Meat grinders

With all the talk of butchering hogs and what not, I would like to know everyone’s opinions on some of the options available. Found a Sixinternational on amazon for $200, 4.5 stars out of 586. Or there’s the Cabelas carnivore commercial .5 hp for $349.99 or can jump up to .75 hp for $399. What say you?

Really depends on what you plan to do with it. If only a handful of deer and hogs through the year, I'd probably go with the Amazon one. But careful, someone is going to come along and tell you that if you don't spend an entire paycheck on a grinder it's not worth having.

Have had real good luck and service with our LEM grinder. Not sure the HP but it has the #32 head on it. Will grind as fast as you can feed it. Their customer service is really good too

i bought one from cabelas 12-15 years ago . i am very happy with it.

X2 on lem.... borrowed 32 from friend as somehow the nut on my homemade one got lost....... man it ground as fast as ya could throw it... super easy clean up.
dont think ya need a 32 but it sure is nice

I have a 12 and a 22. The 12 gets used way more than the 22. The 22 is almost to big. A few years a go we ground up a old holstein, weighed about 1300. 3 people deboning meat couldn't keep up with the grinder. If I am grinding less than 30 or 40lbs of meat the little one works just fine.

I have the one horse power from cabellas with the #22 head on it.It will take anything I throw at it.I make 800 lbs of pork Italian sausage every year,,grind four or five deer through it and ALWAYS grind my own burger.Very happy with it.

I am looking to get me another one also. I have a lem #8 .5 horse now it works pretty well but when I grind 2 or 3 deer at once it will start to get hot and gets kinda loud. I think I will jump up to a .75 horse and try it. I do over 10 deer a year and will be doing a few beef and hogs as well now. I am going to keep the lem and see what it take to burn it up. I still have the 79 dollar lem that I got at orscheln farm store over 10 years ago. It still grinds just fine but it got retired to trapping bait and stuff

I'm still using a grinder attachment on a Kitchenaid mixer, and it's working fine for my purposes. I butcher a hog every year (2 this year) and I make.my sausage about 5 pounds at a time. With my helper (6 year old boy) feeding strips though as I slice chunks up, I can do an entire batch in a couple minutes. I'd like to get a better grinder, but the Kitchenaid thing is working fine for now. Get a good stand alone stuffer if you want to make links though. I just got a LEM stuffer and it rocks.

Depends entirely on what you hope to grind. I make various types of sausage in 10 to 12 pound batches......a couple pork butts. I use a 50 year old Enterprise #5 hand crank grinder I got off ebay for $30. Takes less time to grind that much than it does to bone out the pork butts and cut it up to grind it.

I would not do a whole hog or deer with it, however.

mine is a 12. will grind about 2 pounds a minute. that includes taking the stuff that wraps around the cutter off every once in a while. i never grind more than a hundred pounds and that only when grinding a bunch of deer meat. for me being able to grind up a hundred pounds in an hour is plenty fast enough. cleanup is easy. i take it apart and give the pieces to my wife but even when i cant get out of clean up its fast and easy except for the plates. i use a toothpick to poke meat out of the holes. that takes a couple minutes.

I have an LEM #22 and I love it. However, I am thinking about buying a smaller Cabela's carnivore to help with smaller batches and take advantage of the readily available attachments, and if would run my cabela's meat mixer. Stay away from the $100 type with plastic gears unless you aren't planning on using it after the first time.

I've been running a Cabelas 1/2 horse for about 15 years. It does everything I've asked of it and makes short work of elk and deer that I usually process by myself.

That said, if buying a new one was on the table. I would go up two sizes. You don't need bigger to process anything and I wouldn't be afraid to tackle the neighbors cow with mine. But a bigger grinder means being able to throw bigger chunks down the throat. Bigger cubes down the throat means less knife work. That by itself would be worth an extra $100-200 in up front costs.

I run an LEM big bite #12 3/4 horse

LEM has been around a while and keeps stocking parts if you need plates or cutters ect.

perfect for deer grind deers worth of meat in 10 minutes or so

leaving senue on the meat it needs to get the knife cleaned out about every deer. unplug and it takes 2 minute , then ready to grind the next deer

Got the cheapo from Cabelas 20 years ago for I think it was around $100. Don't recall the name on it but I do anywhere from 5 to 10 deer per year with no issues.

Danny I’ve taken a page from Scott Philips , run some bread through it when finished grinding . It will push all but the most stubborn pieces of meat out and the bread dissolves in water .

i will try that. thanks

It works

There once was a seller in Oregon called GrinderGuy.com. They offered free freight. I bought a 1 hp model from him and had it shipped to Hatteras NC. It weighed 72 lbs. that was about 15 years ago and it is still going strong. Only problem I ever had was my fault. I aged several deer for three weeks and ground them with the smallest plate. Turned out mushy.

Also have a Cabelas 1/2 hp that I purchased in 2005 I think. Process 2-3 deer a year and it’s fine for that. Still working

Jayme: I am trying to eat a late lunch. I can't watch that video and eat at the same time, though!

Chris

Wow. A belt tensioner would make the operation a bit more efficient.

I have one, its a mallet.

