www.sausagemaking.org

I'm looking for feedback...
I'm almost done building my new water stuffer (I got sick of cranking the old cast iron stuffer).
But in considering having to drain it when you get done I was thinking I could just hook it up to the air compressor instead. It wouldn't make a mess when it leaks plus it would give me a little higher pressure capability (still within the limits of the PVC).

I realize that the compressor may have minute particles of rust and moisture and at most a trace of oil from the cylinders. But because it will be behind the plunger I'm not concerned about contaminating the 1st load of sausage. I'm most interested in people's thoughts about cleaning it after use. My thought would be that a thorough soapy cleaning would remove any residue of compressor oil. (Plus the oil is listed as harmless on the MSDS as far as ingestion not causing any negative medical effects.)

Comments?

Well, I decided to go simple and start with water power.
Haven't had time to make a batch of sausage, but without resistance I can cycle the piston end to end in under 10 seconds. I know there's no way I can control 18mm casings that fast.



Not cheap but pretty simple.
4" clear PVC x 36" (just because I wanted to make it look cool)
4" threaded ends
4x2 reducers in each end
2x(various) casing tubes - have 2, 1, 3/4, 1/2, and 3/8" PVC plus 3/8" Stainless
1/2" water tubing with a 12VDC solenoid to a foot switch and a drill motor powered pump to reverse piston
HDPE piston with 3 o-rings

After editing to the right link it won't let me edit again to a revised crop to reduce the image size. Hopefully this one is better.

Already tried it with air? I've made a water stuffer too and a bit curious with air..

I never went for air. Water was so simple that I didn't think it was worth the effort.

(Plus I still stuff in the kitchen so running an air line into the house is a hassle. Now if I actually get around to putting an industrial stainless counter in the garage to make washdown easy I might try with air someday.)