[caterchef]

Originally Posted by DuckFat

I'm looking for a new meat slicer. I'm not having much luck locally as the prices are hundreds of dollars more than the on line prices. Does any one have a suggestion for an on line vendor that they have used for commercial equipment?

Buy a Hobart, They cost more but, worth it. I've had mine for over 30 years.
Stay away from the cheap imports, they are made cheap to sell cheap .
I have a Hobart Mixer that's over 70 years old and it's just as good as the new ones.
You will never have any trouble with service or parts. Although I have never needed any.

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by DuckFat

I'm looking for a new meat slicer. I'm not having much luck locally as the prices are hundreds of dollars more than the on line prices. Does any one have a suggestion for an on line vendor that they have used for commercial equipment?

Duck -- Don't know how I missed it since it's the first sentence, but I did. You're looking for a meat slicer. Now I get it.

As I said before, I've dealt with other branches of the parent company for this and that, have found them quick and reliable. They went above and beyond in some way when I bought a blender from them a few years ago; but for the life of me can't remember what it was they actually did.

Whether you buy from them or not, you'll find the site of some interest. At the least it will give you some idea of what fairly competitive prices are on a range of the better brands' models.

So, at long last, just returned from performing before ths crowned heads of Europe, and brought to you at great expense to the management; without further ado, I give you the talented and lovely: Slicer World - Slicers and restaurant equipment

BDL

[left4bread]

Originally Posted by DuckFat

Locally I have had two sales people not call back, a few that were through the roof in price and a third that was supposed to be a factory authorized dealer send me some place else that doesn't even carry slicers.

sounds about right, unfortunately.
You bought a good machine. Let me know if the dial is accurate after a couple weeks. I'm sincerely interested.
The reason why I chose a Globe over a Hobart was because I got to see the Globe in action at a food show. I doubt one significantly out-performs the other.
Well, you could always ask one of their reps who don't return calls. /sigh
Good luck and happy slicing.
and btw, wasn't trying to be a jerk about the thread headers.
Mostly I come here for equipment/ordering help, that's why I said something.

and BDL: ouch! that link hurt my eyes! They need to hire a graphics designer or something... which means they are probably only interested in selling fine equipment...
hmmmmm.

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by left4bread

You bought a good machine. Let me know if the dial is accurate after a couple weeks. I

I haven't bought one yet. There is still one more local I am trying to get pricing from. I did find out that the small Globes are made in Italy like most of the other small slicers so I'm not sure it will be worth the extra cost. As far as the dials go I don't think any of them are that accurate. I always set the blade by eye and running a slice Vs the dial. That was the same even on a very old Globe I used to own.

[left4bread]

check centralresaurantsupply then if you haven't. they're good for a ballpark figure, I've found.
And you can always haggle shipping with them.
Thought you said you purchased already, but I'm need to go to bed now...
der......

good night!

[foodpump]

Berkel and Hobart are bomb-proof. Smaller Berkels are made in Italy as well.

With used, most of the damage is done on the chasis (lubricating with veg-oil--a big no-no) on the depth setting, (plopping down a hunk of ham and forcing the dial) on the motor (trying to "speed slice" through a 5" square hunk of aged cheddar, and on the blade gaurds and housings (You don't know the amount of damage a slice of tomato can do , I've seen it eat through 1/4 of cast aluminum in a week).

Re-builds are fine, but you have to have a decent servicer in your area

For any commercial application NEVER get anything smaller than a 12" blade or it'll just wimp out when you want to slice through cheese. NEVER get a slicer that doesn't have the built-in sharpening attachment, short, 10 second bursts of sharpening should be done once a week.

[DuckFat]

Unfortunately I'm not finding much in small Hobarts. I had a small Berkel in the past that was a very good machine but Berkel has been bought out by another company. I'm not sure if that impacted their quality at all.
The problem with the Globe is that it's just heavy enough that it will only ship by common carrier but the Berkel I'm looking at can go UPS. I'm Still waiting on one more local bid and I found a local shop with re-builds (Hobart, Globe) that I need to check out.
I appreciate the feed back and links from every one.
The next step is ordering a butcher block table for it from Michigan Maple Block.

[foodpump]

Butcher block?

I think "Boos" has bought out "Michigan Maple", I may be incorrect, as I frequently am, but was told this by some people in the field a while back.

Those suckers are expensive. Lovely to work with, but expensive, and the temptation for any dip-wad to "Go Kamikazee" with a knife and start chopping and hacking on the poor block is very strong. I've known a few mild-mannered waiters doing this in the wee hours of the morning before I caught them.

Those suckers are expensive, and if you do wrangle one, do yourself a $100 favour:

Make a nylon cutting board top for it.

It simple, you get a cutting board about 2" wider and longer than the top, and screw on a 1" strip along the edges so it can sit on the block without shifting.

If you're handy with tools, nylon cutting boards can be cut with regular woodworking tools and you use s/s screw found at any Home Despot or similair to screw on the strips

Reasons for doing so:

1) You can toss the nylon top into the d/w
2) You prevent deep scarring on the block and "kamikazee" attacks
3) No need to sanitize the wood top eveery shift, all meat cutting is done on the nylon top. Sure, you keep the wood top clean, but you're not wide eyed at 3 am in the morning on your day off wondering if the new guy who just boned out 20 banquet turkeys and gave the block a quick wipe with his sleeve, assuring others that "The near magical bacteria killing properties of wood will render any errant turkey juice harmless"....

Don't get me wrong. A block is a wonderfull hunk of wood. It's solid--unlike any wobbly cheap-azz s/s prep table, and you can break down a side of pork on it without any movement.

"Old school" sanitizing was mainly to sprinkle kosher salt on it overnight, which would draw out any moisture. Regular bleach or sanitizer doesn't hurt neither. There are scrapers avaialable for it as well, but these remove wood and within a few years the block will have a distinct "hollow" to it. Here in Vancouver every Chinese butcher has one, and I swear a 5 yr old kid can curl up and sleep in the hollows of some of those blocks....