Harbor Freight Grinder

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hoser

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jul 11, 2008
452
10
Cumberland, Rhode Island
Anybody here have any experience with either one of the Harbor Freight meat grinders?

They have one for 59 bucks and one for 99. The 99 is 350 watts as opposed to 250 I believe....just wondering if anyone can enlighten me as to their performance.

I'll only be using it 4 or five times a year, for probably less than 20 pounds...just an occasional sausage maker.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
just bumping to the top, hoping somebody has some info
icon_rolleyes.gif
 
Can't help you with HF. Have no experience with them. But as a general rule, I think you will find that inexpensive grinders will burn out the motors pretty fast. That and they use cheap metal for blades and plates.

As for an occasional grind, I have a small collection of the old Enterprise grinders and that's all I use. Watch and wait and you can find shiny like new #5's or #12's on Ebay for $30 to $40 shipped. And some of those will include multiple blades and plates of various sizes. A #12 or #10 (same size as #12, but clamp on) has the best after market selection of plates and blades and other than the tin finish, that's about all that can go wrong. Do not bite on a green junker. Shiny new ones come along all the time and are the same price.

Even on the #5, I can grind 10 pounds of butts in under 10 minutes. It's not hard work. Cleanup is easy and you have no storage problems. I've probably done over 100 pounds this year with mine. Prior to recent offerings of these new grinders, hand cranks were all the home guys ever used. They work.

If later on you find you want to get into this big time, go look at Cabela's. I have access to one of their big'ns and when it's time to do a whole deer or two, that's where I go.

For reference on the hand grinders..........

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75149
 
I dont have either one but I did have a $69 350 watt one from cabela's that the gears stripped on. So I had to take it back. The biggest batch i did when it went out was 12lbs.

That said I have seen other members with the less expensive ones and they work fine.
 
I have bought lots of tools from Harbor Freight and my personal experience is that they are cheaply built throw away items, use them till they burn out and buy another one... They price the tools they sell cheap for that reason... They don't have long lives if used hard, so if it is something you plan on keeping for a long time or plan to use a lot, buy it from a dependable source.
 
I didn't know Harbor Freight carried meat grinders, now you've got me interested since there is one close to here I could have delivered to.
Gonna search around and see if I can find any good reviews on them.
 
I bought one many years ago. Used it a few times and it seemed to work OK until it burned up. If I was just getting into sausage making and wasn't sure if or how often I was going to do it, I may get something cheap like this. If I was pretty sure I was going to continue making sausage or if I wanted something that I was going to last a long time, I'd definitely buy something more heavy duty.
 
I just bought 1 from Northern Tool that should be here tommorow, I think it was 1000 watts & it was $99. A guy on another forum has had the same 1 for 10 years & he uses his a lot.
 
Thanks for the input guys....after reading up on that northern tool model, it seems to be the best bang for the bucks. All steel gears, and I don't think the Harbor Freight had those.
 
I think you guys Have me convienced to go to Northern Tool for a grinder. I like the idea of steel gears and we have a store here in town. I have bought a couple things from harbor Freight and have seen tools that employees have bought from harbor and the tools either break easlily or just aren't very good to start with.So thanks now all I have to do is go pick it up.Thanks again
 
I got the Northern Tool grinder & have used it about 8 times & am very happy with it. It has got lots of power & chews right through the meat. I would think a grinder with a smaller motor would bog down or eventually burn up. Not to say mine won't but some of the ones I was looking at between $60 - $100 had only 300 watt motors.
 
This is the truth. I had a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder for 20.00 used it till it cooked itself and then went and bought another one. Still cheaper then the 85 to 90 for a really nice one, and for what I use it for it was fine.
 
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