Heat Control While Grinding Meat

[bobfrapples]

The last couple of batches of things we’ve made I’ve noticed that we’re producing a lot of heat with the meat grinder once we get to the 2nd grind. Even to the point where it will start steaming / cooking where you can smell cooked meat and when you pull everything apart to clean the auger and grinding plates, there’s cooked meat stuck to the auger.

Here’s what we’re doing: we’re putting all grinder plates, auger, neck, etc. in the freezer several hours before starting, meat is pulled directly from fridge and actually partial frozen at first grind and immediately placed in freezer until it’s time for 2nd grind, we’re oiling the grinder plates / blades before 1st and 2nd grind, and I’m finishing the 1st grind with an ice cube or two to push the last parts of meat out.

This last time, I tried placing an ice cube through the grinder every few mins or so, which helped, but certainly didn’t cure it.

Part of me says, it’s metal on metal, constantly moving parts, of course it’s going to produce heat, but is there anything else we should be trying to do to reduce the heat? Obviously it doesn’t help that the 2nd grind takes much longer than the 1st grind but I don’t exactly like the idea of smelling cooked meats while I grind raw meat.

[Garry Tarpley]

I had to buy new cutter for my 22,it helped a lot.

[JohnG5]

Let your unit cool off between grinds and don’t run it for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.

[Jamieson22]

bobfrapples What grinder do you have?

[processhead]

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

[twilliams]

bobfrapples as others have said, sharp knives and plates and a fiber washer or white poly. Both are good areas to consider. I use mineral oil on the back of the auger where the spline contacts the poly bushing or fiber washer. One thing i can recommend you to do is run the grinder without the auger and head attached to see if the actual motor and more so the female end where the spline goes to see if that is heating up. I am guessing there is a bearing there that is bad.

[glen]

Adding to the others, if there was a washer on the drive end and it is worn or missing the cutter may not be tight enough against the plate

[bobfrapples]

Grinder is a commercial grade 3/4 hp gander mountain model #12. It has a poly washer on the backside of the auger, that’s a good point that adding oil there would help as well. I’ll also poke around and see if I can find any aftermarket options for a replacement on the washer, it’s got a little wear to it.

Upon inspection the grinder plate and cutter didn’t seem dull to me but I ordered a few new ones a couple days ago that haven’t come in yet. I’ll see how much that helps.

[processhead]

bobfrapples
Any observations on the grinder performance, like slower than normal?
On one occasion I recall my grind going very slow and smearing the meat badly.
When I took it apart, the knife was installed backwards.

[bobfrapples]

processhead
No, nothing appeared to be running abnormally slow. With the first of two grinds it was chewing threw it where I could barely keep up.

It’s actually done this the last two times I’ve unpacked and used it, and both times I didn’t grind that much meat….roughly 25# each time.

[Dr_Pain]

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

That was going to be my suggestion. He could start by buying a sharpening stone and resharpening the plates and cutter. If that does not work then that may be a good opportunity to UPGRADE LOL!!!

[processhead]

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

That was going to be my suggestion. He could start by buying a sharpening stone and resharpening the plates and cutter. If that does not work then that may be a good opportunity to UPGRADE LOL!!!

I don’t mean to derail the main topic, but what you want to sharpen your own grinder knives and plates is an absolutely flat surface abrasive. Unless unusually large, a sharpening stone will not have the size and flatness you need.
What works well for grinder plates and knives is a flat counter top with a sheet of wet/dry silicon carbide abrasive paper, about 400 grit.

Lay the sheet of abrasive paper down flat on the counter and just work the grinder plate in a circular pattern on the paper till you get a uniform smooth polish on the plate and have removed all knife wear patterns from it. Use the same process for the grinder knife.

This works for plates/knives with light to moderate wear. It won’t work that well for stainless or disposable knives and plates.

[glen]

When I used micro abrasive sheets to polish fiber optic connectors we moved the flat “puck” always in a figure 8 pattern. The goal was a more even polish

[Dr_Pain]

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

That was going to be my suggestion. He could start by buying a sharpening stone and resharpening the plates and cutter. If that does not work then that may be a good opportunity to UPGRADE LOL!!!

I don’t mean to derail the main topic, but what you want to sharpen your own grinder knives and plates is an absolutely flat surface abrasive. Unless unusually large, a sharpening stone will not have the size and flatness you need.
What works well for grinder plates and knives is a flat counter top with a sheet of wet/dry silicon carbide abrasive paper, about 400 grit.

Lay the sheet of abrasive paper down flat on the counter and just work the grinder plate in a circular pattern on the paper till you get a uniform smooth polish on the plate and have removed all knife wear patterns from it. Use the same process for the grinder knife.

This works for plates/knives with light to moderate wear. It won’t work that well for stainless or disposable knives and plates.

I have never used the grinding stones that the sausage maker sells but I thought it was a good concept. Eric at 2 Guys and a Cooler seems to advocate for them (but let’s face it he is sponsored by them) but I believe I have seen another video where he did what you mentioned with the sandpaper.

[processhead]

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

That was going to be my suggestion. He could start by buying a sharpening stone and resharpening the plates and cutter. If that does not work then that may be a good opportunity to UPGRADE LOL!!!

I don’t mean to derail the main topic, but what you want to sharpen your own grinder knives and plates is an absolutely flat surface abrasive. Unless unusually large, a sharpening stone will not have the size and flatness you need.
What works well for grinder plates and knives is a flat counter top with a sheet of wet/dry silicon carbide abrasive paper, about 400 grit.

Lay the sheet of abrasive paper down flat on the counter and just work the grinder plate in a circular pattern on the paper till you get a uniform smooth polish on the plate and have removed all knife wear patterns from it. Use the same process for the grinder knife.

This works for plates/knives with light to moderate wear. It won’t work that well for stainless or disposable knives and plates.

I have never used the grinding stones that the sausage maker sells but I thought it was a good concept. Eric at 2 Guys and a Cooler seems to advocate for them (but let’s face it he is sponsored by them) but I believe I have seen another video where he did what you mentioned with the sandpaper.

I looked that the stones sold by TSM and watched the video.
For those not familiar with them, the stones are round and fit inside your grinder head with the plate or the knife, depending which you want to sharpen.
When the auger turns it rotates the knife against the stone and puts a fresh edge on the knife.
The second stone rotates the stone against the stationary grinder plate.
I have not used this product but I would have some reservations. Using them in an electric grinder looks like it would be easy to break the stones if you were not extremely careful adjusting the grinder head nut.
Over time, the stone for the plate is also going to cut a groove in your grinder plates because it is smaller than the plate is.