Grain grinder seized up mid-sausage run on Friday

I was right in the middle of grinding 50 pounds of pork shoulder for bratwurst around 2 PM when my old grinder just locked up solid. Tried reversing it, tried tapping the auger with a mallet, nothing worked. Had to take the whole thing apart on my countertop with a crescent wrench and found a chunk of frozen cartilage wedged near the blades. Lost about 30 minutes of work time and my wife was not happy about the mess. Anyone else deal with sudden jams like this during a big batch? I'm thinking about upgrading to a bigger motor now.

3 comments

3 Comments

finley_lopez981mo ago

Got a buddy who had his grinder lock up during a deer processing party a couple years back. He was about halfway through a whole deer when the thing just stopped spinning, made this awful crunching noise. Turns out a piece of bone shard had jammed between the auger and the housing, cracked the whole casing a bit. He had to borrow a neighbor's grinder to finish, took him an hour just to get his apart and clean it out. Its a real pain when you're in the middle of a big batch and everything grinds to a halt. Did you find any damage inside when you got it apart?

the_miles1mo ago

That 2 PM timing is brutal, I've had similar failures hit right when you think everything's going smooth. Cartilage and gristle are the worst offenders for jamming up gear, especially if the meat wasn't fully chilled. Glad you didn't crack the housing like the other guy's friend, sounds like you got lucky with just the crescent wrench fix.

val2231mo ago

Honestly, you think chilling it more helps? I've always found that semi-frozen meat actually makes the grinder work harder and gum up faster. Maybe I'm wrong but seems like room temp-ish is the sweet spot for me.