Meat grinders - Page 2

catnthehat · #31 12-16-2018, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glen1971

There is a note in the book about not trying to make sausage as a one man show, because with the turbo screw you won't keep up and make a mess. I've yet to try sausage with it, as I like the control of a hand crank press..

My mother used to get Dad to butcher everything not cut into steaks and roasts , into stew meat.
If she wanted to cook with burger she would thaw the stew meat and grind it on and old Windsor clamp on grinder .
Worked well for her.
Cat

Bub · #32 12-17-2018, 12:47 AM

^ Exactly what I do more often than not, lol. Freshly grounded meat every time. But I don't really do much sausaging.

Savage Bacon · #33 09-28-2019, 08:45 AM

I had a smaller deni grinder we bought years ago. The last time we used it, the nylon washer that pushes the auger and blade against the cutting head went missing. Last night I'm trying to grind 15 pounds of deer and pork to make summer sausage today. Well that was a great time to find out the washer was missing. Ground about a couple of pounds of meat before we gave up. So now I have to look for nylon washers that might work. Or just step up and buy a new grinder. Cabelas pro grinder is $50 off. But I think I'd be happier with the smaller carnivor grinder. 3/4 hp for $500.

I dont have $500 burning a hole in my pocket but today I'm kind of in a jam. I'm sure in a few years, I'll be happy I bought it. But I'd have to explain my spending spree to the boss.

She suggested we just look for nylon washers...

hillbillyreefer · #34 09-28-2019, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

I had a smaller deni grinder we bought years ago. The last time we used it, the nylon washer that pushes the auger and blade against the cutting head went missing. Last night I'm trying to grind 15 pounds of deer and pork to make summer sausage today. Well that was a great time to find out the washer was missing. Ground about a couple of pounds of meat before we gave up. So now I have to look for nylon washers that might work. Or just step up and buy a new grinder. Cabelas pro grinder is $50 off. But I think I'd be happier with the smaller carnivor grinder. 3/4 hp for $500.

I dont have $500 burning a hole in my pocket but today I'm kind of in a jam. I'm sure in a few years, I'll be happy I bought it. But I'd have to explain my spending spree to the boss.

She suggested we just look for nylon washers...

When the nylon bushing on my antique grinder finally disintegrated, I found some regular galvanized steel washers to shim up the back of auger, and used a couple of rubber hydraulic orings between the front of the auger and the knife. It’s worked just fine that way for years.

sns2 · #35 09-28-2019, 01:00 PM

I bought an electric grinder (3/4 hp) from Costco years ago. Have kept it in good shape and its ground a pile of meat. Last week, I ordered the Cabela's Carnivore 1.75hp unit. Just got a call to come pick it up. I heard it chews through meat like feces through a goose. Looking forward to giving it a workout!

Savage Bacon · #36 09-28-2019, 01:49 PM

Well the boss made the decision to buy the washers. Went to home depot and they don't have any. Gonna try Canadian tire and see if we have better luck. Looking on cabelas web site I picked the 1 hp grinder. It's the middle one in the carnivore line. It's $600 tho. Ouch! I thought the extra $100 to go from 3/4 to 1 hp is an acceptable upgrade. If we dont find these washers, we might be getting a new grinder.

R3illy · #37 09-28-2019, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sns2

I bought an electric grinder (3/4 hp) from Costco years ago. Have kept it in good shape and its ground a pile of meat. Last week, I ordered the Cabela's Carnivore 1.75hp unit. Just got a call to come pick it up. I heard it chews through meat with feces through a goose. Looking forward to giving it a workout!

holy crap. My 1hp chews through meat fast enough. The 1.75 will be crazy.

sns2 · #38 09-28-2019, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R3illy

holy crap. My 1hp chews through meat fast enough. The 1.75 will be crazy.

I'm hoping

fishnguy · #39 10-04-2019, 11:13 PM

LEM grinders are on sale at amazon.ca.

