Wayne wrote on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:23:06 GMT:

>> wrote on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:39:42 GMT:
>>
>>> My wife has a Kitchenaid Professional 600 stand mixer that's
>>> worked great for a few years. She's trying to make pizza
>>> dough, and all of the sudden the dough hook keeps catching
>>> on the bottom of the bowl, and then of course the motor
>>> makes a horrible screeching.
>>
>>> Anyone know what could be wrong?
>>
>> There is a screw adjustment for mixer height and the locking
>> nut may have come loose.

> If the motor doesn't screech when there is no dough in the
> bowl, it's probably not a height adjustment issue. All
> attachments are designed to clear the bottom of the bowl when
> the bowl is empty. If there is clearance when the bowl is
> empty, then it's a motor or gear problem, more likely the
> latter. If I'm not mistaken, that model was made after the
> Whirlpool buyout of KitchenAid. There were a lot of gear
> issues after that for quite a while.

> As an aside regarding attachment contact with the bowl, Julia
> Child always recommended when beating egg whites with the
> whisk attachment, that the whisk should not be affixed on the
> retaining pin on the shaft, but rather to be placed on the
> shaft and then allowed to drop down to the bottom of the bowl.
> It doesn't come off, but it does allow the whisk to come in
> contact with every bit of egg white, especially when beating
> only 2-3 egg whites. I've been doing that for years with no
> consequence.

There are other possibilities as you suggest but my ancient Kitchenaid
has worked well for decades. About 15 years ago it became noisy and on
checking, I found the gears were rather dry. A fairly liberal
application of grease fixed the problem.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not