Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone ever cut a frozen tuna on their woodworking bandsaw in a pinch?

Seems like if it was good and frozen you wouldn't get too much chum sloughing off into the saw. When the fish thaws, you could cut off the part that touched the saw blade.

A fishing boat rolled in with 48 tons of nice albacore for sushi and no restaurants are buying, so they are hawking them on the dock. $3 a pound!

Pat

_________________
Pat

I would do it, but a sawzall with the appropriate blade might make for easier clean up. And if you use a new blade I wouldn't worry about cutting off the parts the blade touched.

I have cut hundreds of pounds of frozen King, Sockeye and Silver Salmon and troll caught steelhead into steaks on our bandsaws. Works GREAT and fast, But it is a mess to clean up. I don't do it anymore, but rather fillet and then butter-fly cut steaks from the boneless fillets. Cut whole frozen rib roasts into steaks as well.

Dang! 3 bucks a pound. That's worth the cleanup imo. Maybe you could line the inside of the saw with plastic wrap or something.

I think the answer lies in how nice of a saw you have...

Pics please!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

Well, I’ve cut “cannon bones” for my dog. I learned it was much less mess to let the butcher do it on his.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't do it. I have, though a different species of fish (Smallmouth Bass), and it was way too long before I couldn't smell it.

_________________
Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Ha! I'll admit to cutting the odd chunk of frozen meat or foie gras on the bandsaw. I run a chunk of wood through after and clean up the "shavings".

A friend of mine used to do that. Would go salmon fishing in no cal. Freeze solid and cut on a minimax. He never had any problems.

I've done frozen vegetables and frozen meats of all kinds. Just a quick pass for the evening's dinner, not a bunch, so the amount of "sawdust" was minimal. And has been said, I cut a few inches of hardwood afterwards to clean the blade.


Ed

I went with the sawzall and a 12 inch blade because it seemed like the cleanup would be easier. It worked okay but it was hard to hold the thing still! I might try the band saw next time.

Pat

_________________
Pat

No joke; I just re-watched Little Shop of Horrors tonight for the umpteenth time, and the Sawzall photo above looks just like when the dentist gets fed to the plant. Newspapers and blood.

OMG - That photo is screaming out for a chalk outline.

_________________
https://overendsite.wordpress.com/2017/ ... -complete/

Freddie Kruger would be proud.

Your bandsaw is grateful for that! Meat cutting bandsaws are made for easy cleanup, wood cutting saws not so much. For occasional use the large hack saw type might not be a bad way to go (and it will help you work up an appetite).

https://www.amazon.com/LEM-Products-639 ... lp_pl_dp_4

It would be nice if they could send a trainload of tuna to the east coast. They might even get a better price.

I agree. My family business growing up was a small meat processing/packaging operation. Meat bandsaws are different enough from wood bandsaws that I would not want to use one for the other's purpose.

Just think about all the little wood schmutz you clean off your bandsaw, when dust collection is not picking it up. Is it OK that it be fish guts schmutz? Apparently, there are folks who are OK with it, but I wouldn't want to do it.

The Sawzall idea looks pretty good.

First real job I ever had was at a restaurant that specialized in pan-fried chicken. Every new hire in the kitchen would start on a Friday, which was chicken-delivery day. Your first task was to clean the bandsaw after about 100 whole chickens had been cut in half. They were fresh, not frozen. It was a gag-inducing mess and, basically, a hazing ritual.

A lot of guys worked one shift and never came back. I was there 15 months. Not because I'm a tough guy with a taste for grisly work, but because the turnover was high enough that there was a new hire nearly every Friday.

_________________
George :-)

Ummm. Appetizing!

My wife once sawed a frozen turkey in half on the bandsaw when I was not at home. The cleanup was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I asked her not to do that again.

Wow... I'm really shocked that anyone would even consider doing this in their shop! I don't even allow food in my work space. And putting meat through one of my tools? I hate even putting plexiglass through my stuff, but it has to be done for certain jigs. Maybe y'all are just a bit more manly than I am!

As you were...

Normally I wouldn't even buy a whole tuna, but Corona times, ya'know...

Pat

And sorry, I guess I should have put this in the off-topic section.

_________________
Pat

I normally buy several Albacore tuna off the boat in July. They freeze beautifully and we eat them all year mostly as sushi. I wouldn't even consider using one of my shop band saws, better to let it thaw and use a sharp knife (or several).

That was a 20-pounder and I didn't want to thaw it all at once. If I did it again I would get a few 10 pounders and thaw one whole fish at a time.

Pat

_________________
Pat

No worries here. I knew by the title what I was getting into when I opened this thread. Y'all are wild!