MMMM.. BRISKET..
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Q-talk *ON TOPIC ONLY* QUALITY ON TOPIC discussion of Backyard BBQ, grilling, equipment and outdoor cookin' . ** Other cooking techniques are welcomed for when your cookin' in the kitchen. Post your hints, tips, tricks & techniques, success, failures, but stay on topic and watch for that hijacking.


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Old 05-12-2019, 07:58 AM   #1
Dplorable
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Join Date: 08-13-18
Location: SW Ohio
Name/Nickname : Rick
Default Cheap Meat Grinder

Hello Everyone

Long time lurker here, first post. I bought a cheapo Chinese #22 meat grinder so I could make my own sausage. 50 pounds worth of it so far and this grinder has performed flawlessly, it grinds faster than I can feed it after a proper knife sharpening. Fit, finish and manufacturing tolerances are as expected for a Chinese knockoff. My question is about the tolerances of the knife hub and the square on the auger spindle that drives it. The spindle square measures .490 and the knife hub is .540, a very loose fit. I made some shims that take up almost all of the slack but I decided not to run it until I found out if the tolerances are that sloppy for a reason. Hopefully one of the good folks here has a #22 and a set of calipers but any input will be appreciated.

-Rick
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Old 05-13-2019, 07:53 AM   #2
Zak
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If it's anything like the numerous cheap meat grinder Northern tool sells, then it'll be fine. I wouldnt put any spacers in for fear of one becoming dislodged and ending up in the food. I've had a Northern Tool meat grinder for 15 years and used it a lot. It hasnt let me down yet.
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Old 05-13-2019, 09:15 AM   #3
natashaj
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I've LEM and its working fine. As your requirement is low, you can go with MeyKey one. It's cheap. Your primary task is to make sausages?
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Old 05-13-2019, 01:57 PM   #4
Dplorable
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My grinder is similar to the Northern 1 hp model. I was going to weld the shims to the knife and grind the welds flat, but i decided to not use them after all. After I did a mock fit with contact cement, it occurred to me that there probably needs to be some free floating allowed to compensate for any misalignment and wear. Mine has ALOT of floating so I'll watch it close for abnormal wear.

Sausage will be it's main use, but i am going to grind a brisket just to see what it tastes like and 50/50 beef/bacon burgers are a definite must try!

Thanks to those that replied

-Rick
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Old 05-13-2019, 03:13 PM   #5
Zak
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I actually had to shim the back of the auger since i felt the knife wasnt making adequate contact with the plate. After that, match honing the knife and plate made a big difference. Place the knife on the plate and see if it sits flat on the plate or if there are any gaps, use a flat surface like a piece of thick glass and 200 grit sand paper to sand both smooth. Now just make sure you use the same side of the knife every time since it's now matched to the blade.
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Old 05-14-2019, 11:32 AM   #6
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I had to grind the plate and knife after the first run out of the box, there were tiny burrs on the holes in the plate. Scratched the plate up real good and did a good job boogering the knife up as well. I ground the parts like you did 'cept I used my granite counter and 220, 400, 600 and 1200 paper for a mirror shiny edge. Then I de-burred it with a fine wetstone, sharp enough to shred paper.

Then I bought one of these but haven't used it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acna2xeXMBg

Notice the end of the auger shaft rides in the same abrasive material that grinds the knife.....not good. I bought a bushing 7/16 x 1/2 and secured it in the stone with a dab of RTV. Should be good to go next time I need to sharpen.

-Rick
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Old 05-14-2019, 07:19 PM   #7
mchar69
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Remember in the old days they just used 2 knives against each other.

It works quite well. So you take a knife in your right hand knife, and

another in your Left, and slice across the meat, criss cross as needed.
Easy to do one pound, not so much with 10.
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Old 05-14-2019, 11:13 PM   #8
dward51
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Most augers have a washer at the back. Are you perhaps missing one on the China special? Photos of the auger assembly as laid out like it is ready to put in the grinder horn would help. You have 5/100th or 1/20th of an inch slop which sounds like about what a thin stainless washer would take up (to prevent the auger from rubbing directly on the body of the horn).

The knife should be in direct contact with the back of the grinder plate. Both of my grinders have enough thread left on the plate retention ring that I can over crank it, but the direct contact is where the cutting takes place. You did right by flattening the plate and knife with progressive grits on a sturdy flat surface. Once you get the spacing worked out, it should work even better. You can always shim a loose auger.
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Old 05-16-2019, 05:34 AM   #9
Dplorable
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Plate/knife contact is not the problem, the knife to auger shaft is a sloppy fit. Here is a mock fit of the auger shaft shims. This was a trial fit, the brown gooey gunk is contact cement. I was going to weld them to the knife for the final install but I decided to scrap the entire idea.

Thanx to all for the replies

-Rick
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Old 08-10-2020, 12:17 AM   #10
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I've also bought a cheap meat grinder and it worked very well for a month. But one day we faced a problem that our new grinder started to make some strange noises. Turned out that we can't fix it, so we had to buy a new one.

At that time we decided to read more info about grinders, so we bought ALTRA. And now I can say this machine is AMAZING! I've been using it for a few month and I definitely love it. It's multifunctional, easy to clean and the quality of meat after that is better than we used to buy in the store.
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