The hilarious videos of Buurman and Buurman. Who didn’t grow up with it? Father Kees and son Bram van Dijk from Heesch are so fascinated by it that they replicate the inventions of the jovial duo in real life. With the scoop: the pancake machine. “For each other!”
Junior and senior Van Dijk have always enjoyed the children’s series. But it was his son Bram who wondered whether Buurman’s and Buurman’s inventions would also work in real life. They captured their progress on camera.
“I think it’s super funny that they are so convinced of what they are doing, but that so much goes wrong,” says Bram. “They break everything and then fix it. Their optimism is very special. It’s nice that so much technical ingenuity can be combined with unbelievable stupidity.”
Bram saw a great family project in building the inventions. In the cold shed of father Kees, they analyzed all the details of the pancake machine and looked at which parts are needed.
The neighbors think that baking pancakes can be done much faster and come up with a solution. The batter is transferred to a pan on the stove via a water pump. When one side is cooked, the pancake is turned into a second pan. Then a hammer hits the handle of the pan, launching the pancake. It’s up to one of the neighbors to catch it with a bowl.
Bram and Kees soon notice that replicating the invention is no easy task. “Fortunately, my father is very handy and he has a lot of stuff. So I only have to come up with an idea and then we make it,” says Bram.
After a day and a half of measuring, welding, sawing and drilling, the time has come: time to put it to the test. With real pancakes. The batter will first stick to the pan itself and the gentlemen have to search for the perfect rotational speed. But with a little help it actually works: with a blow of the hammer, farm-fresh pancakes fly on a plate.
So it exists and is located in Heesch: the pancake machine from Buurman and Buurman. And now? Bram: “We are looking at the next invention. Perhaps a rotary clothesline that you put outside for the laundry, which we will convert into a merry-go-round.”