Snack sticks on motorized stuffer

[wesir]

Anyone do 17-19mm snack sticks on a motorized stuffer? I recently ordered a Lem 20lb motorized stuffer and when I got it I found out that the smallest stuffing tube that it came with requires you to manually feed 17-19mm casings on by hand. On my previous stuffer I had a tube that allowed the casings to just slide on without issue but lem decided to make this one's stuffing tubes 2" instead of 2 1/16 so it doesn't fit. Anyone found a solution?

 

[Jeff Wright]

Dang. Just looked up these stuffers. Serious machine. Takes a lot of sticks to recoup that price! My want list grows faster than my paychecks!!!

 

[tallbm]

Anyone do 17-19mm snack sticks on a motorized stuffer? I recently ordered a Lem 20lb motorized stuffer and when I got it I found out that the smallest stuffing tube that it came with requires you to manually feed 17-19mm casings on by hand. On my previous stuffer I had a tube that allowed the casings to just slide on without issue but lem decided to make this one's stuffing tubes 2" instead of 2 1/16 so it doesn't fit. Anyone found a solution?

Hi there and welcome!

So the casing is a little too large for the tube?
I don't do snack sticks but I find that when doing sausage that having a tube smaller than the casing is usually a good thing. It is easier to feed the casing as it doesn't want to stick to the tube as much this way.
If this is the case than you might be ok and it might be an advantage for you :)

 

[dward51]

What size is the base of the tubes that fit that stuffer? There is a seller on e-Bay who sells 9mm stainless tubes for both the 1 9/16" and 2 1/16" based units. I have one of his 9mm tubes for my 5 lb stuffer. I have to go slow as that is a lot of force on the meat to squeeze in that little opening, but it does work. Not sure how well it will work with a motorized stuffer though. Can you adjust the speed to slow it down? I've done 17mm casings with mine but I prefer the 19 to 21mm casings for ease of stuffing. Those will fit the standard LEM 3/8" stainless tube. But the 17-19mm will not.

Ok, I went and looked at the LEM website. That is a beast of a stuffer. It does have a variable speed control though. It looks like the 2 1/16" tube base model also, but I would verify that before ordering a tube. One other thing I would point out on using a 9mm tube (with my 5 lb stuffer). The meat is under a good bit of pressure as basically you are forcing a meat "slug" the diameter of the stuffer into that little 9mm home in the tube. So when I stop cranking (slow as I do crank), the meat flow continues unless I back the crank and plunger up. I don't know if you could effectively do this with an electric model and you would likely just have to wait for the pressure to stop flowing meat.

But nice stuffer!!!!!

 

[wesir]

What size is the base of the tubes that fit that stuffer?

The base is unfortunately 2" diameter so the 2 1/16 size tube that I got from smokehouse chef for my old Vivo 10lb manual won't even fit in the ring that screws onto the stuffer. The batch of snack sticks I did in 17mm casings over the weekend required me to feed the casings on inch by inch which made it take twice as long since I could only fit maybe 2 feet of casing on before I had to stop.

I'm going to give it another try with 19mm casings this weekend (which also require manual feeding) and if it's still a complete pain I might look into returning it and getting one that does what I want out of the box, having a 20lb hopper doesn't mean much if you can only fit 1-2lb of casing on before you have to stop what you're doing and re-feed it.

 

[dward51]

Well that sucks.....

Is there enough of a lip on the base of the 2 1/16" tube to maybe grind it down in diameter a little? You are only talking about 1/32" on each size, so I would think it could be done. Best way to do it would be to chuck the tube into a lathe or even a drill press if it will fit the chuck (using the tube outlet). Then at a low speed hold a sanding block against the edge of that flange and check your progress often. Should not take a lot of work to get 1/16" off and doing it while rotating will make sure it stays round and the removal will be even all around the base.

Just a thought....

 

[wesir]

Well that sucks.....

Is there enough of a lip on the base of the 2 1/16" tube to maybe grind it down in diameter a little? You are only talking about 1/32" on each size, so I would think it could be done. Best way to do it would be to chuck the tube into a lathe or even a drill press if it will fit the chuck (using the tube outlet). Then at a low speed hold a sanding block against the edge of that flange and check your progress often. Should not take a lot of work to get 1/16" off and doing it while rotating will make sure it stays round and the removal will be even all around the base.

Just a thought....

Yea, I might look into that, only problem is that I gave the stuffing tube to a coworker when I sold him the stuffer so I would have to buy a new one. :(

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I do 15mm collagen casing with my 5lb LEM and a 3/8" OD Tube. Very hard to stuff when the meat is cold.
If you do smaller OD size tubes let your meat rest in the stuffing canister for and hour before you stuff.
No you wont die.

 

[dward51]

Wesir, Let me point out something to be aware of when buying a 3/8" stuffing tube as you seem to possibly be in the market for one.

LEM markets what they describe as a 3/8" stuffing tube. I'm pretty sure LEM has them for both the 1 9/16" base and the 2 1/16" base stuffers (or is it 2 1/8"?). My observation the LEM tubes must be 3/8" INSIDE DIAMETER as the outside diameter of the tube is larger than that. There are others such as the sellers "smokehouse.chef" and "butcher-baker" on Ebay who sell a 3/8" OUTER DIAMETER (or 9mm) stainless steel stuffing tube that will handle the smaller casings much better than the LEM 3/8" INNER DIAMETER tubes. The only place I have seen the true 3/8" OUTER DIAMETER tubes is on Ebay, but I have searched for them lately as I bought mine in 2016 (for my Kitchener 5lb stuffer with the 1 9/16" base tubes). They have them for both 1 9/16" base and 2 1/16" base stuffers on Ebay.

So basically the devil is in the details and a '3/8" tube' is not always the same diameter. You want to find one of those 3/8" or 9mm OUTER DIAMETER tubes for the smaller stick casings.

Here is proof. The LEM 3/8" tube is on the left (the 3/8" INNER DIAMETER tube), and the Ebay 3/8" OUTER DIAMETER tube I bought on the right (both sitting on the LEM product backing card). You can clearly see what I'm talking about.