Single Serving Ice Cream Maker

Homemade ice cream has a unique taste which simply isn't duplicated amongst commercial brands. Add to that the large number of flavors one can make, the sense of accomplishment through all things DIY, and of course enjoying your creation and you have a winner with ice cream made at home.

Warning: It has been brought to my attention that only food grade plastics should be used for a project such as this. For this tutorial, that would basically mean replacing the spindle with something designed for use with food. You can never be too safe- especially if you have kids.

Step 1: Gather Materials for Ice Cream Maker

There are really three major parts to this, all of which were found in my home. The most important part is the electric motor which can be salvaged from any number of electronics. This particular one came from a non-working disc drive and the motor was used to open and close the tray. I left the gears attached and just cut the plastic around it so everything stayed intact. Also needed is an empty jar of peanut butter with the lid, and a 100 recordable DVD casing, which needs to be the type where the spindle unscrews from the base as opposed to the type where it is fixed in place. You'll need a few other odds and ends such as a little plastic ring from the stack of recordable DVDs, some cocktail straws, four pieces of short (3-4 inches or so) galvanized wire, and something to secure the motor down later in the process.

Comments

[coniosis11]

..Can I put the motor directly without a gears?

[yokozuna]

It would turn way too quickly. Keep the gears, they're always there to slow the CD tray down.

[coniosis11]

..haha.... if you will make your cellphone battery as the motor's battery,Your Ice cream maker will be also called a blender so you can now make a FRUIT SHAKE in this summer !!! enjoy.... ask me if how to make a fruit shake.. ( with evaporated milk)

[docz]

Shouldn't you put ice and rock salt into the DVD case? If you have trapped air between the freezer and ice cream mixture it is going to take forever to freeze.

[HamenChips]

One tip is that you don't have to put that inside the fridge for so long you could put some ice in the CD container (make it has salt) then turn it on, that should take about 20 minutes or so.

[KenzieTheGoodShot]

I used this for a school project. In my technology education class we were able to choose something to construct, I chose this, I showed my techer where I got the idea and he loved it. Thanks!

[yokozuna]

Cool... hope you got a good grade, and I would love to see pics if you have any.

[suckrpnch]

This is an awesome idea. The biggest improvement I have is to build the spindle out of a second peanut butter jar, so you have food-grade plastic, and you can cut portions of the wall out, cut holes in them and build nice big paddles to really break up the ice cream. This would get it a lot closer to commercial ice cream makers. Ideally the freezing should be done in about 20 - 40 minutes. It should be a uniform thickness ( I think the paddles will help with this ), and then you can freeze it normal for a few hours without any mixing necessary. Thanks for the great instructable! I am going to try this if I can get a chance to do it.

[yokozuna]

That's actually a really good idea, using a second jar as the paddle. Also, I think if I had used ice instead of trying to just stick it in the freezer it would have been fine. Thanks for your comments.

[suckrpnch]

After a decent soft serve or milk shake consistency is achieved, you could freeze the ice cream in the freezer for 2-4 hours, and it should reach the final thickness you are looking for. Seems like most home and commercial ice cream makers still require this last step of freezing to get the best final results.

[ladybanksia99]

My thought includes the need for some sort of scraper, as is used in conventional ice cream makers. Hhmmmm... ...maybe modify some sort of spatula that could be shaped to follow the contours of the peanut butter jar so that it could scrape the sides of the jar as it freezes. It may make it a little too much work for it to run on the battery source; therefore, needing to be hard-wired for electricity. Are the cocktail straws strong enough as well or do they bend back as it turns? This is a great project!

[yokozuna]

Thanks. The cocktail straws seem to hold up fine, but I think you're right. Long story short, even with some improvements there is still a good deal of crystalization as it hardens. I'm not sure what the answer is... freeze quicker, turn harder, or what.It's not terrible, but it's not awesome as I had once hoped. I guess it's back to one gallon chocolate tubs for the time being. :)

[mikesum32]

Clearly, "Set it, and forget it!" is a Ron Popeil saying. ;-)

[yokozuna]

By the way... think Ron saw this and murdered Billy out of jealousy? You know how those Hollywood types can get!

[yokozuna]

True... but have they ever been seen in the same place at the same time? Me thinks not.

[mattbomb]

I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! AND I LOVE YO FOR SHARING IT MAN THAT IS AWESOME AND GOING ON MY BUILD LIST!!

[8bit]

Has anyone had good luck with this method yet? Making ice creamy ice cream?

[RedneckAsian]

glad 123456 is done trollin

[souichi]

this idea is great it is not to expensive and it is eco-friendly

[Riojelon]

I constructed one out of my old hand held mixer as the motor, some powdered milk cans and a plastic bottle. I don't know yet the taste of it but I'm sure my siblings would love it . . .

[kalabog76]

hmm... instead of batteries, a flat wire would do connected to a 12v DC power source ...

Nice what you did with gears, lower gear ratio should provide enough torque to stir the ice cream when it is almost hard.

[Yerboogieman]

Sooo, whats the CD case for? Can't you just add the motor to the PB jar? Unless you add ice to the CD case..

[yokozuna]

the CD case is for the ice and salt, just like a normal ice cream maker. They were left out here, so you could see the process throughout each step.

[Absol]

Your idea is pretty interesting.... Yay! Hooray!

[yokozuna]

Thanks, welcome to instructables! :)

[Yerboogieman]

Billy Mays is my hero, next to Freddie Wong and Chuck Norris.

[josh333]

SLUSHY???

[mag400]

Well. It seems like a great instructable. However, here are some bits of helpful advice. Firstly, you could fill the DVD container with ice and then add in salt. You'd have to maybe pull out the PB container when serving tho, unless you want salty ice cream. That also solves the problem of the batteries losing charge, since you can leave it out on the open and the batteries arent exposed to as much cold.

[yokozuna]

In step six, I stated the lack of ice (and thus putting it in the freezer) as well as choice of chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla are for illustrative purposes only. Otherwise the space between the pb jar and cd casing would act as an insulator, preventing cooling. While maybe not stated or shown, the peanut butter jar does come out in order to serve it.

[Asura-Valkyrie]

Hmm, one thing to remember with batteries and cold temperature is that battery efficiency can vary and can go down as much as 70% in colder temps (I believe with NiMH and alkaline batteries). Lithium tends to do alot better in the cold but can also be pricey. I wonder if you have one of the former batteries mentioned, I can't tell from the pictures, other than it is an energizer battery. Of course it could be a combination of things which you have mentioned already.

Here is a nifty battery guide that I just found online : http://www.freewebs.com/dacrochet/Battery_guide.doc

[wushuair]

I concur with Asura-Valkyrie

[conrad2468]

"what the hell is a peter pan peanut butter alert?!?" touretts guy.

[geodez]

if you click back and forth on pictures 2 and 3 lt looks like an animation

[CerealKiller]

Is it possible to mod this and make a hand cranked version?

[yokozuna]

Naturally... but you might just check into modding old 1-4 quart glass jar butter churns instead.

Reference: http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/kitchen.html

[CerealKiller]

Thank You.

[zascecs]

This is awsome!

[123456]

(removed by author or community request)

[agis68]

OK I accepted, but here we approve the whole Idea. So the Idea is awesome. And for this I give 5/5. Now its time having the Idea to do the appropriate mods. We can replace everything we dislike with the device of our choice. But the Initial idea is outstanding. Remember all big inventors of the past how they used radioactive material. For the common good they skip any idea of afraid for these materials.

[fireraisr]

you my friend are a sad sad puppy.