Pigging backing off of the energy bar production line concept I was working on, I decided to start pursuing another idea that I’ve always had. Belgian liege waffles are very popular in Europe but pretty tough to make. I think if someone could design an automated production line that could make small batches of these things, I think they would become very popular in the United States.
My goal with the project is to make a small, low-cost machine that can automatically make Belgian Liege waffles from start to finish, package them, and drop them into a box for shipping.
Here are some videos of the progress I’ve made so far with this machine:
The video below has a servo motor included that demonstrates the process of measuring out flour on one of the scales then dumping it into a mixing bowl. Basically, what’s happening is one of those relays runs and once the scale reaches its target weight, the relay turns off and the servo motor turns, dumping the ingredient into a mixing bowl. Specifically, you’re seeing the process of measuring and dumping flour in this part. Then, the next relay runs.
The video below this one demonstrates all of the electronics (except the servo motors) running. That includes the sensors involved in detecting the appropriate amount of dough being extruded, slicing it, then dumping it on to the waffle iron to be cooked. Additionally, the packaging line sensors are also on display here (connected to the Arduino Uno) toward the end of the video. The system is setup to run continuously until it runs out of ingredients. I haven’t programmed it yet to completely shut off when that happens, but, once it runs out of flour, then the rest of the system will not run because the target weight on the flour scale will never be reached, so only the DC motor in the hopper for the flour would keep running.
For organizing all the electronics, I bought a 24″ by 24″ electrical box from the company Vevor. Here are some photos below of the box and marking the spots where I planned to drill the holes:
Drilling the holes presented some unique challenges. I thought I had everything squared away, like drill bits for steel, a drill press, drilling oil and a decent drill, but I ran into some issues pretty quickly. Also – I marked each hole that needed drilling with a thin permanent marker after I arranged all the different relay/circuit boards where they needed to be.
I got one hole drilled (pictured below) and then the drill broke. Those holes I was drilling in the pic below were for mounting a handle on top to make it easier to carry the electrical box around while I’m building the machine.
Fortunately, a buddy of mine was around and had his drill handy so I went to his place and brought my stuff.
Once the holes were all drilled, we used this other bit that smoothed off all the metal pieces around the edges of each hole. After this point with the project, I made a decision that was tough, but I think the right one.
I decided to pump the brakes on this project and shift my focus to studying for the CPA license. Given the job market (lots of layoffs happening in Spring/Summer 2025) it seemed like the right move to just get through my CPA licensing, get into a higher paying job, and then be in a position to buy a house as soon as possible so I could have a basement or a garage to actually assemble and fine-tune this machine in.
At the time of this writing, I’m living in a tiny apartment, so either the machine would take up half my free space or I would be lugging it around to different storage units and probably messing up my back in the process.