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My band saw blade snapped mid cut on a 40 pound brisket and scared the daylights out of me
Happened on a Saturday rush about 3 weeks ago, right in the middle of breaking down a whole packer for a regular who orders 40 pounds every month. I was maybe 20 minutes into the trim and the blade just blew, sent a little piece of steel pinging off the back wall about 6 inches from my hand. Stood there for a second just breathing because that has never happened to me in 14 years behind the block. Turns out the tension was off and I had run that same blade about a month longer than I should have, trying to squeeze one more week out of it. Wrapped the brisket, swapped the blade, and still had him out the door by noon, but I'm never stretching one that far again. Anyone got a rule for how many pounds or hours you run a blade before you retire it, or do you just go by feel?
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luna26129d ago
Kinda sounds like the tension being off is the real story here and the blade age is getting blamed for it. A worn blade can run forever if you keep it tensioned right, and a brand new one will pop the second it goes slack, so maybe the lesson is check tension every few cuts instead of tossing blades on a schedule. I get like 60 to 80 briskets out of mine and I know guys who push way past that with zero issues, they just actually look at the thing. Not saying run it till it snaps, but a fixed pound count feels like wasting good steel.
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