LEM Big Bite 8 (0.5 HP) is currently on sale for $418 down from $526 (about 20% off)

LEM Big Bite 12 (0.75 HP) is currently on sale for $561 down from $708 (about 21% off)

These prices are pretty good for LEM grinders, if anyone is interested.

Savage Bacon · #40 10-05-2019, 12:13 AM

For the higher price are the LEM grinders that much better than the cabelas carnivor grinders?

OL_JR · #41 10-05-2019, 04:50 AM

I was in the market last year and decided to go with a little more budget friendly option in the cabelas dc pro grinder and was pretty impressed. It's only gone through a couple deer so far but at this point it seems more than adequate. Feed it reasonable sized chunks and it grinds about as fast as I can feed it.

sns2 · #42 10-05-2019, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

For the higher price are the LEM grinders that much better than the cabelas carnivor grinders?

I would be surprised if it was at all. Cabelas typically sources out very good manufacturers.

Savage Bacon · #43 10-05-2019, 05:19 PM

The carnivore grinders look pretty heavy compared to the LEM grinders. I'll follow the sales and hopefully get one from cabelas for an xmas gift to myself. I did get my little grinder working. I bought a nylon washer from an auto parts store. It was for an oil pan plug. It worked perfectly.

Offwork · #44 10-05-2019, 10:20 PM

I have had LEM 12 for many years, never a problem and it will grind faster than I can feed it. Not noisy and does not heat up. Only wish for a 22 as it would have a larger feed spout so could cut meat into larger pieces.

Never used it for sausage but I’m sure it would work fine. I prefer to use a hand crank stuffer.

Just got Lem grinder attachment for jerky and tenderizer. Wow is that ever a quality piece of equipment. Made jerky slices from goose breasts as fast as could drop them into them into the spout. Used tenderizer to Make some pork cutlets for schnitzel, super tender. Highly recommend this attachment.

Faststeel · #45 10-05-2019, 10:48 PM

I think my cabelas one is 1/2 HP works super good was onsale a few years ago for about $399, have done elk and moose and we always double grind every thing

boonedocks · #46 10-05-2019, 10:57 PM

I cheaped out today and bought a Weston 575 watt grinder at Canadian tire for $160, on sale. It’s not like the big commercial unit we usually use but it ground up a moose a lot faster than I could vacuum pack it, so far so good?!

Faststeel · #47 10-05-2019, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boonedocks

I cheaped out today and bought a Weston 575 watt grinder at Canadian tire for $160, on sale. It’s not like the big commercial unit we usually use but it ground up a moose a lot faster than I could vacuum pack it, so far so good?!

had one of these and it worjked great for two seasons, not so good on season 3.

Savage Bacon · #48 10-06-2019, 09:25 AM

Just looked online and the carnivore grinders are on sale. I wanted the 1 hp but I'm sure the 3/4 hp will fit my needs. Might pull the trigger and get one.

FinnDawg · #49 10-06-2019, 10:07 AM

I bought the 3/4 hp last year. It works great.

Lefty-Canuck · #50 10-06-2019, 10:10 AM

Buy the biggest you can afford.

LC

boonedocks · #51 10-06-2019, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

Buy the biggest you can afford.

LC

This is the best advice, unfortunately ( or fortunately) I owe my taxidermist a bunch of cash so I had to cheap out on the grinder! Lol. Gonna keep an eye out for a big used unit before next year.

Oldan Grumpi · #52 10-06-2019, 10:59 AM

For a quite a few years we used a big old Spong #10 hand grinder with the handle removed, and a corded 1/2 drill chucked onto the shaft.

We wuz po’ folks, but we ate lots of hamburger and sausage.

Staystrong · #53 03-22-2020, 11:25 PM

As for me, I use STX Turboforce 3000 and I'm pretty happy with it, especially after I had a manual meat grinder. It has a special 4mm nozzle for making burgers and so on, and I think it's the perfect option for big amount of meat.

