Build Your Own Chocolate Vibrating Table

Ok, I know this post isn't for everybody. Most people don't make chocolate at home or lust after arcane, highly specialized pieces of pastry equipment. This particular piece of equipment is used to vibrate chocolate molds used for making pralines or molded figures, in order to rattle out any air bubbles that might be present and give you a perfect mold. The cheapest one I could find on the web was $130 at chefrubber.com; from there it just goes up.

I found this web site with a do-it-yourself project on how to build your own; I had been tossing this idea around in my head trying to figure out how I might build my own without needing an engineering degree and a factory in China to build it for me. So this web site set me on my way. However, I think this guy's idea was more for working with dental and hobby molds, rather than chocolate. Not that it made a lot of difference. Anway, let's get started.

First, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond looking for a vibrating massager like the one shown on the above-referenced website. I couldn't find any plug-in ones, just battery powered ones. I opted for this $9.99 foot massager which has little hard nubbies all over the surface, with a half-dome shape. You press down on it to start it vibrating. I had initially thought about using a power tool like a sander, but I found this had already been tried and they vibrate too forcefully, as well as generate a lot of noise. This item uses two AA batteries, which I figure will give me a couple of hours of vibration. You only need to vibrate a filled mold a few seconds so changing out the batteries every couple weeks won't be too much trouble.

I also got a $12.99 cutting board measuring about 9" x 16", which will be the top of the vibrating table.

In order to attach the massager to the table, I used some heavy duty velcro to attach it to the bottom. I didn't see the need for the industrial strength pipe fasteners used on the other website. I attached corresponding pieces of velcro to the bottom of the cutting board.

I then went to Jo-Ann fabrics and got a 9" x 16" x 4" piece of foam for about $10. They'll cut it for you there, but if you need to do additional trimming, an electric knife is the thing to use. I did trim my down a bit so it wouldn't stick out past the edges of my cutting board "table top".

Then with a knife I dug out a rudimentary hole in the foam in which my massage device, attached to the table top by the velcro, would fit. So basically, as you can see in the photo, the massager is upside down attached to the table by velcro, and then lies in the hole in the foam. You have to dig out the foam hole deep enough so that the cutting board/table top is just flush with the foam.

To finish, I bought a $2 piece of poster board at A.C. Moore and glued it to the bottom of the foam, in order to give it a firmer base and a surface that could be wiped clean. You could use a piece of plastic shelving or whatever else you think might work.

Since working with chocolate can be a bit messy, I opted to wrap my foam block in plastic wrap to protect it. Then I just lay my board with built in vibrating device on top, press down, and voila, vibrating table.

So my total cost for the project was $12.99 for the cutting board, $9.99 for the massage device, $2 for the velcro, $11 for the foam, $2 for the poster board, for a grand total of $38, minus the 20% I saved on the cutting board and massage device via Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons. You could even shave off a few more dollars by buying a cheaper top, maybe a cheapie serving tray or just piece of cut plastic. It took me no more than an hour of shopping, and maybe 30 minutes at the most to assemble. What a deal!