STX International Turboforce II 4000 Electric Meat Grinder | Grinds Soft Bones | Foot Pedal | 6 Grinding Plates | Stainless Steel Blades | Sausage Tubes | Kubbe Maker | Meat Claws | Patty Press & More

>.. I have been reviewing Raw Diets for my dogs. The butcher usually supplied me with ground trimmings as pet food, but announced that they would not be grinding again until Summer. So I was forced to evaluate my desire to feed them the 'right way" for me, or go back to the food they really wouldn't eat, which is what got me looking at real dog food, in the first place. Since my butcher wasn't going to be grinding, I would have to or pay out serious money for prepared frozen B.A.R.F. food elsewhere. >.. This machine seemed to have the power and all the pieces needed, six plates, 3 blades, foot pedal, and some serious power. I read all the reviews, I watched YouTube, and I bought it. Hard to find recipes as Dr. Becker's book is out of print, and is offered here for $188.99 from a reseller [used]. So more research. Decided on a recipe. >.. 20 pounds of meat, organs, vegetables, supplements, and eggs with shells later, I was delighted with my machine. It plainly states with BIG pictures how to place the blades against the cutting plate, and I did. And it worked the first time. I changed plates to regrind, and found that I needed to clean deeper into the exit chute than I expected, but once I did, it all worked perfectly again for the second finer grind. [I used the two largest plates with holes, not the wagon wheel or the beaner plates, they have other uses.] I have not ground bones yet, that will happen with chicken or rabbit (we have a pet supplier here in my town), but not with turkey or bigger bones. The directions are very clear: chicken, duck, or rabbit bones are OK, Turkey, lamb, goat, or bigger are too big for the machine, and voids the warranty. >.. Now to the cleaning: Hot soapy water cleaned everything easily and spotlessly EXCEPT the cutting plates. They stained, possibly from acids from the meat. The stains resisted brushing, and scrubbing, so I accepted that they were discolored like a knife that has been etched to reveal grain, but it was not that pretty. They are fully functional, and when I called my Brother-in-law who uses his machine every year to make venison sausage, he said his plates were stained too and not to worry as long as they were CLEAN, which they are. I used coconut oil to coat the metal parts, including the carefully washed threads. and packed it away. >.. One thing I wanted to know, and no review here said was: how long did it take to make roughly 3 weeks of food for the dogs? Well, the meat was cut up and frozen before, it took about 2 hours to thaw. So I started at 2:30 in the afternoon, and with mixing in supplements grinding the vegetables, adding in the eggs, shells, jellied bone broth with turmeric and ginger, adding the other supplements and mixing it all up to even out the distribution of all that extra, then regrinding, and packaging in one pound bags, it took me 2 and 1/2 hours. Could it have gone faster? Oh, yes. I was looking for things, I had to grind in stages as I didn't have a big enough container for all the meat at once. Now, I have a much better idea of the process, I expect to be be faster in the future. >.. Next time Chicken! Easter is coming, maybe lamb. And turkey is cheap in the off season. I wonder how many turkeys come in a case? And I know where to buy a goat! The dogs will eat well! >.. 3/20/17 Update: I found a way to reduce the time before I got into it again. I ordered a 2 inch sausage tube, and some meat bags. These come in 1 pound, and 2 pound sizes, and I am told can be forced to hold more, so 1/2 kilo in a 1 pound bag or 1 kilo in a 2 pound bag seems reasonable. How does this save time? The horn can be mounted after the size plate is placed over the cutting blade, and all secured by the locking ring. So the second grind goes out of the machine into the premeasured bags directly instead of into the pan to be weighed and bagged later. Depending on the bags you get you can close them with a tape dispenser or smaller hog rings [need pliers or dispensing pliers for these]. The heavier bags, like I bought, need the hog rings to close like most 1 pound ground meat chubs in the store have. I think I could cut easily 30 minutes off my time with these bags, horn, and closure device. I found all of these on Amazon by searching for the meat bags. >.. Update 4/11/17: there is no #12 match for this machine. The grinding plates and locking head are called #12, and they are close, but not the same, a bit smaller. I found this out when I ordered the #12 2 inch horn from a different supplier, it did not fit, and STX does not make such a horn. THE ANSWER: I just used the largest stuffing tube to fill the meat bags, instead and it worked fine. I did not try to send the dog food through the grinder a third time, I just put the tube on the machine for the second grind, and let the force of the grinding fill the tube and the meat bag at it's own pace. Keep everything COLD and all went well. It certainly did speed up the processing and eased the storage as well. Dropped 25 1.25 pound bags into the freezer, in orderly rows cross stacked for the upper rows, and it stores as nice as one could ask.

