# Meat band saw conversion???



## McBryde (Sep 1, 2010)

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.

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## greenmtnguy (Sep 1, 2010)

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.


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## Chasper (Sep 1, 2010)

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.


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## McBryde (Sep 1, 2010)

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.

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