Sausage stuffer

[Stomper]

There seems to be lots of BBQ projects on here, I was wondering if any one has built a sausage stuffer or have any ideas on how to biuld one. I was thinking about an air operated one with an air cylender. Does any one have any input as to if it would work.

[Blondie_486]

I've never seen a sausage stuffer. My recommendation would be to visit a meat processor and ask if they'd show you their sausage stuffing operation. You could see how it's done, what they're using and then go home and devise your own design to suit your needs. That's how I'd do it anyway.

[Stomper]

I have a good Idea on what I want to build. I guess I should have explained myself a bit better, sorry about that. What I was wondering is if it would work to use compressed air with a air cylender to drive the plunger to push the sausage meat out into the casings. I will be using a peice of 6" schedule 10, 316 stainless steel pipe 14" long. The plunger will be made of a peice of 1" thick HDPE plastic. It will be machined to fit inside the 6" and a groove will be machined into it so that I can install a rubber O ring. This is the peice that I want to drive with the compressed air. It will have to move fairly slow and I was unsure if it will move smoothly. Being that the air is compressible it would not have the same effect as something non compressible, ex: hudraulic fluid. It will have a three way valve and an air regulator for control.
Do you think this will work?

[Burnt hands]

Stomper,

I have seen sausage stuffers in sporting goods catalogs.
Some use a ram and linkage like an oversized garlic press and others use a gear drive mechanism to provide the force.

I am no expert but I did a quick calculation of the area of your 6" IPS sch 10 pipe and compared it to theoretical 1", 1.5", 2" ID sausage.

6" IPS sch 10 pipe is 6.357" ID.
Area of pipe ID is 31.73 sq in.

1" sausage is .785 sq in

1.5" sausage is 1.76 sq in.

2" sausage is 3.14 sq in.


Comparing equivalent volumes,

1" of travel of your 6" IPS ram will give you:

40.4" of 1" sausage

17.9" of 1.5" sausage

10.1" of 2" sausage.

Get lots of casings!


This is simply a calculation based on volumes.

Greatly simplified, your stuffer is a large version of a caulking gun, but I have no idea of the pressures involved as this is most likely a topic for fluid mechanic experts.

I would consider how to streamline the flow path to minimize drag on the sausage mixture.

Maybe a cone shaped end for the ram and the cylinder like the toothpaste tube.

Good luck - please post photos as well as your recipe.

[Stomper]

Cool, thanks for the info. When you put it like that it will be alot of sausage. When I make sausage, deer, moose or elk, I usualy make a 5 gallon pail 3/4 full of the stuff. the biggest part of it, is stuffing it, so if this works it will take alot of the work out of it. The other idea that I had was to just make it a screw type operated stuffer, but thats not that cool. I want to p*mp it out a bit. Stream lining it would be a good idea. Thanks again for the info.

[Stomper]

I was talking to a guy on another site and he suggested setting the air pressure just enough to push the sausage mixture and restict the exhaust instead of the supply to give a smooth steady flow. Makes better scence to me.

[welderdude402]

every year for deer season my family generally gets around 12 deer, and we do all the processing ourselves. when we make summer sausage we genrally have over 300 lbs of meat to mix and stuff. then we have to smoke and cure it. but that doesnt take much, we have a 10x10 garden shed we made into a smokehouse and takes about 6-8 hours to smoke all of it at once.

a few years back my brother built a stuffer out of 8 inch cylinder casing. basically the stuffer is about 14 inches long with a tapped 2 inch hole on the bottom plate. we use pvc fittings for it, and have an 1 1/2" tube and a 3/4" tube. one for summer sausage and one for polish rings. but the frame for it is made out of 1" square tubing. the pusher is made out of a 3K pound trailer jack with an 8" dia. plate welded on the bottom of the jack. we use pieces of old t shirts for a gasket type thing between the meat and the pressure plate.

the only thing left is to either build or buy a mixer, which i plan on makin out of all stainless with aluminum bronze bushings so they dont ever wear out.( in my lifetime anyway)

i really wish i had a pic of it because that would help alot with the explanation of what he did for it, but i do not currently have one. if you have a question or something let me know and i will try to elaborate on it a little more.

[Stomper]

every year for deer season my family generally gets around 12 deer, and we do all the processing ourselves. when we make summer sausage we genrally have over 300 lbs of meat to mix and stuff. then we have to smoke and cure it. but that doesnt take much, we have a 10x10 garden shed we made into a smokehouse and takes about 6-8 hours to smoke all of it at once.

a few years back my brother built a stuffer out of 8 inch cylinder casing. basically the stuffer is about 14 inches long with a tapped 2 inch hole on the bottom plate. we use pvc fittings for it, and have an 1 1/2" tube and a 3/4" tube. one for summer sausage and one for polish rings. but the frame for it is made out of 1" square tubing. the pusher is made out of a 3K pound trailer jack with an 8" dia. plate welded on the bottom of the jack. we use pieces of old t shirts for a gasket type thing between the meat and the pressure plate.

the only thing left is to either build or buy a mixer, which i plan on makin out of all stainless with aluminum bronze bushings so they dont ever wear out.( in my lifetime anyway)

i really wish i had a pic of it because that would help alot with the explanation of what he did for it, but i do not currently have one. if you have a question or something let me know and i will try to elaborate on it a little more.

The trailer jack idea is a prety ingenious idea if the right one was used. I may have to rethink my plans AGAIN
If you could get a picture that would be great. 300# of meat, WOW you guys don't screw around

[Stomper]

The more I think about the trailer jack the more I like it. It's simple and effective. I will use it. Thanks for the help. guys I learned alot with your ideas.

[Broccoli1]

Would something like this work?

Dunno how fast they move the ram

http://www.harborfreight.com/8-ton-l...ack-94562.html