Stuffer and grinder

ItemB

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You guys that process your own meat what do use for a stuffer and grinder? Likes/dislikes
 


RRmaniac

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Have an old Enterprise cast iron stuffer, works great. Some people use their electric grinder to stuff. With nearly all the cheap electric grinders you have to force the meat down the thin neck. This gets to be a pain for stuffing and adds an extra step of cutting the meat smaller before grinding. For a good grinder, unless you're willing to pay $300+, get a large hand grinder and use an electric motor.
 
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KDM

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I have a 3/4 horse cabelas grinder that stuffs casings as well. I have no complaints. I like the power it has to grind anything I put into it, the cleanup is a snap, the attachments let me do whatever I want, and it's worked flawlessly for 6 years. Last year it ground 1850 lbs of meat and then stuffed about 1500 of that again after the spices were mixed. It does it's job!!! The only thing I didn't like was the safety deal they put over the feed hole on the tray. Glad that thing finally broke off as it would give me at least one good gouge every year. Now I guess I'm less safe, but if you keep your fingers out of the feed hole, you have nothing to worry about. I had a 1/2 horse and it didn't have the power to grind the amount of frozen or half frozen meat I process every year. It would overheat and hold everything up. I've used a separate stuffer a couple times, but that seemed to just add to the time, cleaning, and waste as you never get all the meat out of any piece of equipment. Go as big as you can afford. POWER equals HAPPINESS!! Have Fun!!!
 
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.deleted.

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The wife and I with 3 hunting young adults process 5-10 animals a year. Depending on license’s of course or if we travel to Wyoming for goats. We started with a hand grinder and small stuffer, now I run a 3/4 horse power cabellas grinder and 25 or 30lb stuffer. Now the problem we have been having is smoking it all in a couple days. I am working on a larger smoker made out of a stainless steel commercial warming box. Anyway we process between 100-150 lbs per season. I can grind and stuff our game in about 4 hrs. My brother has a 1/3 horse grinder with a smaller throat and it takes him almost twice as long to grind roughly the same pounds of meat. Hope this helps.
 

SDMF

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Stuffer and Grinder sounds like it could be a Broadway musical starring GST and Prairie Ghost.
 


Retired Educator

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I have a 1 1/2hp grinder from Cabelas, pretty sure it's made by LEM. Also use a 25# stuffer. Impossible to push too much meat through the grinder. For that reason it's not very good to stuff as you can't keep it full. Not many need a grinder that large, 1 hp would be plenty big I think as some on here get along just fine with a 3/4 hp. Have thought a motor on the stuffer would be nice but haven't read many good reports about powered stuffers and the durability of the gears.

As far as getting everything out of the stuffer, I've never had an issue with that. Other than the tube, there is virtually no meat left on the bottom when the stuffer reaches that point. Stuffer is also from Cabelas but I'm sure they don't make it. Most likely that also comes from LEM like the grinder. Have used both for several years so the initial cost isn't cheap but if you have a few buddies and each can purchase a piece of equipment and make sausage together its becomes a social event that is fun and not so expensive for anyone.
 

Allen

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I have lower half of the decent grade of LEM for both stuffer and grinder.

No problems yet, and the grinder has probably done 15-20 deer over the past 7(?) ears. The stuffer I've had for much less time. After having it though, I'll bitch slap anyone suggesting we should just use the grinder to stuff stuff. Note, my stuffer is only like 10-12 lbs. So I have to reload often, but that's still so damn much better than using the grinder.

I have never used a water powered stuffer, I hear they are pretty slick as well. I know a couple that have a homemade version and they process a lot of meat each year.
 

SDMF

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Buddy of my dad has an air stuffer. PVC tube with an HDPE piston. Someone ground a couple grooves into the piston for O-Rings. Air comes in the bottom, meat comes out the top. Anything left over in the stuffer gets fried on the spot.
 


Allen

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note: I started doing my own some 20+ years ago using a hand grinder. Eff that! Even the motor attached versions are for the birds in my mind. They aren't designed to be hooked up to an electric motor. I would seriously suggest ignoring any grinder less than about $180. Then again, only you know how much you'll use it. A smaller, 1/3 HP grinder is fine if you only do 1 or 2 deer a year. If you do any more than that, upscale your pricing accordingly. By the time you get to about $300 you get something that will gobble a deer pretty quickly.

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p.s. aluminum sucks if you run it through the dishwasher. Buy stainless.
 

dust in the wind

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We have the cabelas grinder and stuffer. Stuffer is the older model and I like that over the newer one they came out with a couple years later.

we have done quite a few critters with them and they have held up well. The safety part of the grinder mentioned earlier is a pain but easy to work around.

i think the grinder would take an arm pretty easily!
 

espringers

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old enterprise stuffer. #32 grinder with belt and 1 hp motor. The gasket for the stuffer is sweet. The #32 grinds meat as fast as you can feed it until you are out of meat. Sadly, none of it gets uses much anymore. :(
 
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Downrigger

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What about mixers. Right now most of my batches are small enough to easily do by hand but I may want to start doing larger batches. Does anyone use a commercial mixer?
 

dust in the wind

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What about mixers. Right now most of my batches are small enough to easily do by hand but I may want to start doing larger batches. Does anyone use a commercial mixer?

we have a mixer that attaches to the grinder motor. It works well but I do wish we had the tilt version for unloading it. Oh well.

i needed parts one time from normal wear and tear. Was told to just buy a new mixer ... hahahaha took a chance on parts from another mfg (guessed it was the same just a different name on it) and those parts were correct. So I saved a few hundred dollars!
 


espringers

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Cement mixer attachment on a heavy duty drill and a 5 gallon bucket. Bucket and attachment $5.

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Don't use your cheap drill. Big electric. Add some water
 

LBrandt

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10# stuffer is on my Christmas wish list, already have the grinder, mixer and slicer. All by LEM.
 

ndlongshot

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Its an expensive game to get into, but when compared to the price of a butcher, and not knowing if you get your meat back. Priceless....

I have the grinder, and just got stuffer. I agree that running everything back through the grinder to stuff is a total pain in the arse. I was happy as a clam to have the stuffer this year. I think next I will get a mixer.
 

dukgnfsn

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For many years it was hand grind and hand stuff. Then my dad added a motor to hand grinder with a belt. Now he found a motor with a hydraulic reducer, think he paid $12 for motor-reducer on eBay. The thing doesn't grind fast but will grind steady and about anything you want to feed into it. Also at the time he set up this way he put spider gears in and got rid of the belts. Still do the stuffing with the hand stuffer my grandpa used on the farm. As stated in another post the only thing of any kind of tradition I do with my dad is make sausage each year, been doing it about 30++ years now and only missed the year I was deployed for military duty. It will be done this way until dad cant make it anymore. As the years go on he is getting good at supervising. Over the years we have done anywhere from 75-400 LBS a year. Hard for me to justify new equipment for about 100 lbs average per year now. dukgnfsn
 

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10# stuffer is on my Christmas wish list, already have the grinder, mixer and slicer. All by LEM.

While you're working on your wish list I would suggest wishing for the 25# stuffer. Have found that stuffing creates the backlog of making sausage. The less time you spend filling the stuffer the better.
 


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