How to Fix a Jammed Pasta Machine (Disassembly and Lubrication)
My wife has a Chinese pasta machine that she uses for rolling polymer clay.
Over time the machine started to jam and eventually got completely stuck. My wife asked me to take a look and fix it. I armed myself with tools — various screwdrivers, a knife, pliers, small pliers and a hammer — and got to work.
How to take a pasta machine apart
To lubricate it you need to remove the side cover on the gear side (where the thickness adjustment knob is):
- Pry off the cap of the thickness knob with something sharp, like a knife.
- Unscrew the nut and remove the adjustment knob.
- Unscrew the screw and remove the side cover.
On mine the knob cap simply wouldn’t come off — I pried it, grabbed it with pliers, nothing. So I started taking the whole machine apart: unscrewed everything I could see and pulled out every plug.
Even with everything unscrewed, the machine still wouldn’t come apart: the adjuster was held by a nut inside. I turned it, twisted it and pulled it, and eventually the nut came loose by itself and the adjuster came off. After that I took the machine apart completely.
I knocked the adjuster cap out with a steel knitting needle — it took some serious hammering. Once it was out, I saw the cap was too long and had burrs on the edges. I filed them down, and after that the cap came off with a knife without much effort.
Cleaning and lubrication
I wiped the rollers and inner covers and cleaned off the leftover clay. Then I carefully reassembled the machine (leaving only the gear-side cover off) and lubricated the gears and roller bearings well. I only had thin oil in a small bottle; thick grease is better — and if the machine is used for dough, use food-grade silicone grease.
After the final assembly it ran smooth as butter 
Tips from the comments
- Rollers won’t turn — almost always dried clay or dough between the rollers and in the gears. Taking it apart, cleaning and lubricating helps.
- It rattles and crimps the dough on one side — check whether a roller is misaligned and whether the gear teeth are intact.
- Took it apart and can’t put it back together — before disassembling, take a photo of every step with your phone, especially the position of the cutters and gears.
