A buddy called me up and told me he'd found something while tearing down an old house here in WV. He knows I like to make homemade sausages and he wanted it to go to a good home. So I drove over and looked at it. It's a 100 year old enterprise cast iron sausage stuffer.
I don't know when it was used last. Maybe in the 70s, given the plastic replacement funnel. Nothing worked. The grease was solidified and some of the threads on the screw drive were bunged up. After a LOT of file work to clean up the threads and some serious grease excavation, I got it all apart.
After a hot water/degreaser soak and scrub the Next step was into my gas stove for a 3 hour blast on self cleaning cycle to burn all the seasoning and grease out. I Brillo padded the surface rust, and used a wire wheel where it was more significant, then back into a 250 degree oven for a half hour to dry. I coated with crisco and back into the oven at 375 for 30 min then 450 for 30 min. Cooled and repeat. I didn't reseason the crank arm because the iron is forged around the wood. I just oiled the wood and coated the arm with a nice coat of oil. It was in pretty good shape still.
The finished product. A little mineral oil in the lube points and she is smooth as silk and ready to make sausage again.
I don't know when it was used last. Maybe in the 70s, given the plastic replacement funnel. Nothing worked. The grease was solidified and some of the threads on the screw drive were bunged up. After a LOT of file work to clean up the threads and some serious grease excavation, I got it all apart.
After a hot water/degreaser soak and scrub the Next step was into my gas stove for a 3 hour blast on self cleaning cycle to burn all the seasoning and grease out. I Brillo padded the surface rust, and used a wire wheel where it was more significant, then back into a 250 degree oven for a half hour to dry. I coated with crisco and back into the oven at 375 for 30 min then 450 for 30 min. Cooled and repeat. I didn't reseason the crank arm because the iron is forged around the wood. I just oiled the wood and coated the arm with a nice coat of oil. It was in pretty good shape still.
The finished product. A little mineral oil in the lube points and she is smooth as silk and ready to make sausage again.
