OMG!!!!!!!!
So you took it to the store in Horseheads?
That's about 2 miles from my house (as the crow flies.)
I'm not going to publically say what I think about the manager there.....other than he's a [BIG QUOTES] "nice guy." COUGH!!!!!!!!
Anyway....
This is what they officially have to say about those junk gears ....which is nothing but a BS sales pitch.......
"Metal gears on the 5 lb. vertical stuffer is a sensitive subject here because there really are misperceptions out there. We have tested several samples of metal gears for 5 lb stuffers and wanted to take our stuffers along that route, but after testing them we decided they are a BAD idea for our customers. Here are the reasons why:
(1.) They WILL flake metal shavings. No getting around this one - tiny metal filings will be coming off them.
(2.) There is literally no 'give' to them, when you have increased back-pressure usually when stuffing small diameter sausage sticks or small breakfast links those gears got locked up for us constantly.
(3.) They are a gimmick more than anything practical. Metal gears are actually CHEAPER than our Lubricomp Resin Gears. We get calls all the time from customers that have the metal gears. We don't want to replace something good with a gimmick. Lubricomp is no 'chinsy' plastic.
(4.) Our gears are made using our own mold by skilled plastics-tooling professionals here. The 'other guys' don't want to fork over the dough for a quality plastic mold so they buy inferior metal gears from another supplier not in this country."
Take that for what it's worth.
~Martin