I know this is a follow up from an old thread, but something I've learned about the Cabelas grinders may apply. Many of the large professional Cabelas grinders had an unconventional design of the head (may be you have one given that you have had the grinder 10 years and that is about the age). They had cast ridges inside and don't have the cast and then machined spirals inside the head that most grinders do ( most heads are machined after casting with a tight tolerance to the auger, but the design I'm talking about doesn't). This makes them an inefficient design and mine is slow on regrinds - really slow. This head design was phased out and I looked at buying a conventional head from the manufacturer, but never did.
Like you I learned to grind and regrind, but phased out the pre-grind when I saw it wasn't needed. Glad you got it working for you.
Are you saying the current carnivore grinders were redesigned lately? Or the later production versions of the old grinder were?
I picked up a 1.75 HP carnivore from the bargain cave a few months ago. It's way overkill for what I need, but I couldn't pass up the deal. I think it was $468.99 then they had a 20% bargain cave items sale going on, then I had a 15% off cabelas club coupon, and I paid with gift cards that I bought on ebay that were 20% off (my dirty cabelas savings secret) so it came out to $255 and change plus tax.
Anyways, my only gripe is the large clearance between the head and the auger. It has the straight ridges.
This document is for feed screws in the plastic industry, but it kind of explains the purpose of the grooves.
http://www.randcastle.com/grvdldpe.pdf
I'm guessing that a spiral pattern would increase the surface area and friction, thus be better at self feeding with all other things being equal.
I'm not sure if the clearance was left there for ease of manufacturing? Less machining & looser tolerances means lower cost and less rejects, or if it was purposely engineered that way to reduce the load on the unit. A tighter tolerance there means better self feeding, but it also means more back pressure and a higher startup torque seen at the motor during stop/starts with meat in the grinder.
So it's not quite commercial grade, but it's pretty decent. An old commercial hobart in good tune would probably be the most functional, but the compactness, lifetime warranty(if not purchased second hand or in the bargain cave), and sanitary advantages of stainless steel are pro's for the cabelas unit.
Does anybody know who makes these new grinders for cabelas? It would be interesting buying a spare auger, welding it up, and machining it to a tighter tolerance against the head.