Our GSD was diagnosed with degenerative Lumbro-sacral stenosis. For a shepherd this is a death sentence. Most dogs pass away within a year. We are determined to do the best for our girl and keep her alive as long as she has a good quality of life. Part of this determination required us to switch her to an all raw diet. This means grinding meat, small bones, organ meat fruits and vegetables. This grinder has been wonderful! Simple to use, fairly easy to clean, although some parts are hand wash only. We grind about 100# per month, freezing that months supply. It grinds through most everything well (dandelion greens need to be chopped small before grinding) All in all, it’s been a great asset to keeping our girl healthy, strong and happy 19 months after her diagnosis!

Bought this for my husband and he loves it! Works nicely for wild game. We don't use daily by no means so I can't give an opinion on consistent use. Easy assembly, didn't clog up, grinding so far has been effortless. We have only used a few times but it does appear to be durable. Foot pedal was so nice to have. The only thing I would've like to have seen is a storage bag to store pieces easily and together but that is nothing we can't find and purchase ourselves.

Overall I think this is a good machine - and a good value. I bought this to make a raw diet for my cats. I was especially interested in grinding raw chicken bones so they could safely eat them and get the nutrients. I was a little surprised with how light the machine and many of the parts are. I thought it would be heavier and I worried that might indicate low quality. I read the manual and found it very straightforward. I like the variety of grinding disc's. It seems to have everything you could need. It was fairly easy to operate and I had no issues. I used the wagon wheel first as directed and then put it all through again with the smaller holes. The cats enjoyed it but I was disappointed with the number of bone fragments stuck inside the machine when I was done. I've done it couple times- changing how many grinds, alternating with more meat with no bones in between the pieces with bones - I haven't been able to eliminate the bones staying inside the machine. The pieces are too large to give to my cats. They won't eat them. I took a picture to show the leftover bones. I put through 11 pounds of chicken thighs - with roughly half including the bones. As many have noted, the machine is very loud. Clean up is not difficult but be aware that the discs will discolor with moisture. I got a ridiculous amount of joy from taking whole thighs and producing something that looked just like ground meat from the store.

Vraiment parfait, le hachage est parfait, la pédale apporte vraiment un plus niveau hygiène et praticité, vraiment satisfait.

Worked great at first and had enough power but after 2nd time Making sausage, motor died. Sounds like gear broke inside. Junk don't buy

Bought this for my son for his birthday as he has started hunting. He got his first deer right after purchasing this and we did a lot of ground for patties and made sausages with it as well. A bit loud but that is to be expected as this is a very heavy duty unit that does a really great job. Read it will get quieter as it breaks in over time. Will review again in years to come for durability opinion but super happy with it so far. He didn't use the foot pedal this time but should have as his hands got pretty messy working with the meat especially with the sausage mix and turning the unit off and on he made the buttons pretty messy. Could see how if not careful, junk could get into button area so he will use pedal next time as in hind sight he thinks that would be much easier. Tip: Even with the air cool you still need to make sure that your meat is very very cold! or it does start to stick and bung up in the unit but we just started keeping batches of meat in the freezer (not frozen solid just starting to freeze a bit) while we work the other batches and it worked amazing. Son said it was very easy to clean up and he loves it!

I purchased this some time ago and only got to use it today for the first time. Wow... I'm really impressed with how well it operated, I processed 25lbs of moose sausage today with ease, it never had any trouble grinding the meat or fat, however I did not stuff the casings with the attachments enclosed I purchased a Deer 11 lb sausage stuffer for that process to speed up the production. It's a little loud in a small area but in a larger room it should be fine. The foot pedal feature worked awesome its a great accessory as it frees up a hand to help with the grinding process. Great little grinder for home use.

I use this grinder for making cat food. I wish I'd bought it earlier because it cuts down significantly on the labour - 30 minutes compared to 4 hours using a manual process. It's easy to use and my main concern was that it could handle chicken bones - it did with no problems. Because of other reviews I'd read, I cleaned the equipment by hand washing in soapy water - not in a dishwasher which can apparently be somewhat corrosive on the parts - and wrapped the parts in paper towels after to absorb any moisture. So far, so good, and I have no regrets buying it.