I bought a meat grinder (fingers crossed)

[DaveB]

Okay, after the last session with the Wife's Kitchen Aid mixer and its grinding attachment, I realized I needed a real meat grinder. So I go shopping. BPS has some stuff, name brand LEM, quite expensive and one no name I never heard of that had the muscle to cruch cheerios, maybe. So to the Web I go.

Looks to me like grinders come in many sizes and with various attachments. Being a believer that horsepower can fix many ills, I started looking at the more powerful ones. One of them was remarkably less expensive and the reviews were, if you can believe them and I never do, failry objective. The machine has warts, but it does the job. So I bit the hook and ordered.
Package arrived Tuesday afternoon. Well packed. In one piece. A huge one piece. 3 size grinding plates. a sausage thing.
2000 watt, 2.5 horse motor. Fit is okay, noise is a bit loud but not bad...

Here are internals, the AA battery is to give you an idea of the size.

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The actual machine.....10 inches tall, 6 wide, a foot long,

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In my hands, less than $70.00 and why? See if you can figure it out......

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I have 40 pounds of venison defrosting right now. Tomorrow we will see if I bought a joke or got a bargain thanks to the cover being engraved incorrectly, it is not a decal.

 

[duckriver]

That's a deal right there!

 

[Southpaw]

I would be surprised if that really has a 2-1/2 hp motor. Usually a 1-1/2 will run you over $700. Good luck with it and I hope it serves you well.

 

[280longshot]

Let me know how it works

 

[BigPete357]

tip:

don't defrost your meat all the way. just get it thawed to the point where it is flexible enough to feed through the auger.

...and keep fire extinguisher close by.

Good luck, I am sure you will be fine.

 

[DaveB]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

OK, Field Test Evaluation:
1) Grinds meat with no problems. You feed it, it grinds it. I only ran it half speed. No heat in the unit at all.
2) Kind of noisy.
3) Seems to me that any silver skin not removed gets trapped at the grate-doesn't seem to slow anything down.
4) when you are done, there is less than 1/4 pound to remove from the cutting blade area (I discarded it).
5) Cleaning the grate is a pain but what you are cleaning is silver skin so I considered it a plus.


All in all, a great buy at the price. Fit is a little shaky but pieces aren't falling off. It is noisy but it really does seem to be industrial strength. I took all of the trimmings and ground them up-normaly this would hit the trash. Silver skin was trapped at the grate & a lot of the fat attached itself to the screw. By a lot I mean I had a lot of very clean white fat which I scraped right off, no trouble at all.

My only concern is a backup cutting blade and I will pursue that soon.

 

[archer19]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

Link where ordered from?

 

[280longshot]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

Found them on ebay

 

[280longshot]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

http://m.ebay.com/itm/201007077328?nav=SEARCH&sbk=1

 

[FULLDRAWXX75]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

OK, Field Test Evaluation:
1) Grinds meat with no problems. You feed it, it grinds it. I only ran it half speed. No heat in the unit at all.
2) Kind of noisy.
3) Seems to me that any silver skin not removed gets trapped at the grate-doesn't seem to slow anything down.
4) when you are done, there is less than 1/4 pound to remove from the cutting blade area (I discarded it).
5) Cleaning the grate is a pain but what you are cleaning is silver skin so I considered it a plus.


All in all, a great buy at the price. Fit is a little shaky but pieces aren't falling off. It is noisy but it really does seem to be industrial strength. I took all of the trimmings and ground them up-normaly this would hit the trash. Silver skin was trapped at the grate & a lot of the fat attached itself to the screw. By a lot I mean I had a lot of very clean white fat which I scraped right off, no trouble at all.

My only concern is a backup cutting blade and I will pursue that soon.

DaveB,

Easy way to clean the grinder plates after, soak in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes, the stuff falls right off with little effort.
Also, go purchase a baby bottle brush for cleaning the inside throat of the grinder and the screw, it works great.

FDXX75

 

[feathersandfur2214]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

I have saw these and was wondering how well they would work. I need one to process a couple deer a year and maybe grind some sausage.

 

[Inkstainz]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

Thanks for the info on the froce

 

[downwind]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

gander mountain in Jackson had a couple models on sale I think 50% off last night when I was there, really thought hard about getting the real heavy duty one that was originally close to $500 grinds 9lbs a min. but talked myself into just keep on using my little old one.

 

[DaveB]

Re: I bought a meat grinder Update!!!!!

More follow up.
fully defrosted or partially, this grinder did not seem to care. Pass 1 was amazing and Pass 2 even more so. Seems as if what silver skin got through the first time was caught the second time. I mixed a 1 to 4 ratio of pork sausage to venison and ran it through twice using the fine grate and then made burgers. Came out really good and I did not use hardly any spices at all.

It is noisy, the upper tray seems to have been an afterthought, and the grinding part is not 90 degrees up and down. At the price it seems to me to be a great bargain. Now I need to determine longevity and can I find a spare cutting blade.

 

[Vermin93]

Interesting. That looks like it might be an older version of the STX Turbo Force grinder. Either that or it could be a copy cat version (hence, the misspelling on the outer cover). Something is strange because I Googled "Turbo Force 2000" and didn't find any mention of it on the internet and it isn't for sale anywhere except on ebay. The current version (Turbo Force 3000), is widely mentioned on the internet and is available here:

STX INTERNATIONAL STX-3000-TF

3 SPEED TURBOFORCE 3000 SERIES

STX TURBOFORCE 3000 SERIES ELECTRIC MEAT GRINDER

My mom got the Turbo Force 3000 a few months ago. I ran a doe through it in November. It's as loud as a jet engine, but it performed well. It comes with fine, medium and course grinding plates, which is nice. Also, it's a #12 size grinder, which I'm pretty sure is the most popular size for home grinding. The output capacity of #12 grinders is good and it's also easy to find additional or replacement grinding plates, knives and stuffing attachments.

It does not perform as well and is not as well made as my Cabela's grinder, but it is also less than half the price. Since we have only used the Turbo Force 3000 a few times it's way too early to tell how durable it will be, but so far I've been pretty impressed with it. I would recommend it to someone who's looking for a grinder under $200 to use for home processing. They also make an "air cooled" model which costs more. They claim the air cooled feature will prolong the life of the motor. I'm not sure what that implies about the non-air cooled model.

Assuming it's not some Chinese counterfeit grinder, that "Turbo Froce 2000" seems pretty appealing at less than half the price of the Turbo Force 3000. I'm interested to see how it performs for you over time.