Broke My Cabelas Grinder

[COEngineer]

My wife and I were grinding a couple of elk yesterday and we took a break to go have lunch at the neighbor's. I thought, "Let's just set the grinder outside (about 20 degF) and it will stay cold until we get back." Well, we got back a couple hours later and turned it back on. It made a loud 'bang' sound, but then ran fine for 20 minutes, then started making a rattling sound. I think the little bit of meat left in the feed tube, plate, knife area was frozen and created too much torque on the motor and something (gear?) broke.

Don't do what I did.

 

[COEngineer]

BTW, this is an old grinder (Weston brand), not the new ones which are Blue Sky Technologies(?).

 

[Dave N]

Does it still grind?