TBark · #54 03-22-2020, 11:45 PM

Bought the #22 Cabelas 1HP from an AO member 2 years ago, it’s a good unit.
Learned to not screw the front ring down too much and always oil spray the back of the auger.
But it is not a good sausage stuffer, it’s just too big and bad design of spacers to the tube.
I ordered a 3 hole spacer and will attempt stuffing one more time before I totally give up on stuffing with it.

TBark

Andrzej · #55 03-23-2020, 09:04 PM

Before you give up stuffing with any grinder get yourself FOOT PEDAL.

I have Cabelas # 32 Grinder and stuffed Polish White Raw Sasauge in 28-32 mm casing without any problem for the first time since I've got it 12 y ago.
My son was keeping the hopper full and I was in charge of stuffing using
Foot Pedal switch.
I have 5 and 15 lbs crank stuffers that I've got as I did not like using a grinder for stuffing because I could not control stop switch.
Once casings were too full, the person in charge of hand switch was most of the time to late to prevent "explosion".
Grinding meat can be done with Foot Switch by one person easily and switch on the unit is not full of ground meat.

50 bucks well spent.

As to the size of the grinder keep in mind that higher # will have a wider neck so you don't have to cut your meat in very small pieces.
IMO minimum size for a hunter should be #22 or 1 HP.( 1 HP it is a minimum to use it with mixer attachment).
Can it be done with #8? Sure but it will take 3-4 times longer (or more) to prepare and grind. Stuffing with such small auger will ruin some recipes that call for bigger chunks of meat in some sausages like in Ham Sausage recipe.

RancheroMan · #56 03-24-2020, 08:03 AM

The cooling packs for the Cabelas #22 grinder head are a worth while investment. I found the back of the auger close to the motor would get pretty warm after 40 lbs of meat or so. I have 2 of the cooling packs and switch them out every 20lbs of meat or so. Not a significant change but noticeable. Especially when double grinding hamburger.

fulltime pops · #57 03-24-2020, 12:00 PM

Bass Pro... LEM Big Bite grinder... i put several Moose and Elk through it.. and its still going.

RichardClemmer · #58 04-07-2020, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnbransfield

I bought the cuisnart special 5 years ago from canadian tire on sale for under $200. Its done me great and never slows down the process. Definetly worth the cash.

I Know some of the Meat Grinders that are not expensive also have good edges. Check out these Meat Grinders

220 Swift · #59 04-07-2020, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrzej

Before you give up stuffing with any grinder get yourself FOOT PEDAL.

I have Cabelas # 32 Grinder and stuffed Polish White Raw Sasauge in 28-32 mm casing without any problem for the first time since I've got it 12 y ago.
My son was keeping the hopper full and I was in charge of stuffing using
Foot Pedal switch.
I have 5 and 15 lbs crank stuffers that I've got as I did not like using a grinder for stuffing because I could not control stop switch.
Once casings were too full, the person in charge of hand switch was most of the time to late to prevent "explosion".
Grinding meat can be done with Foot Switch by one person easily and switch on the unit is not full of ground meat.

50 bucks well spent.

As to the size of the grinder keep in mind that higher # will have a wider neck so you don't have to cut your meat in very small pieces.
IMO minimum size for a hunter should be #22 or 1 HP.( 1 HP it is a minimum to use it with mixer attachment).
Can it be done with #8? Sure but it will take 3-4 times longer (or more) to prepare and grind. Stuffing with such small auger will ruin some recipes that call for bigger chunks of meat in some sausages like in Ham Sausage recipe.

I believe all this to be the answer.

Snijders96 · #60 04-08-2020, 10:08 AM

Bought the 3/4 hp “Carnivore” from Cabelas three years ago, every year have done on average 4 deer, and one elk plus whatever trim we mix it with... usually have 3-4 guys who all contribute. We have never had a problem with it, works like a charm, and we can’t keep up to it either! Does a great job... Can’t see anyone needing more!!