The gears are made of plastic, so the first time you hit a piece of grizzle they break. While Waring offered to replace or fix, the shipping is nearly $30 to get it to them.

I use this meat grinder on beef, pork and veal. I wash, dry, debone and defat the meat, then grind it. Why? I want to ensure that the meat has been ground under sanitary conditions, and I want to control how much fat is ground into the meat.I have owned mine for more than a year, use it once or twice a month for ten to twenty pounds of meat, and except for the caveats listed below, I am very pleased with its performance.But there are three caveats. The first two deal with the washing and storing of the machine's removable parts. The third, how to put the machine together so that it works flawlessly.The first is, I always wash every part by hand as soon as I'm done using it and THOROUGHLY dry them immediately. (I once put the "die-cast hopper" in the dishwasher, and it discolored - so now it's strictly hand washing.)The second caveat is that the cutting plates will rust unless they are washed, THOROUGHLY dried, and stored immediately after use. Even then, I've had a couple turn rusty. I tried vacuum packing them. I've tried storing them in oil. They rusted anyway. Then I found the answer. I save the little 'drier' packets that so many articles ship with, and store the blade and cutting plates in the same Ziploc with several packets, and ever since, no rust!My third warning has to do with two common mistakes made when putting the machine together. The first (most common mistake) is cutting blade placement. The second is the order in which machine parts are tightened. I suspect most of the complaints others have made began with one or both of these.Blade placement: The flat part of the blade must face the cutting plate. This means that the sharp side of the blade does NOT face the meat coming at it, but rather faces out, toward the place where the meat exits the machine. If the flat side of the blade doesn't lay directly on the cutting plate, nothing works right. BUT, you must place these parts onto the machine LAST, after all of the rest of the machine has been assembled.ALWAYS tighten the Grinder/Feeder Head to the machine's body FIRST, making certain it is fully seated (with a little maneuvering) before tightening it in place with the Locking Knob. Then seat the Feed Screw, again, maneuvering it until it is fully seated. Then comes the Cutting Blade, Cutting Plate and Screwing Ring. Tighten the blade/plate/ring **LAST**, after all other parts have been tightened.An easy way to remember this is to simply start the assembly with the machine's body and work your way out toward the end where the meat comes out, tightening each part before inserting the next.The full product description and assembly instructions are available online. The pdf which names all of the pieces and gives detailed instructions on how to put the machine together is available on the 'waringproducts' website. The pdf's file name is '37_man dot pdf'. If you search for that file name and extension, and add the word 'grinder' you should be able to find it online. (Amazon does not allow me to spell it out for you... more's the pity.)I have never attempted to grind bones, even cooked bones with the machine. I have never run it under full load for longer than ten minutes at a time. For me, that is normal home use. For those who butcher their own cattle or deer, or grind meat or poultry without first deboning, this might not be the right machine. But it is perfect for my purposes, and I highly recommend it!

The first time I was trying to use the meatgrinder it was a total disappointment. As soon as I put the first couple pieces of meat (cut to the small cubes) into the Feeder Head, using the Food pusher, the Feed Screw came off and stopped rotating. The engine though kept working. I reset a few times making sure that the Feeder Head went into the proper place and firmly locked and the Feeder Screw was not loose but in the place. And when I switched the meat grinder on, the Feed Screw did rotate BUT as soon as I put meat into it, came off again and stayed loose.After that I had to took it to one of the authorized dealers). After two weeks they returned the meat grinder back and claimed that it was repaired. Nevertheless, the story has repeated itself. Again, as soon as I put the first couple pieces of meat into the Feeder Head (cut to the small cubes) the Feed Screw came off and stopped rotating. The engine kept working.Now I need to send it back to the manufacturer. I'm just sick and tired of that meatgrinder and so sorry that I waste my money and still my time on that.That is my first review ever. Ii just want yoy. folks, not to repeat my mistake!

This is a great grinder, I see a lot of negatives posted about it, and I must tell you that I hated it at first. It wouldn't grind without SHOVING the meat through.The issue is not with the grinder, but with the instructions. Mine came with the blade and a plate in it from the factory, I read the instructions, changed plates and went to grind. It was a BEAR to work. Pork with fat on it wouldn't grind at all.Then I made a discovery. The blade as assembled from the factory, and according to the instructions, was placed in the grinder correctly, but the blade was actually BACKWARD. Make sure you put the blade with the flat (ugly) side TOWARD the plate.I then ground 15lbs of pork, with fat on, in about 5 minutes.MY issue with the grinder is that I cannot find plates. I want a stuffing plate (no holes, just an open plate). Due to the design (tits on the plates, rather than on the grinder) I cannot seem to locate plates other than what came with it as replacements.In all, an OK product for the money!

I bought this Waring grinder because I wanted to try grinding my own meat before investing a lot of money, so I wanted to try it out first. For lean meat cuts, with no fat, sinew, or tendon, it works pretty well. Also if you want to grind cooked meats, it also works very well. Using it as a sausage stuffer (which comes with the machine) does well as long as you don't have the grinding blade on while stuffing the casings. Anything fatty or sinewy, no matter how much you cut away will jam the grinding blade and blade cutter and require frequent stopping and cleaning. Also, the parts need to be stored in a plastic bag and well oiled as they begin to rust right away. I would recommend anyone with a Kitchen Aid standing mixer, to buy the $50 grinding/stuffing attachment as I have seen that used by one of my friends for the same purpose and it does not get jammed up like this grinder.

I got this grinder to turn some Deer into ground Deer, and it work very nicely. I cut the meat into one inch squares and even added some fresh lumps of pork lard to the mix with no problems whatsoever. I saw the grinder at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $99, so if you get for less you are getting a great deal. The only reason for four stars is that is is still not the best grinder out there, but for under a $100 it will serve you for quite some time.