Corner Booth Blog | TundraFMP Restaurant Supply, News & Equipment Blog
With over 180 vegetable and fruit cutters in stock, it can start to get overwhelming with which one is right for your business, and what to do when a repair is needed. The good news is that with most manual cutters, DIY is easy. One of our latest customer questions came in about our Nemco FryKutters:
“When I need to replace the blade on my Nemco fry cutter, do I have to buy a whole new blade grid, or is there another option?”
Well, the good news is that there are options; so, we’ll take this opportunity to share with you the benefits of fry cutters, as well as, how you can DIY replace the blades.
What a Fry Cutter is Used For
I suppose we should start this off by saying that the fry cutter goes by many names. Nemco calls theirs a FryKutter, but other people refer to it as a potato cutter; either way, this food prep machine is able to cut a lot more than just the starchy favorite it is named after. Within minutes you could have piles of cut potatoes, celery, bell peppers, carrots, and tomatoes. You can even do fruits, if you’d like. Some of the FryKutters do sweet potatoes, but not all of them, so always ask for help or do your research before making a new purchase.
And if you’ve never used one, it’s as easy as sticking the vegetable between the pushing block and blade grid, pulling the lever forward, and, voila, sliced vegetables (or fruit). You can mount the Nemco FryKutter on a table, cutting board, or on the wall (many people prefer wall-mount so that gravity can do what it does best, and help the vegetable slide on through).
Replacing the Blades
We have to give a precaution before we start this. You will be messing with blades, so watch your fingers as you try to rebuild your grid. Other than that, let’s get started:
1. Unscrew the wing nuts towards the end of the fry cutter. When the wing nuts are removed, you should be able to slide the blade guard off of the fry cutter.
2. If you flip the blade guard over, you should see two Philips head screws that you’ll need to unscrew.
3. Once you unscrew the Philips head screws, remove the top plate (also referred to as the spacer), turn the bottom plate over, and start knocking around the edges so the blades fall out. You could use the handle end of the screwdriver to knock it, or some other hard plastic.
4. When all of the blades pop-out, you’ll turn the bottom plate back over, and get ready to begin building your grid out of the new replacement blade parts. Depending on the size of your fry cutter grid, replacement blades come in a 1/4” blade set, 1/2” blade set, and 3/8” blade set. Now, it’s easiest to know beforehand that you’ll be dealing with two types of blades in the set. One blade will have the sharp edge on one side, and the slits on the other side. The second blade will have the blade and slit on the same side. For ease of instructions, we’ll simply call them Blades 1 and Blades 2 from here on out.
5. Starting with Blades 1, you’ll place 2 of the blades on one side of the bottom plate with the blades facing down, and the slits facing up. Do the same thing on the opposite side.
6. Working from the outside in, continue to place Blades 1 the same way as you placed the first 4 blades.
7. For Blades 2, you’ll do the same thing, but in the opposite direction that Blades 1 lie, and with the slits and blade facing down. Sometimes, you may have to shift the blade slightly to make sure it fits into place between each of the slots.
8. Now, put the top plate back on, screw on the Phillips head screws, and replace the blade grid, with the sharp edges facing toward the pusher block (the part that pushes the potato through the blades).
9. Replace the wing nuts, and you should be good to go.
If you’d rather not replace the blades yourself, you can also purchase the blade grid, complete with the plates:
