DIY Meat Grinder

[wyogoob]

My old home-made grinder will be 26 years old this year (I think, my memory could be better.) It has ground, on average, 300 lbs of beef, pork, and wild game per year....close to 8,000 lbs of meat! (I should add that sausage meat most of the time is ground twice.)


It's a #32 hand-crank converted to a motor driven. I made the contraption at work, mostly on my own time. For 15 years a dozen of the guys and gals at work that loved to hunt shared the grinder for grinding deer, elk, moose, and countless numbers of antelope.

I cut the handle off, cleaned up the remaining drive hub and welded the hub to a flex-joint coupler:


Got a gear motor and built a stand to make the motor shaft the same height as the grinder shaft. Two to four wingnuts hold the grinder down and it's easy to remove for clean-up:




Put it all in a plywood box with a sliding lid. I operate it with a foot switch:


It could be safer. The lid protects the user from the rotating shaft, but it has a large and short feed opening unlike the factory #32s that have a small feed opening and a long feed neck making it very difficult, or impossible, to get your hand in the auger. We use a paddle or plastic drinking glass to move the meat around:


The grinder will take frosty fist-size meat pieces, as long as you want, with ease:


I even have a press that slides into the lid groove on the top of the box. The weight of the grinder keeps the stuffer steady when turning the crank:


Man the stories this ole grinder could tell!

[hal4uk]

That's slicker'n bobby socks on a rooster!

[Tenpoint5]

I realy like the direct drive idea sure beats the belt option I have on mine. You are right them #32's will chew through the frosty meat.

[wyogoob]

I realy like the direct drive idea sure beats the belt option I have on mine. You are right them #32's will chew through the frosty meat.

Thanks.
I used the big pulley-belt thingie on a #12 grinder mounted on a board clamped to a table for years, not too safe and kinda high maintenance.

This motor is often used on irrigation equipment. They also work well on BBQ spits when hooked to a gearbox or a reduction pulley system.

[Habanero Smoker]

I love the design of your older stuffer.

[anderson5420]

Yes, this is very cool.

I too have a #32 grinder, it is just too dang much work to grind the meat by turning the crank! Instead of trying to motorize it (I'm the guy they don't let around power tools) I bought a Maverick M5501, which is great.  But I still have the hand grinder, and just maybe it should get motorized.  I see this uses a 60 rpm 1/2 horse motor.  What kind of reducing coupler am I looking for, and where would I get it? TIA for any help!

[car54]

Great American ingenuity. Love.

Brad

[wyogoob]

Yes, this is very cool.

I too have a #32 grinder, it is just too dang much work to grind the meat by turning the crank! Instead of trying to motorize it (I'm the guy they don't let around power tools) I bought a Maverick M5501, which is great.  But I still have the hand grinder, and just maybe it should get motorized.  I see this uses a 60 rpm 1/2 horse motor.  What kind of reducing coupler am I looking for, and where would I get it? TIA for any help!

It's direct drive. It runs at 60 rpm....just right.

The coupler (spider) takes up the torque shock at start-up, makes up for any minor shaft misalignment, and aids in quick assembly/disassembly.

The gearmotor is very durable and I've never had any trouble with it. A friend of mine borrowed it once and got an elk bone lodged in the auger. It tore the half-round end of the auger shaft up!! I made a weld repair, a shaft build up with bronze rod, and it's worked fine ever since.

[KevinG]

Nice looking rig there. Hope that hammer isn't needed cause it's tempermental.

[wyogoob]

LOL

It tightens the grinder hub. I lost the wrench..........probably in some moose burger ;D

[anderson5420]

Well, there is one little drawback if you have to buy the gearmotor



new...Grainger catalog price is $694.50!  So what is the coupling / spider? Where do you find those?

[classicrockgriller]

wyo, that is a fine grinder and am sures it has some tales to tell.

Thanks for sharing.

[wyogoob]

Yikes!!

I paid $000.00 for two of these gearmotors.

see: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4X191?Pid=search  for shaft coupler (takes two) and the spider insert.


6K583 gearmotor is $385 here: http://www.electricmotorwarehouse.com/bison_gearmotors/482_series_115v.htm