'Oh sorry, I should clarify that .... it wasn't 20 pounds all at once ' no problem, I figured that. I'd do the same - run a bunch of something thru, dump it in a container and re-load - lol! I ordered the ninja from qvc (4 easy pays). I figured if it didn't work out, at least my money isn't tied up. I'm thinking positive tho so don't pay s/h back. I also thought about the weight of the bowl/pitcher and plastic is good for me. also less likely to break if it slips out of my hands. It does have a huge pitcher that I thought would be good for making juice and sauce/ salsa. I'll probably use the smaller one most of the time. most of the others don't get over 500 w, the vitamix qvc had on this a.m. is 1380 watts and the ninja is 1100 I think. it should be here this week and I hope I have the time/feel up to spending time figuring it out and doing a test run with it!

A FP like that mostly uses a direct drive "squirrel cage" induction motor. A motor like that is a very simple electrical device. It has magnetic field coils driving a center non-electrical rotor. And the coils are connected to switches and other contacts.. If the coils get burnt out from overloading, you will for sure smell it. Still, if you have an ohm meter, you can quickly check continuity. The components which can go wrong are mostly the switches, which can easily be checked with an ohm meter. Replacing switches can be inexpensive. If the motor's coil is burnt, it cannot be repaired. The whole motor will need to be replaced, which may cost more than buying a new FP. I suspect the problem might be a rusty switch or contacts, and not the motor. dcarch

Thanks again for all the good suggestions and support. So many good points. I will get the new blade. (I can be a superb procrastinator). I looked at the blade last night and felt it as well. Photos included. It looks pretty good for being 35 + years old. I tend to wash things like this by hand and never put my cooking knives in the dishwasher, even if protected. That electric DW detergent is extremely harsh. I wonder how much that might contribute to the rivets and blade wear responsible for the recall. (Two dissimilar metals egged on by DW detergent?) The blade was “sharp” but in a micro-ragged sort of way because of burring. The rivets and blade look good. I’m not going to sharpen it, but will just remove the burrs with a small rounded diamond hone. Along the lines articulated by dcarch, a food processor gets used for fine chopping, but also sometimes chunking/macerating tough material. The latter could chip a sharp blade. carolb — like you, I also have a manual grinder. I have a few grinders I’ve picked up over the years. I like useful gadgets. I considered using one, but was low on energy and thought I could quickly chunk-blend the raw chicken parts, soupy liver, guts, neck, that I wasn’t keen on having drip, leak and splatter. And because the yuk-stuff was a few days old, I wanted to keep it contained (the critter likes old stuff, will eat carrion). My chicky stuff was only two days from the store, but I consider raw chicken filthy. I was too tired to pre-treat it with my large $15 yard sale cleaver (splatter) and didn’t want to go outdoors to a tree stump chopping block in the cold sog. The Cuisinart FP is easy to clean with hot soapy water and bleach. No intricate parts. So, being tired and a tad lazy, I was too smart by half. So yep, inattentive operator, rarely used gadget, tough chunks in liquid, a bit too much volume. Haz-Mat cleanup required anyway ;-0 Maybe I’ll make baba ganoush (sp) in the FP to help erase my memory of the splatter debacle.

It appears that the cover part is DLC-877BGTX which you can find on ebay.