Economical Processing Machines?

[RandomShuffler]

For a few years my family and I have had an interest in being able to control the entire process from field to table in processing our whitetail deer. we are able to thankfully take plenty of deer each year in order to feed our families as well as our extended family, so we would need some reliable options; however, many of the big name items come with quite a price tag. This is not me saying its not worth it, just saying if your a guy who is looking for a grinder, sausage stuffer, and other related items and doesn't care about "name brands" or whats popular at the moment, but strictly reliability and a good product, what would you buy? have you had any good experiences with particular brands or items like this?

 

[Mighty Mouse]

If you already have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, you could consider adding a grinder attachment to it. It will be comparatively slow, but it's cheap (not counting the cost of the mixer itself). If you're planning to process multiple deer per year though, I think it would be worthwhile to get a "real" grinder. I used a Kitchenaid grinder attachment for several years then upgraded to a MYM 1.5 hp #32 grinder. The MYM grinds faster than I can feed it.

 

[Buzby]

I’ve been very happy with LEM. Grinder, stuffer, slicer. Even their seasonings. Seems to be a good balance of cost, and quality.

 

[BBob]

LEM. Sign up for notifications and wait for the sales. I upgraded and bought piece by piece as the budget would allow.

 

[BBob]

 

[MTPipeliner]

I’ve got a cabelas brand grinder right now, but for years we used a little Oster brand grinder, wasn’t fast but it worked and just kept on ticking- gave it to a relative when I got the cabelas and as far as I know it’s still working.

I’ve got a LEM 5# stuffer that’s been fine, but it doesn’t see as much use as my grinder.

 

[Lytro]

My budget was pretty tight about 10 years ago when I bought a Sunmile meat grinder off of Amazon for about $60-$70. I've been planning on buying a bigger grinder at some point, but will only do it once this one dies. I've processed countless big game animals since then and 100#+ at a time on multiple occasions. It impressively just keeps going. I'm sure it's a hell of a lot easier to clean than most as well.

In no way am I saying that is the best thing to buy, but don't let other people tell you that you "need" a more expensive or specific brand grinder. Buy something within your means and take good care of it. I have zero brand loyalty and have picked up equipment on sale throughout the years to do all my processing. Sunmile grinder, MEAT! chamber sealer and dehydrator, Weston vertical stuffer, LEM ground package taper. Really no complaints about any of it other than wishing I had a larger stuffer.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunmile-Electric-Grinder-Stainless-Certificated/dp/B07SKHMMY9/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2HJPA8ERSSIP2&keywords=sunmile%2Bmeat%2Bgrinder&qid=1704476478&sprefix=sunmile%2Bme%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-8&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840&th=1

 

[WaWox]

i really enjoy the vevor horizontal sausage stuffer I got off aliexpress for 50% less than identical features (metal gear, #lbs capacity, etc) LEM / Weston branded ones.

For grinder, I did go LEM because of the positive long-term input here, but I think I could have gone smaller than 3/4 hp -- I just don't grind all that much of the animals I take. Even an elk ads up to only 50lbs or so for my family.

For grinder size, I'd make a real careful trade-off calculation: if it costs $200 more, but it speeds up each animal's processing time by 1h, how many animals per year + how many years do you need to run it to be worth the higher upfront price? What's your "implied wage" for buying the fancier one? [e.g., if you *hate* grinding, and would pay $50/h to avoid it, the faster grinder pays for itself after the fourth doe, perhaps, if its literally 1h faster. Otoh, if you don't mind grinding and think it's like $5/h worth to speed it up, its unlikely the faster grinder ever pays off unless you truly process a lot of animals!]