Weston 20 lbs Stainless Steel Meat Mixer for Adding Seasoning to Ground Beef, Burgers, Sausage, and Jerky, Silver (36-1901-W)

I used my nephew’s Cabela’s mixer (actually made by Westin) for a few years to make hundreds of pounds of sausage the last few years.I ordered a Cabelas Tilt mixer thinking the tilt option would be a nice feature, however we found that a full mixer is a bit heavy and hard to handle when tipping it to empty it, definitely not something you want the little wife to try.Sad to report that the gears stripped after a couple batches, it was also disappointingly built with very thin stamped out metal sides, and was nothing like the Westin built mixer we had been using, so we returned it.We have been looking for a replacement and decided on the Westin 44# mixer. Westin gears are a 50% heavier, also the mixer box itself is heavier.Adjusting the legs for height to connect to our Cabelas’s ¾ hp grinder was simple and the unit is very stable. It does not tilt, but removing the meat is no big deal, we remove the upper portion, pull the pin and remove the beater and scoop the rest out.The mixer was very well packaged with Styrofoam and double boxed, plus Amazon’s packing, so it arrived in great condition.Initially installing and adjusting the mixer beater pin for removing the mixer beater shaft was a bit tricky, but was easy enough. I did take the gear box off and regreased it as they don’t over lubricate the gears from the factory. (the prior Cabela gear failure made me leary)We are very happy with the Westin Mixer and would recommend it as a great value.Couple things that I would mention in regard to others saying the mixer bulges, that usually means your batch needs a little more liquid, it also reduces the amount of power to turn the mixer blades. We do 30# batches as most spice mixes we use are for 15# batches and it doesn’t work the mixer as hard.In regard to clean up, we have a large sink and spray faucet to clean the mixer at the end of our meat cutting counter, however I have used my shower with the hose sprayer to clean the mixers and other equipment in the past. The hot water spray is a huge help in cutting the fat along with some good detergent.Hope this helped.

very good product for my needs price is worth the ease of mixing a sausage mix or ground wild game with fat or bacon or what ever. the capacity is not huge but its not so bad doing smaller batches.

This product is great when its made properly. Once I made some modifications this thing is a workhorse that can handle a ton of work. The design is robust, and the materials are heavier duty than other mixers. The problem is the fabrication quality is quite poor on the auger and the tangs inside the mixing tub itself.The first things I did was generously grease the gears inside the gear box. Its a pretty easy process just unscrew the lid and apply food grade grease to the gears. Mine came with a small dab of grease that wasn't even applied to the gear teeth themselves, just on the side of the gear where it could do no good. My first batch of 40 lbs of Antelope breakfast sausage showed its faults after just 3 revolutions. The meat was mixed heavy with fatty pork and it was all quite cold but not frozen as it should be when making sausage, nothing this mixer should have had issues with. The load from the meat causes a bit of flexing of course but the position of the paddles and tangs in the tub did not allow enough clearance and there was metal to metal contact. This of course caused the both center paddles to bend around the shaft when my 3/4 hp grinder was driving it without much strain of any kind. One paddle was able to bent back into position while the other broke off. I was able to finish the batch but had a sour taste in my mouth to say the least.Weston was ok to deal with on a warrenty replacement, not the most prompt but they did end up sending me a complete replacement mixer and told me to keep/discard the old one. The new one arrived in a week or so and after studying the clearances as it turned it was obvoius this one would have the same if not worse fault.Not being the wasteful type I decided to put my engineering background to use and being the Ops Manager for a Machine Shop with a fab department I decided to fix this thing properly. I reverse engineered the shape and position of all 4 paddles and and made adjustments to the needed areas for proper clearances. I impoved the contact area where the paddles are welded to the drive shaft to go completly around the shaft for added weld strength as well as used thicker 1/8" 316L stainless steel material, this should help reduce flexing under larger work loads. The photos show the before and after results. I fully expect this to solve all my problems but I won't know for sure until next hunting season when I put it to use again.I am giving this a 4 star only because I ended up with two units for the price of one and that the bones of this thing seam good they just skimped on a very crucial area they shouldn't have.

After ordering the meat mixer, upon receiving it the lid was broken. I contacted Weston to just get a replacement lid. I was told I needed to follow the warranty process and will be required to pay for shipping. I already paid for shipping when I ordered it. Why must I pay for shipping again when the item was shipped broken? I don’t need to return the whole meat mixer, just get a replacement lid. Weston was adamant about charging me to ship the lid when I have done so already.

When the mixer arrived, the top cover was broken in shipment. A call to Weston was all it took to have a new cover on the way at no charge. The mixer is well constructed, nice welds and a decent finish. When I went to use the mixer I had a slight problem with the handle slipping on the shaft. The hole in the handle was machined a little oversize so I put in a shim ( .035" ) on the flat of the shaft and it worked flawlessly. I think I will solder the shim to the shaft so it will be a permanent fix, I know you should not have to be fixing new stuff but it was no big deal to take care of. I don't know if this is typical on their mixers. If so, they need a little better quality control as the average person may not have the means to correct this problem and will be sending it back.Having vented a little, I think it is a good mixer. I mixed up 30 lbs. of summer sausage splitting into two 15 lb. batches. The mixer did an excellent job, I think you could do 20lb. batches with no problem. All the ingredients were well blended and the paddle assembly comes out easily so you can load your stuffer.If you are blending meat for whatever, this is the way to go. Sure beats frozen and worn out hands.