manual meat grinder?

[momark]

Does anyone use one? Do they work well enough to grind the occasional deer for burger? I've processed my own deer for quite some time but always had sausage and burger ground at a shop. Due to CWD concerns I'd rather do my own grinding now. I don't kill a deer every year so just wondering if it's worth buying electric. If the manuals work reasonably well I'd just as soon go with one of those.
Thanks, Mark

 

[scott44]

We used a hand grinder for years, it works good when only doing a couple deer a year but at on time there was 4 of us hunting and we started grinding more. We bought a LEM 3/4hp and haven't looked back, if you get one you might want to look into one with the saussage stuffer tubes to make link saussage.

#12 BigBite® Meat Grinder - 0.75 HP | LEM Products

The LEM Products 0.75 HP Stainless Steel BigBite® Meat Grinder offers a substantial step up from our smaller BigBite® units. Grinding approximately 11 lbs. per minute, this grinder packs a wallop to make short work of your grind time.

www.lemproducts.com

 

[momark]

I don't plan to ever grind more than one a year so sounds like it should be ok. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Buckly]

Buy you’re wife or just you a kitchen aid mixer that you can put a grinder attachment on. Dual purpose and makes life easy.

 

[Catscratch]

Dad bought a big hand crank grinder... put a pulley on it and an electric motor. Works great!

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[yoderjac]

Does anyone use one? Do they work well enough to grind the occasional deer for burger? I've processed my own deer for quite some time but always had sausage and burger ground at a shop. Due to CWD concerns I'd rather do my own grinding now. I don't kill a deer every year so just wondering if it's worth buying electric. If the manuals work reasonably well I'd just as soon go with one of those.
Thanks, Mark

Have a teenager? It can be just as easy to grind as with an electric if you have one of them available.

 

[momark]

Ok guys, I get the idea, it takes a little elbow grease. But if it does a good job that's all I care about.

 

[BenA]

I've done it, and didn't really care for it. I agree with the KitchenAid attachment. My wife had the mixer already, so the attachment was a no brainer.

 

[yoderjac]

Ok guys, I get the idea, it takes a little elbow grease. But if it does a good job that's all I care about.

Functionally there is no difference at all. My heavy duty Cabela's electric and an old manual have the same stuff on the business end. They all have a corkscrew to push the meat to a spinning blade to cut the meat against a plate with holes that the cuttings get pushed through. The only difference is what turns the corkscrew. For an electric, it is the strength and gearing that turn the corkscrew that makes the difference. For a manual, it is the strength of your arm.

The real advantage of a good electric is the speed. I can drop very large chunks of meat in it and it muscles through them with no problem. I also have a cheap harbor freight (central machinery) beat saw that I modified. It came with a grinder that was attached to the same motor that drives the bandsaw wheels. I had to chop the meat into finer chunks when using it and still often had to take it apart to clear clogs it could not handle. The big electric has a reverse on it. I rarely get a clog, but when I do, the reverse clears it immediately.

I can do in about 10 minutes with the electric what would take me several hours with a manual. If you have the time, a manual should do the job for you.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill]

Buy an electric one unless you’re 80 years old or more. Use the electric one twice and it’s worth it.

I don’t think I’ll see 82. So if you are, and have a good arm....., “sorry”.

 

[momark]

Functionally there is no difference at all. My heavy duty Cabela's electric and an old manual have the same stuff on the business end. They all have a corkscrew to push the meat to a spinning blade to cut the meat against a plate with holes that the cuttings get pushed through. The only difference is what turns the corkscrew. For an electric, it is the strength and gearing that turn the corkscrew that makes the difference. For a manual, it is the strength of your arm.

The real advantage of a good electric is the speed. I can drop very large chunks of meat in it and it muscles through them with no problem. I also have a cheap harbor freight (central machinery) beat saw that I modified. It came with a grinder that was attached to the same motor that drives the bandsaw wheels. I had to chop the meat into finer chunks when using it and still often had to take it apart to clear clogs it could not handle. The big electric has a reverse on it. I rarely get a clog, but when I do, the reverse clears it immediately.

I can do in about 10 minutes with the electric what would take me several hours with a manual. If you have the time, a manual should do the job for you.

Thanks,

Jack

Well, now you have me second guessing. 10 minutes vs several hours is quite a difference. I probably will be doing about 25 lbs at a time. How long do you think that would take with the average hand grinder?

 

[yoderjac]

Well, now you have me second guessing. 10 minutes vs several hours is quite a difference. I probably will be doing about 25 lbs at a time. How long do you think that would take with the average hand grinder?

I don't think I can give you a good estimate doing it by hand. First, when butchering, you will be cutting the meat into small chunks. The throat on my big electric is larger than on a hand grinder and if I can fit down the throat, the grinder can gobble it up. The big problem is connective tissue. When I used a hand grinder or even the grinder on the side of my meat saw, too much connective tissue (ligaments and such) would get wrapped around the blade and I couldn't turn it or the belt would slip on the saw grinder and it would back up. So, a lot of the time was in more prep to remove connective tissue. The direct drive geared grinder muscles through that stuff. There is less prep time in addition to less grind time. I can run 10 lbs of meat through the electric in about 5 minutes.

