Warning: my 1950s Hobart grinder blew a seal mid-batch and I lost 40 lbs of pork
Last Tuesday I was running a 60 lb batch of breakfast sausage through my old Hobart when I heard a pop and saw grease leaking into the meat. I shut it down right away, but 40 lbs of pork had to go in the trash because I wasn't about to sell anything with gear oil in it. My granddad ran that same grinder for 30 years and never had this happen, so I guess the seal finally gave out after all these decades. I called a repair guy in Springfield who quoted me $280 for a new seal and a full cleanout, which stings but beats buying a new machine. Has anyone else had an old workhorse fail on them in the middle of a big order, and how did you handle the downtime?