Sausage stuffer recs please

[etpm]

I'm sure lots of folks here are making their own sausages. I use a meat grinder attached to the Kitchenaid mixer to grind meat. But it makes a lousy sausage stuffer. After the meat is ground, even if I partially freeze it, it is still a pain to feed through the auger type meat grinder for stuffing. So I have decided to get a sausage stuffer.
The general type I think I want is the piston type that is just a straight cylinder that has a plate on the bottom to attach the stuffer tube. It looks like everything comes apart for easy cleaning. The curved type ones don't interest me. Back to the straight ones. It looks like the type with a screw that drives the piston down. This screw can be turned directly by a hand crank or through a right angle gear set. I am also open to a motor driven unit that I can control with a foot switch. That seems like it would make the stuffing job way easier.
Since I finally retired, and since I'm the cook in the house, and since I like cooking and canning and smoking and etc. I think a sausage stuffer will get a lot of use.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Borane4]

You are correct about Kitchen Aid grinders...they are horrible stuffers, just short of worthless. The premier piston stuffer is by F Dick (yeah, ironic) and they are great but expensive. Hakka makes one that's sold on Amazon that is cheaper but still pretty good. Mine is a hand crank 5 pound and has two speeds - its a game-changer. I suppose an electric would be great if you are working alone. Loading the casing is the hardest part, but that's the same no matter the stuffer. Stuffing 5 lbs takes like 20 seconds

 

[etpm]

You are correct about Kitchen Aid grinders...they are horrible stuffers, just short of worthless. The premier piston stuffer is by F Dick (yeah, ironic) and they are great but expensive. Hakka makes one that's sold on Amazon that is cheaper but still pretty good. Mine is a hand crank 5 pound and has two speeds - its a game-changer. I suppose an electric would be great if you are working alone. Loading the casing is the hardest part, but that's the same no matter the stuffer. Stuffing 5 lbs takes like 20 seconds

I will probably be doing the stuffing alone. There is no way I can see myself stuffing 5 pounds in less than 20 minutes, much less than 20 seconds. You must have had lots of practice. Since I seem to make about 12 pounds of sausage at a time a good sausage stuffer is really necessary. Thanks for the recs.
Eric

 

[m1garand762]

Look around for an old enterprise. Mine is over 100 years old and still going strong. They pop up on Craigslist all the time and parts are still available from lehmans