One more consideration is what you plan to produce. Some things like jerky are best with a fine grind. I grind mine with the coarse burger plate first and then mix in seasonings and let it sit over night in the fridge. I then do a second grind with the fine plate. This helps mix the seasonings as well as providing a finer grind. I then run it through the jerky shooter to make strips and then dehydrate. For some products a single coarse grind is fine.

Hand grinder work. Folks have used them for years. They take effort and time. I've been very happy with the purchase of the heavy duty grinder from cabelas. It has served me well. Over the years, I've gone from doing all my butchering with nothing but a knife to having quite the little setup.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[momark]

Thanks Jack for all the good info. It will help in my decision making.

 

[Mortenson]

I've done it, and didn't really care for it. I agree with the KitchenAid attachment. My wife had the mixer already, so the attachment was a no brainer.

This is also what I use. Works okay on a small scale.

 

[Catscratch]

Here is what I was talking about with a hand grinder... not to be confused with one of those little table clamp on things. It's a 32 which I think is the largest readily available grinder. My dad mounted his to a 2x12, mounted a motor to it, then geared it to the right ratio with the pulley sizes. The 2x12 can be sat on any table or surface and is portable for storage and cleaning (we tend to take it to the carwash after a grinding session). It eats meat like crazy and you would be surprised at how big of chunks it swallows.

This isn't the exact one he bought but it's similar. He bought a Amish unit and it has been trouble free for years. Also much cheaper than an electric.

Robot or human?

 

[yoderjac]

Here is what I was talking about with a hand grinder... not to be confused with one of those little table clamp on things. It's a 32 which I think is the largest readily available grinder. My dad mounted his to a 2x12, mounted a motor to it, then geared it to the right ratio with the pulley sizes. The 2x12 can be sat on any table or surface and is portable for storage and cleaning (we tend to take it to the carwash after a grinding session). It eats meat like crazy and you would be surprised at how big of chunks it swallows.

This isn't the exact one he bought but it's similar. He bought a Amish unit and it has been trouble free for years. Also much cheaper than an electric.

Robot or human?

That is functionally equivalent to the one I had on my saw. I found this picture on line that shows the grinder: https://musickauction.hibid.com/lot/58482-37736-70007/central-machinery-10--meat-saw-w--grinder/. I'm sure the size of the motor your attach is a big factor. The motor on my saw runs both the blade and grinder. I would expect the results to be similar.

Of course, Harbor Freight is pretty cheap stuff and I'm sure you could rig up something better yourself for a grinder. I ended up removing the sliding table and adding my own because it did not have enough slide distance. I used a cutting board and drawer slides. I had issues with the blade slipping off and ended up making some mods to correct that. That also allowed me to extend the cutting thickness a bit. When this saw finally dies, I hope to find a used professional sliding table meat saw which would be a lot nicer than the jury rigged one I have now. Having said that, I've butchered a lot of deer with it over the years.

The grinder on it was certainly better than a hand grinder, but the one from Cabela's is night and day better than both.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[breddick]

Honestly even if you're only doing 1-2 deer / year it's worth it to have a good electric grinder. For many years I processed 4-5 deer / year (bulk of meat was made into burger) using a kitchen aid grinder attachment. It got the job done. It wasn't super fast and required the meat pieces to be cut up a little smaller. The mixer motor grunted at times and on a few occasions even let off that burning electrical smell (don't tell my wife). The mixer is still going but I probably did shorten it's life a little?

I'd say if you're only doing 1 (2 max) deer / year the kitchen aid grinder attachment can get the job done. If you're doing more than that then just bite the bullet and get a LEM. I bought a Big bite #8 LEM for about $300 and in hindsight should have just bought one in the beginning. It makes it so much easier. Built like a tank and will grind up anything you can get down the throat. The actual grinding process is literally the fastest part of my processing.

I bet if you did a poll that asked if anyone had ever bought a dedicated grinder (like the LEM) and regretted it... you'd get zero people to say yes.

 

[weekender21]

Does anyone use one? Do they work well enough to grind the occasional deer for burger? I've processed my own deer for quite some time but always had sausage and burger ground at a shop. Due to CWD concerns I'd rather do my own grinding now. I don't kill a deer every year so just wondering if it's worth buying electric. If the manuals work reasonably well I'd just as soon go with one of those.
Thanks, Mark

They work. I used one for several years but the electric sure are nice. If money is tight the manual will definitely work for a deer every year or two. If moneys a non issue the buy a 3/4 HP Cabelas and call it good.


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[momark]

Well, I bought an LEM. Not a high end one since use will be limited. Will try it out in a week or so. Thanks for all the input.

 

[chummer]

Another reason this site is so good. I have a kitchen aide mixer and didn’t know you could turn it into a meat grinder. Hopped on Amazon and I have one coming Tuesday. Summer sausage here I come!