meat grinders

[nodak]

Looking at buying a grinder for christmas present any comments on any to stay away from?  Do a 1-2 beef a year and thought I could borrow for my deer, sausage ect.  Looking at the one and a half horsepower from cabela's.  any thoughts?

Thanks,

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Bought the smaller unit from Cabela's and am very happy with it. Can't imagine what the larger units look like on the counter...

Arcs_n_Sparks

[iceman]

ANS is right. Cabela's makes a decent one. The only problem I ever had was the blade got a little dull. Easy fix was to take some wet/dry fine sand paper and lay it flat on the work bench and use a little oil and rub the blade around on it a few times. Good as new in a matter of minutes. You'll love making your own ground chuck and sausage etc. It don't get any better than home made and fresh! Enjoy. If your just doing small amounts at one time SAMS CLUB has one for about 60 bucks that isn't to bad. I got one for a back up and ended up using it more than I thought.[8D]

Big or small you can smoke'm all!!!

[nodak]

maybe I'll look at trying to pick-up a small one also for sausage.  I still will get a big one for beef as I said we butcher one or two beef a year and grinding burger can take a long time, so if it's hard to clean. I'll look at a small one also.  Does it work good to stuff sausage out of the grinder with an adaptor tube??

Thanks,

[SMOKEHOUSE ROB]

nodak welcome to the forum [:)]  if looking for a good grinder click on link, http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?in_merch=1&storeId=6970&productId=36989&R=36989 also useing a grinder to stuff can really take alot of time, you should grind your meat and then mix and then let sit in fridge for a min of a few hours , some books will say cube your meat then throw spices on and grind and stuff at the same time, might work but dont like the idea, useing your grinder to stuff will take two people , try stuffing ground meat threw a 1 1/2 throat with a plunger not fun , buy your self a good stuffer, not a horn stuffer they are a pain also, click on link for the stuffer i use . i have seen these same stuffers go for $250, but this one is $75 hand crank one man oparation,  http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&langId=-1&productId=200308623&R=200308623&issearch=168613

[iceman]

SR's right about the stuffer. It's almost a joke trying to stuff right out of the grinder. Two man operation and a lot of air in the casing. DO NOT get a horn stuffer like he says. They look neat on the shelf and that's it!!! You might as well try blowing it out yer nose for all the good they do. A good stuffer will pay for itself real quick. Also if your doing a lot of burger the large tube works good for stuffing ground meat into the bulk sausage bags to store burger in the freezer.[;)]

Big or small you can smoke'm all!!!

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Nodak,

Got my stuffer from the Sausage Maker. 5 pound unit with hand crank. Much easier to control than trying to stuff from the grinder. Similar units are available from other places as well. All good advice above. Have fun.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[jaeger]

I have the 1 hp model. If I was planning on using the grinder as much as you will, I would move up to the 1 1/2 hp at least. The main determination is the neck size. A 32 neck should work fine.





<font size="4"><b>Doug</b></font id="size4">

[Bassman]

I have the 1/3 hp from Cabelas. Very satisfied with it. Ditto on the "can't be used for stuffing" thing. It's best to have a seperate stuffer.

<i><font color="blue"><b>Jack</i></font id="blue"></b>