LEM #22 BIG BITE GRINDER

I also have a cabela's #8 for probably 20 years it's worked well. I bought a LEM big bite #22. No comparison. Many say you dont need one that big(I wanted a #32) but when you can double grind in less than 1/2 the time including clean up it's a no brainer

Years ago I bought an old Hobart #12 on EBay. Ground piles of meat with that thing. A few years back I upgraded to a Biro 3 HP #32 single phase. The Biro will flat eat meat but overkill for small amounts. I still have the Hobart and break it out when doing small sausage batches. The old Hobarts can be found for similar money as the Cabelas stuff if you shop and aren’t worried about cosmetics.

Same model I use. Mainly for venison grinding and have no issues whatsoever. Even the silver lining and sinew that tends to bind up smaller grinders is no big deal.

Chris

garden hose squirts the meat right out of the plate.

Love my Cabelas meat grinder.

I went ahead and ordered one from Cabelas today. It’s the .75 hp grinder, it should be here Friday. And we might just pick up a couple hogs Friday morning to try it out on

MIchael I bought that same grinder this last winter. You won't be disappointed, that grinder is a beast !

LEM #22 BIG BITE GRINDER.i got one of these too. also a #32 homemade rig like adc has. no comparison . lem by far.

Ive got a 1hp cabelas I got for $100 at a garage sale , and love it . It has forward and reverse . I dont use it much anymore i acquired a 5hp 32 butcher boy that is amazing . . Its surprising how easy it cleans and how )ittle gets wrapped around the knife. The grinder part fits in the dishwasher . Ive sent beaver pelvises through a 1/4 plate the best part is i only have $250 in it

Guys I call BS on the bread thing to clean them out! I tried it once and had more trouble getting out the "dough" than anything I had ever ran through it. If it works that well, what did I do wrong?

The bread always works pretty good for me. Run 3 or 4 slices of bread thru and it cleans much easier. IMO

Yup,I just pull it apart and toss whats in there to my beagle.

Try running ice cubes if the bread dosnt work well enough for you . The hollow ones will go through every one ive had . The big home made ice cubes might not go through the little ones

Secret do good grinding is COLD meat.I always put the tub of meat in my chest freezer for at least 1/2 hour before I grind it.An hour is even better.

3/4hp LEM big bite. Rips through the meat.

Hey Jayme, what rpm's is that grinder at that your using, looks like you are going direct from motor to grinder???

PS, you grind like a girl.


If I were gonna buy a new grinder I think it'd be a lem. They seem awesome and have a lot of cool attachments. That one for doing tomatoes is cool!!

Its direct and I have no idea how many RPMs. It is just an old furnace blower motor, 3/4hp. I doubt a sissy like you could handle it.

Air compressor with the blower nozzle works great for cleaning the holes. We used wire and a pencil for years and someone suggested the air hose. It worked so well we have done it with the air hose ever sense.

Mine is direct drive, no belt. Get hot on the inside if run a long time.

Lem 22, makes a moose worth of burger in like 1 hr....it's da bomb

Whats the diameter of each pulley??

That motor is most likely a 1760 rpm

The reason I ask was I'm building one now and ran into a problem finding the pillow block shaft and pulley assembly. I have everything else and figured on going from 1725 rpm's to 135.

old with a older one they are built to last

if you can get a deers tongue started into onew of these it'll suck the rest of him in i swear.

its date say 1913 it's a 1/4 horse

quarter horse is how much ya can fit in at a time.

The pulley on the motor is 2" and the pulley on the grinder is 12" I believe... https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200449763_200449763

Turn it on and stand there and count the rpm's.

https://www.zoro.com/tb-woods-v-bel...T6oi26QIVkIzICh15dgaSEAQYBSABEgLMDPD_BwE

Hush, the men are talking here.

i checked what i thought was 3 old hand meat grinders after seeing a juicer on the shed and realized i have a juicer,a bread crumber,and a fancy suction cup to the table thingy lookin 60's like.

Thanks for looking. I found one and have the big pulley for it. I maybe should start another thread cause I can't find the pillow block assembly I need. It's left me with a pretzel in my head.

theres more stored around here yet.the one that suction cups to the table top looks like a good grinder other than the stick to the table top option.h.d.for a cranker.may play with it.

the grinder gutterbrain.

Well, dag on, Jayme went and did it again. Every time this guy has the answers or the deals. I just found everything I needed on that site, Thanks man!

Fresh bread (moist) does not work very well as it clogs and sticks to the plate worse than the meat. The trick is to use old stale bread or just lightly toast the bread a little then run it through the grinder. Works very well for me.

I have a Cabela's brand that I purchased 10 years ago. I grind at least 5 deer and a hog a year with it and am very pleased. It is also nice that they now have some Cabelas stores in Texas now and one is only about 2 hours away so if I needed a part I could get it relatively easily.

I was so impressed with Cabela's meat grinder brand that this past year I purchased one of their Commercial Grade vacuum sealers and I am very happy with it as well. I definitely would buy another one. Chancey

if dry bread works best it has me wondering how a handful or two of rice would do

I may have to give that a try next time I grind

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I have the Cabelas half horse and it's done everything I've asked of it. However looking at that LEM DOUBLE GRIND, I'm really tempted to upgrade. Running the burger through twice improves the burger and honestly the second pass is a lot more work than the first.
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made some beaver snack sticks the other day. tried the ice cubes. worked great! recipe calls for 2 cups of water anyway, I just added it in frozen form!