It's possible that I've used the my hand-crank meat grinder for compostable materials when it happened to be out anyway, though I can't say for certain. I can attest that what it does to vegetables will make some good quick-composting stuff. Like lazygardens said, though, you really don't need to cut things up at all if you don't want to, because everything will compost eventually. I pretty much only cut up things if I have a large quantity of large-ish stuff that won't compost quickly. For instance, if I've just juiced several oranges (food processor), or if I've just pulled all of the squash vines out of the garden at the end of the season (lawn mower), or long-stemmed cut flowers (scissors). Otherwise, I don't bother. However, if you're really committed to grinding up your stuff before you compost it, I think a hand-crank meat grinder would do the job nicely. You'll develop some nice biceps while you're at it, too. :-)

Interesting post. I have a meat grinder - but it is a "stand-alone" type, that I purchased a few years ago. Can't recall the name, but only paid $99 for it. I do use mine quite a bit, as I buy large sizes of pork and beef for grinding into 1 lb. size packs, then freeze in styrofoam cartons. No freezer burn so far. However, my reason for posting is that I recently noted that some grinders can be used for grinding pulp - such as whole apples, in making apple juice. Something that I haven't tried as yet, but in case I get a windfall of apples this year, I intend to give it a whirl. The only use now is as I mentioned, mainly for making pork and beef sausage. After grinding the pork, I add lots of garlic, salt, pepper and fennel - for some nice Italian-type sausage. Great for breakfast or in spaghetti sauce. Can't comment on attachments tho - Just my 2 c's. Bejay

Is it large, or would it fit into a foot square box? When I was young, most families had a smaller grinder one would clamp onto a table. I have three of them now, lol. One I married into, one my folks had and one I had. My Daddy would whip it out around the holidays to grind the suet we used for plum pudding and I don't remember them using it for much of anything else other than grinding up ham for salads or maybe a chunk of lean pork for chorizo. It would have been considerably smaller than a grinder one would use when working up hogs, unless you were stuffing sausage casings for a small family and some of them even came with that attachement. Having an old, old patent date doesn't always date the appliance to that time frame, because not much changes with simple mechanical devices like that (and cherry pitters or apple corers). IOW no need for new and improved designs and patents because the old designs worked fine and there wasn't much to improve on. One can still buy small meat grinders and they are still manufactured. If you have a small family sized unit, it could have been made anytime from the patent date on and what Linda said.

Arley -- I have a CORONA CORN MILL for coarse milling (you can adjust the grind from fine to coarse), and two other hand mills (noted below) that will also do coarse milling. I teach classes on home milling and that's why I've accumulated all these mills over the years. I also have a Marga Flaker Mill for milling flakes and some coarse milling (it has 3 different settings but can NOT do corn - only grains), and a Nutrimill (for fine flour). FAMILY GRAIN MILL: You can't (repeat, can NOT) mill popcorn and flint corn ("Indian" corn), chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) or tapioca pearls with a Family Grain Mill, but you CAN mill dent (field) corn. WONDER Jr. DELUXE MILL is another great little mill you should take a look at. It will mill all types of corn (popcorn, flint and dent) using the stone head (adjustable to grind desired). It will also mill tapioca pearls with the stainless steel burrs. You have a little more variety with this mill since it has both stone heads and stainless steel burrs. You can even mill peanut butter with roasted peanuts, almonds for making almond flour, coffee beans, flax, and the tiny things like teff and amaranth that a lot of mills can't mill into flour. I also have a Porkert Seed Mill for tiny seeds and oily seeds (flax, poppy). Not all mills can mill oily seeds. If I could only keep one mill out of my bevy of them, I would have to pick the Wonder Jr. Deluxe Mill (http://pleasanthillgrain.com/wonder-junior-deluxe-grain-mill - be sure to check prices on-line, they can vary quite a bit). It will do everything from fine to coarse flour. You can also mill with it using either the optional large pully system powered by a variety of power systems (including a stationary bike), or an optional adapter and an electric/battery powered drill, if you don't want to mill by-hand only. I had the Whisper Mill, which is now the Wonder Mill (electric micronizer mill), and it was a real workhorse for fine flour, but after years of great service it met with a horrible kitchen accident and went to "appliance heaven". I replaced it with a Nutrimill because it has a few features the (electric) Wonder Mill doesn't have, but neither of these mills will mill coarse flour you are looking for.