grinder horse power

[cal1956]

its cold enough , i just try to speed things up

 

[pineywoods]

You will notice a difference in HP for sure and I agree go as big as your comfortable with I think many 3/4 hp grinders have a reverse should you ever need it.
I have an old LEM 1.5 hp #32 and it will grind through stuff fast and bigger chunks it grinds pretty much as fast as you can feed it. I think it's rated at like 700 lbs per hour or something crazy like that. We used to process a lot of wild hogs and ground pretty much all of them so the size was nice when you had 10-20 hogs to do. Back then all we made was fresh sausage and doing a second grind was pretty easy as well since the neck is so big.
Now the problem with it is it's real heavy and is a pain to clean I don't usually bother making sausage if I'm not doing at least 100 lbs to make it worth the effort with that grinder.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Like pineywoods we have a 1 1/2 hp grinder...heavy yes! Grind anything I want...yes! But had friends that had one and loved it, so bought one several years ago. Have never been sorry about it either. Runs on 110 volt, only thing I added after 1st use was foot control.

Ryan

 

[cal1956]

i wish that waltons gave more specs for their equipment ,but they seem like nice folks when i talked with them, its going to be a while before i buy so i have time to decide which new grinder to get

 

[indaswamp]

I'm sure someone here on SMF probably has the grinder you are looking to buy and can take pictures of the electrical tags or take measurements for you....if you ask nicely that is.....

 

[cal1956]

now thats an idea ! i really didn't think anyone sold anything on here, i'll ask when its time to buy !!

 

[cal1956]

i think we have made a decision !!
the wife and i were just talking and i think we have decided to buy the walton #12 sometime this winter for the following reasons
(1) HP
(2) volume
(3) it can be coupled to waltons 50lb mixer
(4) it seems like we make more sausage every year
(5) later this year some of our money will be freeing up and that will allow us the extra money to make the investment

 

[rjob]

One item to checkout on the mixer is what is the minimum amount that can be mixed. If you desire to mix 5# or 10# batches mixer might not be capable of small amounts.
Also consider cleanup, that is a big tub will it fit in a standard sink?

 

[cal1956]

we have thought about that and the only time we would be making smaller batches would be test batches and those we will still do by hand
as to the cleanup there is always the garden hose and soapy water haha
and if all else fails we do have a commercial 3 compartment SS sink with drain boards i could set up

 

[Cattoon]

I own the Weston pro series #8. It runs on a regular outlet and is rated at 4-6 lbs a minute 3/4hp. I have done 50+ lbs several times and honestly it takes longer to clean up than grind. I also bought a foot pedal and it is worth the investment in my opinion.

 

[cal1956]

i think what gives this one the edge over the other's of the same size is the attachments that you can buy

 

[Brokenhandle]

Look forward to seeing pics of it in use!

Ryan

 

[cal1956]

it will be sometime around christmas before i have the extra money to buy it and you can bet i'll post pictures of it

 

[cal1956]

i watched a video of the walton # 12 yesterday and the guy put 6 lbs of meat through it in 53 sec. to me thats impressive

 

[cal1956]

after grinding about 30lbs of boston butts this morning i could tell it was getting time to get a new grinder , so the wife and i talked about it and both agreed to pause our sausage making until we bought the new grinder so in about 3 weeks or so look to see pictures of the new grinder when we get it , we are going from a
$ 60.00 machine to a $ 375.00 machine
it will be interesting to see how much difference it makes ....oh and by the way tomorrow
we will be stuffing the meat that we ground and seasoned this morning and i am going to "try" to take pictures of the set up and use of the " dakota water stuffer "so that folks can see for themselves how simple and easy it is to set up and use . i will try to get at least one picture of each step

 

[tbern]

Congrats on your new toy, hope it works great for you!

 

[cal1956]

i just ordered the new walton #12 grinder !!

 

[tbern]

congrats, hope it works well for you!

 

[SCBBQ]

So here is what I do for large batches...

I coarse cut the meat and fat into strips that will fit in the grinder. Chill to below 32*F, then I grind with the largest plate I have, which is the stuffing kidney plate. This cuts the meat into 3/4-1" chunks...perfect for mixing the seasoning and salt. For the smoke sausage- we mix, then hold in the double door refrigerator overnight to allow the meat to chill below 32*F. The next day is final grind through whatever size plate you want. We use a 6mm plate for smoke sausage.

The larger 3/4-1" chunks are a breeze to feed into the grinder and the grinder helps with protein extraction during the grinding process with the meat having already been salted....takes much less mixing to achieve a great bind. Which is another reason why I have no need for a dedicated mixer.....I let the grinder do most of the work for me.

Good idea - I'm going to try this on my next batch- thanks for the tip..

Question - do you add culture, wine etc the night before as well or after the final grind?

 

[indaswamp]

Good idea - I'm going to try this on my next batch- thanks for the tip..

Question - do you add culture, wine etc the night before as well or after the final grind?

After final grind... You do not want to put the culture back in cold temperatures after you defrost it.

And I only grind thru the kidney plate for fresh and smoke sausages, not salami.