The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer

[calldoctoday]

jdranchman Looks like a ratcheting box end wrench might work too, but yours is likely the easiest to come by.

[Grimpuppy]

Jonathon said in The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer:

Grimpuppy That is amazingly smart, how hard could it be for someone to mass-produce those, it doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult. Put a cover of it, make the disc slightly smaller and put a 90 degree handle on the bottom and that’s it.

For mass production, you would want the gear and pawl to be laser cut for a tighter tolerance instead of plasma cut like mine is. That isn’t a big deal. We outsource laser work and I would guess I could have the gear and pawl cut for about $5 for the set. The hard part is a cover. I can 3d model a cover, but the manufacturing of them is a financial challenge. To machine a cover would be expensive. You could have them injection molded, but it is usually about $5k just to have the mold made and then they would want an order for like 5000 pieces. The best financial solution might be to have them 3d printed. I will work on modeling a cover and see where it goes.

[Jonathon]

Grimpuppy We might reach out outside of this post for some more information/ideas.

[jdranchman]

Grimpuppy would a flat cover be reasonable? I don’t see the benefit of a full 3D cover as you couldn’t easily wash behind it. A flat oblong plate over it would protect your fingers from the pinch zone. Plus you could simply wash it and use a sink sprayer to rinse. Maybe even use a thumb screw to hold it all together- for easy disassembly.

[Grimpuppy]

jdranchman said in The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer:

Grimpuppy would a flat cover be reasonable? I don’t see the benefit of a full 3D cover as you couldn’t easily wash behind it. A flat oblong plate over it would protect your fingers from the pinch zone. Plus you could simply wash it and use a sink sprayer to rinse. Maybe even use a thumb screw to hold it all together- for easy disassembly.

This is a rough sketch of what I had in mind. It would need to be raised to clear the gear and have some kind of flange on the bottom to mount it. I am not sure what you mean by a flat plate, but I am open to suggestions for sure.

[jdranchman]

I was thinking the same shape but if it was just a the top flat plate in your drawing say 3/8 ish larger than the sprocket and latch. There wouldn’t be a need to wrap it over and down. You could use a thumb screw/bolt to mount the cover and prawl. I’m out this week but when I get back I’ll try to draw up where l what I’m thinking. This would significantly lessen the build cost and cleaning/maintenance.

[Grimpuppy]

I think I get what you are thinking. But the pawl is mounted with a shoulder bolt with a spacer between the frame and the pawl. This spaces the pawl out so it is even with the gear. The pawl can’t be mounted with a thumb screw or a regular bolt. As it will prevent the pawl from moving when tightened.

[Jonathon]

Grimpuppy that looks awesome but the issue would be finding a good way to secure it to the side. I was thinking of a way to.press it between the twomsides but I don’t think that would work well. Any thoughts?

[processhead]

Jonathon said in The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer:

Grimpuppy that looks awesome but the issue would be finding a good way to secure it to the side. I was thinking of a way to.press it between the twomsides but I don’t think that would work well. Any thoughts?

At that point I think you are looking at cutting a groove in the spline shaft that would accept a C clip-style retainer. Probably some drilling nto the sheet metal side support for some self tapping screws for the cover?

[Grimpuppy]

So that was just a design to kind of get started and work off of. It is not practical though. First you would have to drill holes in the side frame to mount the cover. After drilling the one hole to mount the pawl, I don’t want to drill multiple holes. It took forever to drill that one hole with a brand new cobalt bit and some cuss words. My thought now is to make either the cover just a big square or the mounting flange of the cover a big square and use the existing four screws on the side frame to bolt it on.

[Grimpuppy]

processhead said in The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer:

Jonathon said in The Elusive Ratcheting Sausage Stuffer:

Grimpuppy that looks awesome but the issue would be finding a good way to secure it to the side. I was thinking of a way to.press it between the twomsides but I don’t think that would work well. Any thoughts?

At that point I think you are looking at cutting a groove in the spline shaft that would accept a C clip-style retainer. Probably some drilling nto the sheet metal side support for some self tapping screws for the cover?

Funny you should mention that.
Machining a grove in the shaft and using a C-clip was one of my first ideas to hold the gear on. But I knew if I did that it would be a one off build that couldn’t be replicated. Right now I use an o-ring on the splined shaft to hold the gear in place. Seems to be working OK.

[processhead]

Grimpuppy
Here’s a new head scratcher for you. Figure out a way to mount it all on the INSIDE.

There is already a detent mechanism inside the gear mechanism. Probably better off with your pawl mechanism than the current detent.

[Grimpuppy]

I haven’t opened mine up, but I like what I see in there! Might be able to simplify this whole dang thing.

[Grimpuppy]

What does that screw do? It looks like maybe it sets the tension???

[processhead]

Grimpuppy I assumed that was it’s purpose.

[jdranchman]

Wouldn’t you need some type of release button/lever to disengage the prawl to be able to use the “high speed” gear? If it was on the inside then you could use the existing crank handle that comes with the unit (great idea BTW).

[Grimpuppy]

Yes, you would need to incorporate a release if on the inside. You would still need a different handle that ratchets as the one the comes with doesn’t. The idea is interesting, but I think installing even a pre-made kit on the inside would be above your average diy persons skill level.