Looking to get a good but cheap meat grinder. Is there really much of a quality issue with different ones or is it basically just about time savings over producing larger quantities? This will be used just for processing ground meat and sausage from my own hunting.
Recommendations for meat grinder?
- Thread starter rtracer13
- Start date
If I'm looking at the same one, its several hundred dollars. Any recommendations for something under or around $100? Or are those just junk?
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I bought a $100 job (but the local retailer sold it for $200) and it was POS. I returned it and demanded my money back. The dink manager at the local retail store originally wanted me to return it to the manufacturer. A few terse words, crossed arms and a hard look changed his mind.
Buy quality or you'll be sorry.
You can buy a hand meat grinder that works and if your handy and can find the parts it is pretty easy to put one on a gear box and use a electric motor on it.I use a #32 myself and the gear box showed up at a farm auction for $5 and works great with a half horse motor. Before that I used the gear box off of a old Massy Harris Clipper reel and that worked but was made on a angle and you had to have everything cockeyed to get the angles right. I regularly grind up a whole cow with mine and it gets it done in a evening.
Suka
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
We have 2; a waring pro from Can. tire, and a small commercial one I picked up from a closing butcher shop(it's backup one).
The waring pro is quite slow and will clog up if too much sinew or similar. That being said, if you're doing say 5-10lbs at a time it will do a nice job. You just have to recognize it's capabilities and be aware you can plug up the plate if you try to put too much through.. I have a hard time regrinding spiced meat without turning it to mush, so I cube the meat, spice it, then grind it once.
I had thought about selling it, but to be honest I find it more than adequate for small jobs, and it's also about 50lbs lighter than our bigger one. Easier to clean, too.
The larger one quite frankly could likely do a herd of buffalo without slowing down, including the horns and hair. Pretty amazing, really. I'd guess it's about the equivalent to the 5 or 700.00 one's that bass pro sells?
We don't stuff our sausage with either, we have an old, handed down cast crank press. A buddy uses what looks like a calking gun for stuffing sausage, he says it works great, especially as he does his by himself.
Years ago I had a hand crank one that clamped to the counter. I think the larger ones would be OK if you put a motor on them. Mine the throat was too small to bother with, and by hand it was waaay too much work.
Whichever way you choose to go will get you started. Just don't expect more than the machine is capable of and they'll do what you need them too.
I'd suggest putting an ad out locally as there's lot's of good equipment sitting in, "old guys who've quit hunting's" garages all over the country. Everything from grinders to stuffers, to band saws. Trick is to find it.
The waring pro is quite slow and will clog up if too much sinew or similar. That being said, if you're doing say 5-10lbs at a time it will do a nice job. You just have to recognize it's capabilities and be aware you can plug up the plate if you try to put too much through.. I have a hard time regrinding spiced meat without turning it to mush, so I cube the meat, spice it, then grind it once.
I had thought about selling it, but to be honest I find it more than adequate for small jobs, and it's also about 50lbs lighter than our bigger one. Easier to clean, too.
The larger one quite frankly could likely do a herd of buffalo without slowing down, including the horns and hair. Pretty amazing, really. I'd guess it's about the equivalent to the 5 or 700.00 one's that bass pro sells?
We don't stuff our sausage with either, we have an old, handed down cast crank press. A buddy uses what looks like a calking gun for stuffing sausage, he says it works great, especially as he does his by himself.
Years ago I had a hand crank one that clamped to the counter. I think the larger ones would be OK if you put a motor on them. Mine the throat was too small to bother with, and by hand it was waaay too much work.
Whichever way you choose to go will get you started. Just don't expect more than the machine is capable of and they'll do what you need them too.
I'd suggest putting an ad out locally as there's lot's of good equipment sitting in, "old guys who've quit hunting's" garages all over the country. Everything from grinders to stuffers, to band saws. Trick is to find it.
I use a hand grinder and it works fine. For grinding say 20 lbs of venison, once a year, its no big hardship. Cut up the meat into strip and it feeds through fine. Everyone once in a while you need to pull off the screen and clean it during a grind. Was around $20 at Princess Auto. First one I bought was faulty.
BC Bigbore
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- BC's Peace Country
If you don't mind going slow and making small batches, an el cheapo can do the job (but for how long is anyone's guess) I've used this little under $100 job for a few batches and so far so good. It's nothing like the big grinders I grew up with but for up to 20lbs or so at a time, it works. Here's a pic with some Mennonite style moose rings I made up just prior to putting them into the smoker...
