Meat grinder

Bornacenturytoolate

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I am new to processing my own meat and wanted the opinion of experienced folks. Which grinder is best? Manual , electric , any certain brand? I want something that will last for years. Thanks.
 

miss_thenorth

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Started out with a manual meat grinder (which i still have), but after one deer season, I forked out the cash and bought an electric one. Get one with the most powerful motor you can get, and you won't regret it. Or you can try the manual first like I did :p

Welcome to the forum!!!
 

patandchickens

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Having only a manual grinder (and a small one at that) I would say if you want to grind a lot of meat there is a lot to be said for a powered model, although of course you will develop good right-arm muscles with the manual model :p

Unless there are 2 of you, it helps to have one with a decent-sized hopper.

Good luck, have fun, sure wish I had a better one too! :p,

Pat
 

Tallman

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I have a work bench where I hooked an electric motor up to a 50 to 1 reducer. I then hook the pulley coming out of the reducer to a hand grinder that I put a wheel pulley on. In both cases, I transfer power with V belts. I use this power plant for my meat grinder and my wheat mill. If we would someday loose our electric energy, I can put the hand crank on the grinder or the mill, and DW can still get things ground up.
 

Beekissed

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I've had two electric grinders...the first a cheapy that burned up in one season. The next was more hp and a nice unit, more pricey....it burned up after one deer. Gears stripped right out of it.

I would dearly love to find a hand grinder again, one that wasn't out of this world on price, and go back to dependability. When you have two deer in the fridge awaiting grinding and a worthless electrical gadget sitting on the table, that hand crank starts to look reeeealllll attractive! :lol:
 

ORChick

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I have a meat grinder attachment for my old Oster Kitchen Center base, which I've had for more than 30 years, and which isn't made anymore (This is a motorized base that has a blender, a mixer, and many other bits - juicers, etc.) The grinder is all, except the blades, made of plastic. And the motor in the base is sounding weaker every time I use it. I haven't ever had a huge amount of meat to grind at once, and so far it has done the job (and I hate the thought of getting rid of something that still, sort of, works, and spending money on a replacement) but I am seriously thinking of getting a good quality, metal, hand crank grinder. I do grind my own hamburger when I can find the unground meat on sale, and I would like to make sausages. I think I will get a new blender as well, and save the dying motor of the Oster for the other attachments, which I don't use often in any case.
 
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