Yes, that's it. I know you were all enthusiastic but I was wondering how they hold up after being used for some time. ... ← I have one. Northern Tool badged, but bought from sausagemaking.org in the UK. Works a treat. There are just three areas of (extremely mild) concern. -- The crank gear is plastic. Seems solid, but some have somehow managed to break it. IMHO you'd need to apply seriously excessive pressure to do that - and to apply that force when the piston has reached the end of its travel. No problem at all unless you were very ham-fisted. It turns out to be no bother to crank the piston back up again (since its missing a quick release mechanism). I put a thin wash-sponge under the thing and then clamp it to the kitchen worktop, rather than bolting the base to anything (as seems intended). After you have just once used such a thing, you wouldn't want to use a nozzle on the front of a mincer - ever again! ← I bought a Grizzly Stuffer based on my reading here and I'm quite pleased with it. However, I did break the plastic gear that the handle fits on the first day that I used it. I made three batches and the gear broke as I was finishing up. As dougal mentions, it's easy to know when the piston is at the bottom and not be "ham-fisted" once it is all the way down. However, mine broke as I was cranking the piston up to remove the canister. The piston had become "loose" on the screw rod and the piston hadn't cleared the top of the canister - so I was merrily cranking away when the rod reached its end of upward travel and I heard a pop as one of the teeth on the gears broke. So the moral of this story is to be sure to keep the piston screwed on tight and to recognize that it might not clear the canister before the rod reaches its limit. The good news is that I had purchased the Grizzly from the company's Ebay sales, so I called them the next day and they sent me out a new part at no cost. The gear arrived yesterday, and now I've got the stuffer repaired and ready to go for another batch. Just in case, I've epoxied the broken gear and it seems sturdy enough to use as a backup. (The stuffer actually worked with the missing tooth, it just wasn't very smooth when cranking.) So even if the gear breaks, you should be able to order a replacement from them. I also use a clamp and some non-slip drawer liner to attach the stuffer to my countertop while working. It was very sturdy and the difference between stuffing with this machine and a KitchenAid tube is amazing!