Check the yellow pages for a butcher supply shop or one that supplies butcher equipment. They may have something in the back that they took on trade and is sitting on a shelf somewhere. That is how I got mine. They had one that was missing a couple of parts and had a crack in the housing. They sold me the parts at cost and $75 for the grinder. A welding shop fixed up the housing for me. For a total cost of $300, I have a grinder rated at 22 pounds a minute. It is a big beast but it sure grinds meat. We had a hand grinder which I hooked up the gearbox of an old rototiller to, and added a 1/2 hp motor. It worked OK but it was slow, and the connection from gearbox to grinder was iffy.
Also check the buy and sell papers and online. You never know where one will show up. I see them 2 or 3 times a year now that I am no longer looking for one.
Also check the buy and sell papers and online. You never know where one will show up. I see them 2 or 3 times a year now that I am no longer looking for one.
If you don't mind going slow and making small batches, an el cheapo can do the job (but for how long is anyone's guess) I've used this little under $100 job for a few batches and so far so good. It's nothing like the big grinders I grew up with but for up to 20lbs or so at a time, it works. Here's a pic with some Mennonite style moose rings I made up just prior to putting them into the smoker...
I borrowed one like this from my hunting partner. I was cutting the moose into strips and grinding at the same time by myself and it worked far better than the Kitchen Aid one. I did try to cut off all the sinew etc. before grinding (garbage in, garbage out) and was pleasantly surprised by how well the cheap grinder worked.
I have a Waring Pro, that I received as a gift, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Mine has issues with the main driver not engaging with the meat auger enough, and it stripped off the end of the driver. I'll fix it eventually.
On the other hand, I have an older, super-cheap grinder from Princess Auto, that I have been unable to kill. $5 at a garage sale. Sounds like a sack of hammers in a cement mixer, but grinds OK. Just picked up one of the PA electric grinders for a bud while they were on sale for $69. It works well and runs a lot quieter than the old one. I think it was a pretty good buy for the money. I have a small hand crank that I have used for doing a whole tub of meat, once or twice. It can be done in pretty short order, if you are set up and able to anchor the grinder solidly.
Dig back through the sausage making threads in the Recipes sub-forum, and there are a few pictures of some belt driven reduction set-ups for the larger sizes of Chinese manual grinders (they come with a pulley, IIRC) that would run quiet and not take up a pile of space or money. Looked like maybe $50 worth of belts and bearings to build the reduction drive. Less if you are a scrounge.
Cold cold cold! Keep the meat cold, and it'll grind better, esp. if it's at all fatty.
Sharp blades and plates, as tight as you can get the lock ring, too.
Cheers
Trev
Mine has issues with the main driver not engaging with the meat auger enough, and it stripped off the end of the driver. I'll fix it eventually.
On the other hand, I have an older, super-cheap grinder from Princess Auto, that I have been unable to kill. $5 at a garage sale. Sounds like a sack of hammers in a cement mixer, but grinds OK. Just picked up one of the PA electric grinders for a bud while they were on sale for $69. It works well and runs a lot quieter than the old one. I think it was a pretty good buy for the money. I have a small hand crank that I have used for doing a whole tub of meat, once or twice. It can be done in pretty short order, if you are set up and able to anchor the grinder solidly.
Dig back through the sausage making threads in the Recipes sub-forum, and there are a few pictures of some belt driven reduction set-ups for the larger sizes of Chinese manual grinders (they come with a pulley, IIRC) that would run quiet and not take up a pile of space or money. Looked like maybe $50 worth of belts and bearings to build the reduction drive. Less if you are a scrounge.
Cold cold cold! Keep the meat cold, and it'll grind better, esp. if it's at all fatty.
Sharp blades and plates, as tight as you can get the lock ring, too.
Cheers
Trev
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I can top that. I bought the $100 attachment and killed the Kitchenaid.
But they sent me a new one.
Yes....mine has been making a noise ever since.
I think it is far too much load on the machine. Mine is the 325 W version.FYI, Canadian Tire has their Commercial Grade Kitchen Aid Mixer (475 W iirc) on sale from $499 to $299 right now.
Really? I just got one of those. I was hoping it would turn out to be decent.
Why did you find it was no good?
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
For occasional grinding it will be fine. Want to make some chicken breasts into chicken burgers, go ahead. Grind a moose roast into burger for that big holiday lasagna, no problem. Want to turn everything North of Bullwinkle's tendies into burger...you're starting to ask a lot of a light duty machine. Besides, dead Kitchenaid = no cookies. No cookies = fail.
Really? I just got one of those. I was hoping it would turn out to be decent.
Why did you find it was no good?
It was extremely slow and clogged up easily. The machine was labouring hard just to process a small amount of meat and heated up in no time at all. I was doing pieces of pork at the time. I didn't actually time it, but I don't think it could do much more than 1 lb per minute - if that.
Mine is the 325 Watt version - I'd rather have the heavier duty one, but this was a gift!
