeine high for the next week or so ...if I can figure out a way to cut this d*mn thing! ;-)

[Jim Yanik]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

guillotine. 8-)

Or you could put it in a double boiler,melt and RECAST the thing in smaller bars!

The news has been saying that chocolate prices are going to increase sharply this year.

(I'd try the nichrome wire/train transformer method;experiment on smaller bars)