foot switch for grinder

[ATI]

Smart is right

That made me laugh too... I understand where he comes from

[Smart]

There was a 2 HP in the bargain Cave for $599 for several months... I even picked it up and put it in a shopping cart once and then changed my mind on the way to the cash register,,, that thing was a MOSTER....

Niiice! I be that thing would eat .....and stuff!!



When they changed over the Cabelas grinders to these new big mouths 4-5 years ago, the older style 1HPs like I already had were $197 on clearance. I think I got three for folks that had me running around picking them up in Allen. I wish I would have picked up another one just as a backup for the one I already owned. If anything, like you said, I won't run across that anymore plus I could run two here on our 400lbs plus days..

[bigchiefj]

I prefer the "power maintained" over the momentary for grinding. I have both switches and mainly use the momentary with some power tools for safety.

I think HF is pretty good about returns if you're not satisfied.

[ATI]

I don't know the difference between Monetary and Maintained.... Anyone care to elaborate?

[Smart]

I don't know the difference between Monetary and Maintained.... Anyone care to elaborate?

Momentary - put foot on its on, take foot off its off


Maintained - turn on with a press, turn off with a press.


I like the momentary for the safety aspect and you don't have to go fish for a pedal if a casing breaks to turn off....just lift up and its off.....but that's just my preference. Either is fine

[SwampRabbit]

Smart is right

If you use the extension on the grinder you will quit using a stuffer. Nothing is faster and easier than a grinder with the extension and a foot pedal.


You can use a kidney plate and add cheese to the sausage without chopping it all up. The plate works for boudin too

Smart is extremely knowledgeable about processing, and I definitely listen and have learned a ton from him on here about cold smoking, smoking, (love my thermo-pop!), pulled pork, etc.

There isn't really a "right" or "wrong"... well scratch that... I have seen plenty of "WRONG" but you get my drift. For everything there is a tradeoff. For my grinder, there is no way it would run faster than my stuffer in stuffing casings. At the time, LEM didn't have an auger extender... and I could see how that would help... and I wish there was something that made the 2" bag stuffer have that extra auger in it... might have to rig something.

My complaint with the grinder for stuffing is cramming the meat down the hole. The hole is probably larger on bigger grinders and less of an issue. I bought and restored a vintage 8 quart stuffer but have not used it yet.

When using a grinder to stuff... you have to cram meat into the auger and create the back pressure... you have to run the auger.. you have to control the casing fill rate (how much casing you let flow off the tube) and you have to ensure the stuffed sausage lays out on the table.

Although it requires an extra thing to clean - and you have to fill it (which is no different than feeding the grinder...) I much prefer the one person approach to the stuffer in controlling the flow rate of the meat and the casing by one person. The crank controls the speed and provides the back pressure. This means I can do it single handed.

When there are two people, it isn't so bad with the grinder.

Yeah I have the 1 HP so that is probably makes a difference. This is the auger extension I was referring to below. I leave the star/T out as well. We do 300-400 lbs at a time so that little extension makes quick work of it and as you can see in the last picture the coarse integrity of the grind is kept in the casings so its not like hotdog sausage.

Yep... I don't like anything breaking up the cheese or rice or whatever... I bet your grinder/auger doesn't do that as bad as a #8 grinder... just because the plate opening is bigger and there is more room in the auger/tube.

I see how you situated the grinder for stuffing, so that the output sits at table level... We stuff in the kitchen and I had thought about getting/building stand that would offset it for stuffing... and I'd have to do that if I didn't have the crank stuffer.

but I do notice you have 3 people helping you With the manual stuffer, it isn't so bad to create a coil with just me... although I admit... my beautiful wife usually coils it, and twists the links as I put on another casing and start another set of links.

I'll admit... with lots of help and stuffing 100s of pounds of sausage in one sitting... your setup is more efficient.

I would be curious though... if it was just you... and no help... you had to feed the grinder, man the foot switch, and coil the result... do you think the grinder would still be easier?

80% of the time, I have a helper... but in the other 20% of the time, I couldn't see doing it with the grinder.

[SwampRabbit]

When you look back and realize you wrote WAY to much stuff on a thread about a foot pedal....

[LeanMachine]

Ive seen folks use a lazy susan to coil the sausage solo. Seemed pretty clutch.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Smart]

I would be curious though... if it was just you... and no help... you had to feed the grinder, man the foot switch, and coil the result... do you think the grinder would still be easier?

80% of the time, I have a helper... but in the other 20% of the time, I couldn't see doing it with the grinder.

Sure but I would never do it by myself....Don't need to. That is part of the fun of making it....the gathering. I can stuff and coil on my own....and my wife can run the feed if I lost all my friends who deer hunt and want to make it with us.....but alone would not work. There is no shortage of folks on TBH or fellow deer hunters who want to come learn or make it either.....so much so that I have entertained making a larger smokehouse to cut it to one weekend instead of two weekends for Casa de Smart..

That being said...for somebody that did everything by themselves for tiny batches, sure there are more efficient ways from a labor and practicality sense...but I have cranked on many a stuffer with those big amounts and swore I'd never go back to them. I went from stuffing off a Hobart style grinder with Breezy, his family and my family when I was younger to using a crank stuffer up here because I didn't want to spend the money on a big grinder with my friends. Was not a fan of the hand crank. I eventually burned my little Northern Tool Grinder up, my buddy kept his stuffer housed and I used that opportunity to make myself buy one big enough to stuff on so our arms didn't look like Popeyes after a long day of cranking.

[Smart]

When you look back and realize you wrote WAY to much stuff on a thread about a foot pedal....

Raises hand too....and was thinking that exact thing while I was typing before I read this post..

[SwampRabbit]

I wish!!! Just getting everybody out at the lease at the same time took a miracle of God... trying to get everybody to come over for a sausage making get-together, which would be awesome... would fail miserably...

Seems all my consistent hunting buddies... we all live on different corners of the state!

[ATI]

We used to get together with Jason ("Smart") and a few others and make sausage and hunter's sticks. some of the best times ever, but it fell apart. I bought a grinder, a scale and a 20# stuffer for that event and ended up not using them as much and sold them. Now I have a grinder again and plan on making sausage again,,, just wish I could get enough hunters to join and make a fun and productive annual event.

[Smart]

I wish!!! Just getting everybody out at the lease at the same time took a miracle of God... trying to get everybody to come over for a sausage making get-together, which would be awesome... would fail miserably...

LMAO...It does take an act of God but I start in early January trying to get a date set. It has left some folks out when we get a good date but we have to have good cool/cold dry weather to get it done.. We are at the mercy of the weather and folks that make it know that. The good thing is January and Feb are before all the weekend kids sports/activities start to fire up heavily and hunting season has slowed down for most,.... so my group is pretty flexible then.


That being said I have had a year or two where we just couldn't make it happen and I made it all in to bacon burger and jerky..

[Duane]

Last year was the first time I used a momentary foot pedal (Cabelas). Not sure how I managed before without it.

[hunting270]

I have one and it works great.