I have both, a basic model Cuisinart made in Japan and a Robot Coupe made in France. Both vintage. Both machines are heavy duty and should be able to handle any duties required in the home. Interestingly the parts from the Cuisinart fit and work on the Robot Coupe but not vise-versa. I suggest that all parts and blades be washed by hand. Do not place these parts in the dishwasher. The heat of the dishwasher drying mode will weaken the plastic of the parts. Also be careful when twisting the lid on and off the bowl to prevent the locking/power engagement pin from breaking. Most importantly DON'T DROP IT! If you have a machine with a malfunctioning locking/power engagement pin you could manually depress the button using a pen or knitting needle. Be careful though as you no longer have the safety measures of the power engagement pin to protect you. The question about 3D printing your own bowl....This is not a viable solution for many reasons including: the plastic used has to be food safe. The bowl needs to be strong enough to handle the torque and stress of day to day use. And the plastic needs to be able to handle heat especially if you use the machine to puree hot items. Finding parts for these machines is difficult. Take good care of them and you should be enjoying your smoothies etc. For many many years. Happy cooking!

I have a Cuisinart custom 11 that i have to hold to work, the lid is cracked alittle so I bought a new Cusinart 14 cup but didnt open it. Does anyone think the newer one is superior to older one....thinking I should have just gotten replacement part.

It appears that the cover part is DLC-877BGTX which you can find on ebay.

Hi John, assuming your model is cfp9 and not 9A, which has a toggle switch on, off, pulse, to run the machine first unplug it, place bowl on with the vertical bump out, which contains a rod plunger to activate the hidden switch, just to the left of the 1/4 inch rubber dot covering the switch on top front of processor base. Turn counter_clockwise to lock bowl into the two side tabs. Place your chosen blade or disc assembly on the post giving a slight twist so blade engages fully, then put lid on again with the sloped tab of lid just to left of bowl activation rod, plug in and then twist counter-clockwise to turn machine on, clockwise to turn off. Always best practice to unplug unit when placing/removing blades and discs. While you won't be able to knead large quantities of dough for most everything else this will be better, quieter, and longer lasting than any new popular, lower, priced processor. Always wait for blades, discs to totally stop before removing lid.