Saw broke bad on a whole hog last Saturday - bone dust everywhere

Was breaking down a 250 pound hog for a customer's freezer order at my shop in Des Moines. My bandsaw blade started wandering halfway through the loin and I didn't catch it until I'd sawed clean through a rib. Ended up with bone fragments ground into about 8 pounds of meat that I had to toss. Had to stop, swap to a fresh blade at 22 teeth per inch, and trim around the mess. Whole thing added 45 minutes to my day and made me look sloppy. Anyone else have a blade go dull on a big primal and have to scrap product?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucasw8412h ago

Did you try adjusting the blade tension before swapping out? I used to think blade wandering was always a dull blade problem, but after a similar mess with a 200 pounder I realized speed and feed pressure were the real culprit.

lucast819h ago

Yeah I actually did try cranking the tension first, even went a little past what the manual said. Still had the blade walking like a drunk uncle at a wedding. But once I backed off the feed speed and let the blade do its thing it cut way straighter. @jake747 called it, we always blame the wrong part first.

jake7479h ago

Funny how that is, @lucasw84. Same pattern shows up in a lot of stuff we blame on the wrong thing.