I asked for these for my birthday so I could learn the art of homemade pasta. I am so glad I did. Once you try it, it’s so easy! There’s also something very satisfying about running a little pancake of pasta dough through the machine a couple of times and ending up with a three foot long sheet of perfectly thinned dough! Then you cut it into thirds and add some rice flour to keep it from sticking (rice flour won’t dry out the pasta as much), push it through the pasta cutter and you have a beautiful, tender tagliatelle (or whatever you’re making) that’s ready for cooking or freezing. We’ve made a few mistakes in the dough that caused tearing or breaking or ruffling, and after re-kneading it and letting it rest it can go right back into the machine and still turn out great. The only issue I’ve had is when dough gets stuck in the sheeter. It isn’t easy to clean out unless you let the past dry for a day and then shake it out once it’s hard. The little brush they give you doesn’t help much in that regard but it works well for removing excess flour.