Thinking about buying a grinder to make sausage from hogs
Anyone have any experience with a decent, budget grinder?
I don't want to spend a fortune on one, but would like to get one to make my own
What kind do you recommend that works good but does not break the bank and comes with attachments needed for putting in casings?
I would like to keep it under $400, but the cheaper the better as long as it works good

TIA

https://www.meatprocessingproducts.com/081201w.html


Close to $400. I will say there is a big difference between 3/4 and 1hp, with that said I wouldn’t go under 3/4.

Now it’s all relative to your time and amount of meat you will be doing. Manual ones work good, just time consuming

A lot depends on how much you plan on doing. The heavy duty grinders Cabela's sell for $100 are good for small to medium batches. Or if your wife has a Kitchenaide mixer, you can get a nice grinder attachment for them. If your gonna run it all day and grind up a whole deer or two, then probably ought to spend $3-400 on a commercial grade 1hp unit like BoBo recommends to get the job done. Just my .02 cents.

I doubt I would have it going all day, but who knows, depends on how many hogs I/we get in a trip
I don't mind spending a little time grinding, but don't want to spend all day doing a small to medium sized hog
I know I don't want manual, to old and lazy for that

I went from a hand grinder (too slow) to the $60 job from Harbor Freight. Yes, compared to a $400 grinder it is probably a pos but I can run 40 or so pounds through it in a few minutes. I’ve had it 3-4 years and it ain’t died yet. Several hundred lbs its ground.

Regardless of which grinder you end up going with, if you're going to stuff casings do yourself a favor and buy a stand alone sausage stuffer. Much easier to stuff with and turns out a better product.

I used to have a Tasin 108 which worked OK for a light duty grinder. For the last several years I've had an LEM #8...retails for about $350 but I waited for an after-season clearance and got it for almost half off. It goes right through any venison or pork I've ever run through it. The LEM Mighty Bite is lighter duty but still a hoss for about $200.

https://www.academy.com/shop/browse.../meat-grinders?searchterm=meat%20grinder

I hate to say this, but listen to BoBo.

We use a #32 hand crank grinder, with 2 people cutting and trimming, I won't even break sweat. It a grinder that also has brass bushings so that it can be motorized, which I do have that set up available, but in the last 40 years we have rarely used it.

As to the sausage stuffer, buy a good one, the cheap ones are cheap for a reason. If you can find one, look for a vintage Enterprise brand. Parts are available for them, but the only thing you will ever need to replace is teh suffer tube, and only if you break it through a mistake.

I have the Cabela's 11 lb stuffer and is perfect, not to small and not too big.

I have a 1 HP Weston grinder, a #10 manual grinder, a 7# stuffer, and a 15# stuffer. They all have their place depending on what I'm doing, and where. You don't have to spend a lot of money, but don't go cheap or you're going to end up throwing stuff across the shop LOL.

A separate stuffer is good advice.
I have been using a LEM #8 grinder for 10 years now, 1/2" HP. I do about 10 deer a year (about 6-8 for me and a few for others). A whitetail is not a lot of meat to grind and it only takes a few minutes.
We use a Cabelas #42 grinder for our annual sausage making, I think that monster is 1 3/4HP. We grind about 500 pounds and that thing barely gets going, and it grinds fast.
For sausage we use a plate with 1/8" holes.

That's a hell of a grinder LOL.

Thanks all
Y'all have given me some info to start my search

I got the gamewinner #12 on sale for $69.99.



Academy has these for $49.99 now.
[img]https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/academy/20041396?$pdp-gallery-ng$[/img]

https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/academy/20064752?$pdp-gallery-ng$

Gotta be careful with the plastic gears in that, great for doing small batches and if all you have is time.

Listen to Bobo. That is a helluva deal. I wanted a Weston but got a good deal on an LEM Big Bite #12, 3/4hp. I wouldn't go less than 3/4hp, IMHO. I've been lazy a couple of times with big chunks and have managed to jam it, but not to the point of manual clearing. So far I've put about 400lbs through it. I also bought one of these kits:

https://www.lemproducts.com/product/grinder-accessory-kit/butcher-meat-grinder-accessories

It helps a ton with cleanup, with all the brushes. The footpedal is also great.

Sage advice, right here. Proper stuffing is a job (and an art) unto itself.

Mark

Plastic gears in which? I didn't see anything plastic on the grinder or the mixer. I don't have the sausage stuffer. I have done about 52 pounds of deer and pork in less than 2 hours with the grinder. My granddaughter loves to drop the chunks in while I'm cutting. This is one thing I do like about hanging deer in the walk in for a week, It is much easier to cut and grind.

I found an LEM .75 hp, a few years ago on sale from Academy after deer season for 299.00. My hunting buddy had a Cables brand that he and I both used for many years. He would probably still be using it had his house not burned. He just uses mine now.

I got the same deal on the #12. Great grinder that I will probably never wear out.

Ive got one of the Cabelas grinders, it is a hoss, mine is the 1.5 hp model. It weighs 80-90 pounds its a beach to move around, but it works great. We put about 15 deer a year and similar amount of hogs through it a year and it makes short work. For a smaller quantity i would think a smaller one would do just fine.

Like others have said I personally would look into a dedicated stuffer, I hate stuffing with the grinder, its slow as hell, packs a loose sausage, and to me overworks and heats up the meat too much, we tried it and mid batch we dug out the old antique cast iron stuffer.

Unless you really don't have much meat to do or your not going to keep doing it i would buy all the grinder you can. I know of several using the Cabela's brand grinders with luck and have heard good things of the LEM grinders also. I used a hand crank grinder once and its never been taken back out after that year.

Grinders are like gun safes, always go bigger than what you think you need.

1.5hp isnt a grinder, it’s a evidence destroyer... human or animal