May a bit of vegie oil at the point of where the screen fit into the shaft. just a drop and smear it to cover the circumference. Otherwise check all of your parts as they fit together to see if there is a defect in the part. I haven't used my for a couple of years but I recall that the instructions did make reference to a drop of oil to keep the rubber gasket pliable.

It sounds like a texture with the food issue. Under-ripe, fruits that are still quite firm/hard do require intermittent stopping and cleaning. Especially if doing a big batch of it. It is an easy problem to solve with most foods by either simply pre-softening them first. A brief pre-cooking as with tomatoes or macerating the fruit in the fridge overnight first.

It is the liquid in the food that keeps the process moving smoothly. Minimal liquid (such as with paste tomatoes) grinds to a halt. Berries with seeds can plug the berry screen but macerating them first so you are feeding through a semi-soupy mix eliminates most of the problems.

Dave

Thanks for the advice. It started out great, but quickly went downhill. The blackberry seeds/pulp left were really jammed in the end of the auger and not getting pushed out through the end of the mill. I even heated everything up in the microwave a bit before starting to help soften some of the fruit a bit. I put the processed berries back in the freezer and the rest of the unprocessed stuff in another bag and will thaw and try again another day when I'm less frustrated. I was only trying to process 2 quarts of berries so it's a shame I had so much trouble with such a small quantity.

Give the company a call if they have a toll free consumer line. They may be able to help you trouble shoot the problem. Good luck.

I am having the same trouble: the crank gets stuck due to excess seeds between the red part inside & the berry strainer when processing black raspberries. Its a huge pain bc you have to take apart the entire thing & clean it & start over. One suggeation may be to use the regular red part for the normal screen with the berry screen. The normal red part is shorter & there is more room between it & the screen for ruffage. Good luck!