Getting into holiday cookie season can be tough. Our 8-year old Kitchen Aid decided to start making noises and leaking oil out of the gearbox. Before my wife could spend $200+ on a new one, I asked her to look on repairing it. She found this great video:
http://www.ereplacementparts.com/article/5518/How_to_Fix_a_KitchenAid_Stand_Mixer_That_Is_Leaking_Oil.html
This turned into a good learning experience and a small family project for a Saturday morning after breakfast. It really is easy to get inside the mixer, following the steps in the video. We took the "divide and conquer" to remove the old grease which had gelled and lost its oil. I took the main body a step further by removing the mixing shaft up through the center gear to clean the main gear and below it.
Not wanting to wait for special order grease or finding any food-grade grease locally, I substituted a Lucas Marine Grade (blue) from Lowe's, being billed as environmentally safe and a relatively benign MSDS. http://lucasoil.com/products/grease/marine-grease
We repacked the gear box, put it all back together. Works great, quieter, and smooth gear box! All for about $5.
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