Had my band saw blade snap mid-cut on a 40-pound pork shoulder yesterday

Honestly I was just getting into a rhythm around 2pm and then BANG the blade let go. It was an older blade I kept meaning to change but figured it had one more shift in it. That thing flew off and wrapped around the wheel like a spring. Took me a solid 20 minutes to get the tension released and the pieces out without cutting myself. Had to switch to my backup handsaw to finish the shoulder which threw off my whole evening prep. Now I'm out $45 for a new blade and I lost about 8 pounds of scrap from the rough cut. Anyone else had a blade go on them and found a good way to spot when they're about to fail?

1 comments

1 Comment

derekwalker15h ago

figured it had one more shift in it" - that's exactly how I lost a blade on a 55 pound brisket last year. You can usually tell they're about to go when you see tiny cracks forming near the weld or the blade starts tracking weird and sounds different. Mine was making a slight thumping noise for about 10 minutes before it snapped, which I ignored because I was already behind schedule. Now I keep a sharpie near my saw and mark the date on every new blade, and I swap them out around 20 hours of heavy use or sooner if they start acting funny.