****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
If you're considering purchasing this meat grinder you are probably going through a similar thought process as I did: Should I buy a cheap electric grinder and worry about it wearing out quickly, or do I purchase this old trusty hand grinder to get me through a fall or two of hunting and save up for a quality electric grinder? Well as you can tell by me writing a review of this grinder, I decided on the latter option.When considering the purchase of this grinder you'll need to be realistic as to what to expect. You're not going to be able to easily grind through hundreds of pounds of meat quickly and without hard work. Hand grinding meat is not a fun thing. But if you are willing to put in the time to save a few bucks, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this product or any of the other sizes of Weston meat grinders to you. Just be realistic about the amount of meat you're going to attempt to grind. If it's under 15 lbs you can probably handle it in an afternoon.As far as build quality goes on this grinder, there's really nothing wrong with it. Everything worked very smoothly for me this fall and nothing at all broke. The parts are cast and seem very strong. The carbon steel blade stayed sharp through the entirety of my 30+ pounds of meat that it ground. It cuts through meat easily without too much pressure needed on the handle, but realize that you'll need to turn the handle 1-2 gazillion times in order to get the job done.Since I was grinding venison and it tends to be sinewy and tough, I didn't use the smaller grinding plate on my grind at all. I just ran it through the larger plate twice. This doesn't seem to be detrimental at all to the quality of the burger that I got out of it. However, if you're grinding pork or beef, I could see running it through a smaller plate being beneficial for a fine grind.The one problem that we ran into while grinding this fall is that the deer tallow ends up building up in the auger channel, filling up the slots cut in the sides which help the auger push the meat through to the cutter. This was a simple fix, as we just disassembled the grinder (this only takes a minute or less) and scraped out the fat in the channels. This was required 3 times during our 30 pounds of grind, so if you're grinding less than 10 pounds I don't think I'd worry about that as much. HOWEVER, it could get worse with a fattier meat like beef or pork. Your mileage may vary with that.All in all, I would definitely recommend this grinder to anyone that's budget conscious that is willing to put in a bit of work for their ground meat. This would also be a great choice for a chef needing to make a few sausages or a couple of pounds of ground meat of any kind. It will zip through that job with minimal effort.I just received the #10 model today. After opening the box and examining the product, it's being returned untested. Even before ordering, I knew this products biggest positive trait would be it's price.. what I had not counted on, was the incredible list of shortcomings that make this thing completely valueless in my mind. It's so badly and carelessly manufactured, that it's most high quality piece is the box it comes in.To be fair, it's cheap and it may actually serve it's intended purpose (grinding meat). I don't know. I refuse to try. But hence the two stars.Pros1. Price.2. Nice size for a home kitchen. Not overkill, but not so tiny it will only grind nuts and crackers.3. Did I mention the nice box it came in.4. They throw in some niceties like the sausage stuffers5. Affordable low cost6. The dies actually seem chunky. Don't know if they're true with the knife. Didn't try.7. Nice heavy chunk of cast iron so it should have some salvage value.8. Did I mention this thing is cheaper than a post convention Reno hooke...never mind. It's inexpensive.The Negatives1. Careless, shoddy, indifferent manufacturing standards. The casting is rough. The seams are prominent and uneven. There has been no effort to polish the casting. They just tin what comes out of the mold. Much rougher than Lodge cast iron. Nothing but bad here.2. Poor tolerances. The retaining ring seems to fit okay on this one, but the dye is very tight on the auger. Difficult to assemble. Almost impossible to disassemble. The other end of the auger is too large for the handle. If would not assemble with just a dry fit and pressure. It may fit with a lubricant, maybe. But then would it comes apart? I have nothing bad to say about the retaining screw and the thread in the auger. I didn't try it. It did look a little rough and messy. The.screw on the bottom clamp turned well. The auger rubs on something when it's turned. Lubrication would probably abate this, but again its another sign of sloppy cost effective indifference. Also, as rough is the inside of the housing is, getting it clean could be a nightmare3. The tin coating is downright scary. It doesn't help that it's doing it's best to cover up rough casting with unground seams, but it's flaking off in my hands. Maybe it's just the loose stuff from the manufacturing. Maybe it will continue to flake, expose the bare iron underneath, and it will start to rust faster than a 1977 VW Rabbit Diesel. ( go ahead, ask me how I know ). Or maybe it gets in the food, and theres lead or Mercury in it because China is not exactly a bastion of manufacturing safeguards, but I digress...4,. The dyes may be nicely machined and chunky, but the knife looks like it was forged by a chimpanzee on its first day as a blacksmith.5. The Soviet made grinder I inherited from Grandma is way nicer. It's a #5 so it's a little small for my needs and the knife is dull, but let me repeat, 1970s product manufactured in the USSR, used for 40 years, and abused for much of them inspires more confidence.Other than that, it seems okay.My only real complaint with this item is it is difficult to get it to latch on to things the clamp doesn't go out far enough I could not attach this to my counter at all and it wasn't friendly with the design of my kitchen table I actually end up having to modify my kitchen table a little bit to get this to attached to it but it works pretty well I mean you know it takes elbow grease to work it but if you don't want an electric one or if you want it you know take it out in the woods or some such I'm sure it would be just fine no complaints on my end other than the other clamp could be a bit betterThis product was not what I was expecting. Nothing in it is stainless steal which greatly concerns me when dealing with meats. Obviously when I took it out of the box to wash everything for the first time before use, the unit in many places began to oxidize rapidly (inherit nature of cast iron), especially the cutter and the extruder plates. Anyways just wanted to express my experiences on the product, hopefully the manufacturer reads this and improves on the coatings or switch the bare finish components to something more resistant and sanitary to oxidation.This product is garbage. Do not waste your money.Second time I tried to use it, when I tightened it to the table, it snapped in two. The attached picture is self explanatory.Buy something else would be my recommendation.I hand washed it with soap and water. The blades immediately started to rust and the extrusion plates looked like they sat in a vat of acid for a day. I scrubbed the rust off with a scouring pad, oiled all the pieces with vegetable oil and stashed it for when I had some meat to grind.Today I HAND TIGHTENED it to the counter and heard a loud pop sound. I assumed the sound was the counter breaking under the pressure. Nope, it was the C-clamp arm snapping off the bottom of the grinder. It's entirely useless now. What a waste of time and money. Avoid this piece of junk, I don't think a single piece of this thing is stainless steel, or even steel for that matter.I had a similar manual grinder for years and it was smaller but very easy to use and I could grind two lb of beef in no time. I could not believe how bad this one is. It is larger so I thought it will be more efficient. However, It took two people about 15 or 20 min to get 2 lb meet to grind. Why? Because the meat returns back to the opening all the time. The opening is designed as such to enable meat to return back. You need to push it all the time. Also, the blade is not sharp so it is an additional reason why the meat is returning to the opening. If it was sharper, there would be no pressure backwards. Absolute disaster. Could not return because I was too busy for long time and tried to use it the first time several months after purchase. I would never guess that the company that is claiming to make meat grinders for very long time would ever be selling something as bad as this. Still, I cannot believe that anything with such major design fault would be on the market. DO NOT BUY!I washed it before first use (sorry, but I usually wash my kitchen appliances before and after I use them! :) and it rusted in so many places so it is not even funny!It is definitely was not manufactured on any factory - it is made in somebody's garage (most likely).Or it is just a copycat counterfeit. But regardless of the origin, do not buy it!
