I use this meat grinder on beef, pork and veal. I wash, dry, debone and defat the meat, then grind it. Why? I want to ensure that the meat has been ground under sanitary conditions, and I want to control how much fat is ground into the meat.I have owned mine for more than a year, use it once or twice a month for ten to twenty pounds of meat, and except for the caveats listed below, I am very pleased with its performance.But there are three caveats. The first two deal with the washing and storing of the machine’s removable parts. The third, how to put the machine together so that it works flawlessly.The first is, I always wash every part by hand as soon as I’m done using it and THOROUGHLY dry them immediately. (I once put the “die-cast hopper” in the dishwasher, and it discolored – so now it’s strictly hand washing.)The second caveat is that the cutting plates will rust unless they are washed, THOROUGHLY dried, and stored immediately after use. Even then, I’ve had a couple turn rusty. I tried vacuum packing them. I’ve tried storing them in oil. They rusted anyway. Then I found the answer. I save the little ‘drier’ packets that so many articles ship with, and store the blade and cutting plates in the same Ziploc with several packets, and ever since, no rust!My third warning has to do with two common mistakes made when putting the machine together. The first (most common mistake) is cutting blade placement. The second is the order in which machine parts are tightened. I suspect most of the complaints others have made began with one or both of these.Blade placement: The flat part of the blade must face the cutting plate. This means that the sharp side of the blade does NOT face the meat coming at it, but rather faces out, toward the place where the meat exits the machine. If the flat side of the blade doesn’t lay directly on the cutting plate, nothing works right. BUT, you must place these parts onto the machine LAST, after all of the rest of the machine has been assembled.ALWAYS tighten the Grinder/Feeder Head to the machine’s body FIRST, making certain it is fully seated (with a little maneuvering) before tightening it in place with the Locking Knob. Then seat the Feed Screw, again, maneuvering it until it is fully seated. Then comes the Cutting Blade, Cutting Plate and Screwing Ring. Tighten the blade/plate/ring **LAST**, after all other parts have been tightened.An easy way to remember this is to simply start the assembly with the machine’s body and work your way out toward the end where the meat comes out, tightening each part before inserting the next.The full product description and assembly instructions are available online. The pdf which names all of the pieces and gives detailed instructions on how to put the machine together is available on the ‘waringproducts’ website. The pdf’s file name is ’37_man dot pdf’. If you search for that file name and extension, and add the word ‘grinder’ you should be able to find it online. (Amazon does not allow me to spell it out for you… more’s the pity.)I have never attempted to grind bones, even cooked bones with the machine. I have never run it under full load for longer than ten minutes at a time. For me, that is normal home use. For those who butcher their own cattle or deer, or grind meat or poultry without first deboning, this might not be the right machine. But it is perfect for my purposes, and I highly recommend it!