Meat band saw conversion???

[McBryde]

Can a hobart meat band saw that is used to cut up meat be converted to cut wood efficiently? I ask this only because I was driving down the road the other day and saw one at a guys house and stopped to ask if he was interested in selling it, thought I might could make a buck, and the price kinda shocked me that it was so cheap. It has a 1 hp 110v motor on it. Thought about keeping it possibly to saw up larger pieces since it has like a 23" opening on it, and I have only a table top band saw.

Any info in it would be helpful if someone has done this before, ending up good or bad.

E

 

[greenmtnguy]

I had one years ago that I used to cut wood. The meat blades do not need the kerf that wood blades do, as there is not a lot of sawdust in meat. You can get blades made up for wood for the saw, but the blade wheels do not have rubber on them. When you tension a wood blade, the set of the blade is taken out on one side. Put rubber on the blade drive wheels and that is cured. I sawed short pieces of logs into squares for carving. I finally sold it to a home meat cutter.

 

[Chasper]

The newer meat saws have a Derlin-like polymer layer on the wheels, but I don't think the wheel is crowned as it needs to be for a blade that is kerfed like a wood blade. Older meat saws with metal wheels were hard to keep good tension on the blades, the newer ones are more forgiving. Hobart is a very good brand; all stainless, tightly cased, easy to open and clean.

 

[McBryde]

This is an older saw, cast iron base with stainless top on it. I figured I could get a wood cutting blade for it, just didn't know how well it might work out for me.

E