Greetings all, I’m John from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Home of the Calgary Stampede. As a kid I helped process meat on the farm, and have been an avid hunter and fisherman to this day. I retired in January so decided to get back into sausage making. Just got my updgraded slicer from Walton’s and posted some pictures of the upgrade. I also ordered a variety of spices & casings. I have a Backwoods upright briquet smoker and took a day long course at a nearby smoke house, Big Sky BBQ which got us both into it. Your Meatgistics ‘how to’ videos are very helpful and inspiring. Thanks.

Been way to long with a manual slicer and my new 12" slicer arrived. Thank you Walton’s…this is a beast. Shipping to Canada took some time but worth the wait.

processhead If your pork belly is 11 or 12 inches wide then yes you can split it in half or I ‘fold’ the belly. I fold mine in the shape of a U, put a rubber band on it and put it on a shelf in my freezer to really stiffen it up. Then I feed it through the slicer with the bottom on the U to be first to hit the blade. The handle/gripper on the slicer held it well and nice even slices until you are almost out of bacon.

You are definately missing the spring…it creates the right amount of tension.

kyle Thanks Kyle. I see it daily. Cheers

I cut dowels of various sizes to clean stuffer horns. I store my processing gear in a cabinet. The stuffer is on the top shelf horizontal and I simply put my largest dowel under the botten edge of the stuffer so the suction cups don’t bear the weight.

Benton’s Bacon- Tennessee watch this video - they make 12,000 pounds per week. Best bacon I’ve ever eaten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVNSNGXzmO4

Dave in AZ Thanks Dave. I’ve been reading daily and love to see how folks describe a mistake and see the positive responses. You also commented on my HDPE angled slicer guide I posted about. Great stuff. Cheers

Bob Stehlik bocephus I just posted a picture of how I store mine and no need to remove suction cups each time

I found on mine the vent screw was completely tightened and it would not let the air out. I back off the screw a few turns and it was better. A couple more turns and I could hear the air escaping and no more farce escaped.

PapaSop Thank you. I am enjoying so many hobbies my days are packed.

Jonathon By all means. Yes

Dave in AZ, you may recall I upgraded from a small manual slicer to a 12 inch Waltons slicer (and posted a few photographs of both). It works great and i use on a variety of meats, cheese, vegetables and fruits. I slice my whole muscle meat roasts for jerky semi-frozen and you can hear the motor work a little harder but no problems. If you wanted to slice traditional pork belly slabs about the maximum width of the slab you can cut is 8 inches unless you fold in half and semi freeze, to get it quite stiff and then slice it.

mrobisr Thank you very much

The bottom of the block (as it is resting on the table) sits on the slicer guide as though I was going to slice the block. My meat is almost frozen , so quite stiff, and rests on the 45 degree angle facing towards the blade. The block is tall enough the the meat goes through the slicer but the block never gets close to the blade, This was the second attempt as I modified my height, so simply remelted the plastic and repoured. No damage to the loaf pan either…so wife was happy too.

My butcher gave me guidance on slicing jerky at a 45 degree angle across the grain for best jerky. I decided to make myself a guide for consistent cutting. Measured the size I wanted, made a mold from scrap wood, melted some HDPE plastic (it has the #2 recycle guide) in a loaf pan at 400 degrees in the oven (don’t line with parchment paper). Drilled 2 holes in back of mold and put in 2 large headed nails. The nails are hit on the back side to knock out the mold Ed plastic. Put the melted plastic into the mold and covered with the wooden door and put on 2 clamps. Left for a couple hours to cool. Two small screws in door to pull it off once cool. Hammered the nails in the back and knocked out my rough block. Sanded off the edges and used a lighter to get rid of any plastic ‘hairs. Voila! Used the guide yesterday and worked great.