Learning the History of the 1700s Cookie Press with an Interview from Culinary Historian, Greg Funk

Verde Mantis and The Wyck House have teamed up on a project to preserve history. We are using 3D scanning and 3D Printing technology to digitize and fabricate a copy of an original 1700s cookie press in the Wyck House Collection.

We are re-creating one of Wyck’s most beloved artifacts, its New Year’s Cake Press, using modern 3D printing technology. The Wyck Association has an heirloom cookie press that has been used to make cookies at the Wyck House for the last 200+ years. It’s still functional, but is very delicate due to its age. Watch this video to see the team receive the cookie molds and other goodies.

Our team wanted to learn more about the 1700s cookie press. In this interview, Historian and Chef Gregory Funk discusses the history of the 1700s cookie press... which in its time was known as a “New Year’s Cake Print”.

Learn more in this video interview:

 
 

Eager to learn more? So was our team! Watch this in depth video to learn more about the New Year’s Cake Tradition with the Culinary Historian, Greg Funk.

 
 

Additional photos related to the 1700s New Year’s Cookie Print, courtesy of The Wyck House

Scanning our Mold into a File

“We have always moved with this approach of sharing and educating people with what they can unlock with 3D Printing” -Bre Pettis

Now that the team learned about the 1700s cookie press we needed to move onto scanning the mold. 3D scanning in combination with 3D printing now makes it possible to create all sorts of physical objects. This technology has become so advanced that it helps to preserve or restore historic artifacts.

Our team partnered up with ESU (East Stroudsburg University) Art Department. We met up with the department chair, Darlene Farris LaBar, where she showed us the facility and all the equipment they offer to their students. After our tour, she brought us to the equipment we would be using.

What is 3D Scanning?

 
 

Some of you might be wondering how 3D scanning exactly works. 3D scanning is non-contact and non-destructive technology. With 3D scanning it’s a way to capture a physical object’s exact size and shape into the ways of the computer world, then it create a digital 3-dimensional file. It’s incredible that these scanners can measure the fine details and can capture the free-forming shapes.

 

NextEngine 3D Laser Scanner at East Stroudsburg University 3D Lab

How We Scanned the 1700’s Cookie Press

We utilized the NextEngine 3D Laser Scanner to complete this task. This scanner uses a laser line to scan across the object. Through the process the scanner would cast this laser onto the mold. As this laser light reflects off of the 3D scanned mold, those points are then picked up by a sensor.

Afterwards, based on those points this system was able to pick up and detect the laser’s angle throughout the mold. When the 3D scanner has gone around the mold, it has collected enough information from those points, it was able to create a mapping of the object’s surface. This means the information is capable of mapping out the object’s surface and create it into a digital 3D file. Sometimes during the scanning process it can miss some of the areas that were hard to reach creating holes in the file. When we were scanning the the mold we ran into that issue but, we had a solution to fix those areas. We would go in and scan another piece from a different angle so we could capture the areas we were missing.

 

One of the original Scans of the Cookie Press Mold with holes

 

Once we completed the various angles of the scan, we would combine them together to get a completed scan of the mold. At this point we got a 3D Scan of the mold and made the file water tight, so we could make final edits and get it ready to print.

 

Scans of the Cookie Press Mold after combining scans

 

Using 3D Printing Technology to Preserve 1700s Cookie Press

“Learn how a 3D printer works. Get inspired. Make your own stuff. It is a wonderful time to be innovative”

Once our team learned how to utilized 3D scanning technology we were able to finish the scan and get it ready to be 3D printed. Our team was excited to get this file printing and bringing it to life.

Prepping Our File

It was now time to move onto preparing our file to be printed on our Mantis 3D Printer! Once we had combined our scan into one, we had an STL file that was water tight and ready to be produced. Although, looking over the file that was created from the scan we noticed that some of the beautiful intricate details from the cookie press were faded and not as prominent, compared to the mold. We figured our next step was to take our file and move it into a program where we can bring those details back.

 
 

Making the Cookie Press Come to Life

 

Original Mold

Arrows pointing to areas that needed clean up

 

using autodesk meshmixer

Once we had noticed the file needed some edits, we decided to use a fantastic free program called Autodesk Meshmixer. This program is wonderful for creating/manipulating 3D files, cleaning up a 3D scan, or designing an object for 3D printing. We were able to place the file in and work at some of the areas that weren’t captured well on the scanners. The arrows pointed to areas that we thought weren’t as detailed compared to the mold. Once we made the revisions to the mold we were onto using Autodesk Tinkercad to finish off making the press.

 

Creating the impression on an object in Autodesk Tinkercad

3D File of the Cookie Press in Autodesk Tinkercad

 

Using autodesk tinkercad

Next, we moved onto Autodesk Tinkercad which is another powerful (easy-to-use) tool for creating digital designs that can be ready to be printed. In Tinkercad we took the scan file and recreated a digital file that would be close to the original cookie press. Now we were ready to get the file ready to print!

Setting up the File on the Mantis 3D Printer

 
 

Once we were satisfied with the file, we took it over to get prepared and ready to print. Can’t wait to see how it comes out!

3D Printed Cookie Press Comes to Life

“Print with Peace of Mind” -The Spaghetti Detective

Not all 3D models are created equal. You can find that complex prints that you were printing, (some that took hours, even days to complete) could fail because of one manufacturing mistake. Now that fail has becomes wasted materials, wasted time, and potentially damaging equipment. Ultimately it becomes frustrating and sometimes even expensive remaking that print.

 

Trial and Error

Utilizing The Spaghetti Detective for our prints in the office

Our team was getting excited as we were ready to begin test printing and bringing the scan to life. Although, one simple error can ruin an entire print. This is something common within the 3D printing community. Thanks to The Spaghetti Detective when we ran prints we get informed remotely when those prints were failing. It was easy, to get the notification on my phone, and see the progress of my print while I am out.

Failed print stopped thanks to The Spaghetti Detective

During the early stages of printing our first test. We printed the original scan to see what details we captured from the scanning process. It was easy to check on my phone to see how the print was going, and man we were so excited to see the details were coming through. We did notice that some imperfections had popped up but we knew that we could go in and fix those for the final print. Although, in the middle of the night I got a notification saying that they saw spaghetti forming on my print. I was able to stop my printer thanks to that notification and didn’t have to come into a spaghetti monster of a mess.

 

Cookie Press Comes to Life

We finally were getting towards the end of our goal. We were able to get a print of the cookie mold that we were happy with. We added the necessary supports needed to get the best quality print and we were ultimately happy with what we got.

 
 

Testing our final Print

Testing our print with Play-Doh

Once we had removed all of the support from the print we were ready to start testing it out. An excellent idea we had came up with was to use play-doh to see if the mold would make the same impression as the original. We were so happy that the play-doh cookie looked close to the original cookie given to us. The next step was to test this print on some actual dough and see how the cookies would turn out.

3D printed cookies

Once we tested the 3D printed mold we were able to do a comparison. From the mold, to the play-doh cookie, to the cookie. It is incredible to see the process we did in order to create such a historic relic. We were beyond thrilled that we didn’t run into many issues thanks to The Spaghetti Detective watching over our prints, while we were able to continue our everyday office life.

The Final Result

 

Now everyone can enjoy these delicious cookies :)

 

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