A tool like this isn't for everyone, but it's a serious time saver to have in our kitchen. We grow a lot of our own food. A key aspect to making this work well for us is to prepare our foods "ready to cook" as much as possible.We primarily use this slicer to make french fries and home frites from our potato harvest. It makes a whole lot of work in slicing potatoes go by in just minutes. The key value is that it's a serious time saver, saving us hours of slicing by hand. From here, we blanch and freeze our prepared potatoes, with the goal of making them last for nearly a year from that point.In the past, I've gone through enough "cheap" slicers that it was finally time to pay a bit of money for one that will last. This unit seemed to strike a fairly good balance between quality and value, which was well confirmed after the first few uses. I'd argue it's nearly "buy it for life" quality. I'm not worried about this unit breaking on me like I have with some of the smaller units I've had.The mechanisms for changing the blades are quite easy to figure out. While my wife read the manual, I intuitively assembled the unit without instruction. I was satisfied with the quality of all the parts and pieces, no major issues or weak points were observed. The blades are sharp, so it's important to be careful around them!One thing to note, I did "think" I was getting a unit with a lever as opposed to a push down plunger type of action. When I noticed this upon receipt, I almost returned it to get what I had intended. I decided to try it out and found I actually prefer the plunger action. While it can be a bit tough to get some stiff foods through the slicers, the plunger does allow "creative" force options that you wouldn't have with a lever. Also, it reduces complexity, meaning less can go wrong. I'd buy this model again, for what that's worth.I'm sure we'll find many creative uses for this kitchen slicer. Growing a considerable garden offers a lot of opportunities for bulk food pr
Dave Kram 
