It’s what I found when I pulled the auger out after grinding. The parts catalog shows a washer style bearing but the machine came with what looks to be a pressed in plastic piece (already installed in the housing) there was no washer style bearing in the packaging when I opened it that can be removed. I think it got hot and came apart leaving the ring you see in pic, the rest is still in the housing. I’ll add another pic if I can figure out how

I ran my new Weston pro #32 for 5-10min and the auger bearing cooked… I followed the assembly and meat prep and operating instructions to a t. Emailed Weston for help and still have not received a response. The website says the part is out of stock… any thoughts on what to do next so I can actually use my machine and not void warranty or lose the $800 + I just dumped on this product and have several hogs to butcher…
As far as performance, the grinder worked great for the few min I actually got to use it.