It is not my intention to teach any one to suck eggs but not everyone is mechanically minded enough to sort out problems with equipment.
I recently bought a Reber stuffer which was second hand from a member on ebay. The description was that it had been used once for a barbeque last year and not been used since. So I bought it on these conditions.
When it arrived it look like new in it's original box both machine and box were unmarked. Ofcourse I did not go over the moving bits with a magnifying glass to check for wear.
I have probably used it for about ten kilos of meat.
On the last use I found that the meat containerwas lifting up from it's horizontal position and I was having to hold it down whilst turning the handle. Furhter investigation I found that the piston was not staying still on it's thrust instead was rotating as it pushed the meat out of the stuffer.
It appeared that the threaded shaft was bent or something was causing the piston to act as if it was eccentric.
So as I had reached the end of my filling it was strip down to clean time.
I found that the piston had come off of the shaft and also that the cup and ball joint at the end of the shaft was locked up in bent position thus causing the out of balance movement that made it appear eccentric.
I removed the offset securing pin and took the piston boss off of the threaded shaft.
Close examination under magnification revealed that the grove into which the retaining pin sits had now got a heavy burr caused by the high tensile retaining pin being thrust against the relatively soft steel shaft.
This meant that as the piston was forced back whilst compressing the meat the piston boss was being forced onto the burring and beconming jammed so that it went round with the shaft.
Now designwise two hard metals rubbing against each other without lubrication is a NO NO and the heat generated will eventually cause a breakdown.
So out with the dremmil and on with magnifying safety glasses and we remove the burrs and make it so that it is now the free turning joint it supposed to be. Lashing of white petroleum jelly is now packed into this cup and ball joint and I thought it prudent to also lubricate the threaded shaft likewise.
If this machine has only been used for the stated time then the wear on this joint is something to be worried about as this is the main part of the machine which is under stress all of the time and must be kept lubricated.
In future my cleaning operation will include removing the retaining screw and taking the piston off of the shaft for cleaning and leaving the shaft on the machine....this can be acheived by removing the retaining screw through the filler orifice with an allen key and just backing off the shaft so that the meat container can be lifted out of it's resting position without the need for winding the shaft all the way back,
I hope this helps someone as I don't think Reber give any maintenance instruction in their manual ........if they supply one that is.
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