Who owns or maintained a Hobart 2612 slicer here?

[andyk5]

Like most people I bought a $100 slicer and was not happy with it, then bought a $500 slicer and still was not happy. Ended up with a Hobart 2612 very cheap because it was not in great condition.

1) nothing has been disassembled or cleaned in many many years
2) There is crusted food and stuff everywhere
3) everything has been lubed and I mean everything and left to grab dirt over the years.
4) Indexing knob and measure, sharpener, meat feed grip, front label missing, running light broken
5) Blade is not sharp and possibly outside service range.

I have disassembled every little part and currently deep cleaning it. Ordered the sharpener, meat grip, lamp, index knob as well as a slider bearing.

Plan is to put it back together cleanly, use the new sharpener to try to put an edge on the blade to see if its salvageable. I am sure it will get sharp, its just seems a bit too much material has been taken off over the years.

Questions:
1) Motor runs but it is not buttery smooth or quiet. What can I do to help that? Replace the belt?
2) What parts of this slicer needs to be lubed? I've got some food grade grease but don't want to grease things that are fine dry.
3) Am I missing anything while I have this thing in pieces in my garage?

 

[mosparky]

As for the motor noise, how bad is it and how comfortable are you with motor disassembly ? You mentioned a belt so I'll assume it is belt drive. Get the belt off and run the bare motor. Use a block of wood against the pulley or shaft to create load and see if the noise changes better or worse. If noise gets worse you might need bearing in the motor. That's where you need to decide if you can or want to live with the noise or are you willing to risk not being able to get the motor back together. Keep in mind that sometimes bearings are proprietary, meaning they are more or less custom made for the manufacturer and do not exactly match any common off the shelf bearing. which in turn means, to get the exact bearing, you need to go to the manufacturer and pray they still support the product. Otherwise, you may have to get creative and ingenius to make a close match bearing work. You could get lucky and only need to oil or light grease the bearings to buy time.
My suggestion is unless you are very confident/competent with the motor work, learn to live with it until you just can't anymore.
Of course if the belt has any cracks, splits or delaminating, replace it. Check the pullies closely for cracks (especially around the set screws) and that the set screws are tight. That is an easy prob to overlook and drive yourself nuts trying to find.
As far as lube goes I would use a light grease on the lift mechanism for the cut thickness and mineral oil for the sliding mechanism. You can get the mineral oil from the pharmacy. It is sold as a laxative and therefore food safe and cheaper than food grade machine oil which is virtually the same thing.
For the most part these are fairly simple. Just a motor, blade, thick adjust and slide movement.

 

[mosparky]

OK, it was late when I wrote that and there is one more thing I suggest you inspect and grease as needed.
The blade is most likely on a shaft, supported by a bearing at top and bottom. While the drive belt is off, carefully turn the blade and feel for any roughness in movement. If there is any at all, you will want to at least grease the bearings or replace as you see fit. The effect of being mounted in that hollow, cast housing is it becomes a sound chamber and any roughness turns to noise and gets amplified to annoying levels. Another easily over-looked source for noise.

 

[andyk5]

I have everything except the motor disassembled. Gonna run the wood block noise test first before attempting to deal with the motor.

Also what how would I know what size the blade should be? I mean it is supposedly 12 inches but none of the replacement blades are 12. One ebay seller claims OEM open box blade and it measures about 11 10/16. I think the service video says blade is good up to 1/4 inch wear, so if thats the case min diameter of the blade needs to be 11 6/16, mine is at 11 7/16 so barely making it in the range.

Is staying within the service range for the blade a big deal? I am trying to get super thin slices out of semi frozen briskets for kbbq and stuff.


Also what do you think about "replacement" blades. They sell them as stainless or hard chrome (even cheaper).

 

[mosparky]

I'm a tight-wad and therefore don't really believe in spending my own money where it don't need to be spent. I will, however- gladly help you spend yours.
At 1/16 over min size, that's 1/32 material left that can be lost to future sharpening . Doesn't sound like much, until you try to grind it off with a sharpener. For use as in a grocery they generally only get sharpened but 1-2 times a week. it could take several years to take that much off. For avg home use...you might not live that long.
Now things depend on just how bad the currrent blade is. Only you can judge that. A new blade will be scalpel sharp and should outlast you, your kids, and perhaps grandkids. If the blade will take a good edge it might at least outlast you, if you don't get over zealous with sharpening. It only takes a couple seconds of the sharpener to do the trick. Don't use a ton of pressure or use for more than a few seconds at a time. Doing so will create sparks (a bad thing) and overheat the cutting edge, making it loose temper, become soft and lose edge retention.
Not real sure on blade material. I would think either will outlast you. The stainless blade would without a doubt be best for commercial use where the machine gets cleaned and sanitized daily. Those chemicals can be a bit rough on non stainless materials. The chrome blade should be fine with home cleaning products and light coat of oil after use.

 

[andyk5]

I'm a tight-wad and therefore don't really believe in spending my own money where it don't need to be spent. I will, however- gladly help you spend yours.
At 1/16 over min size, that's 1/32 material left that can be lost to future sharpening . Doesn't sound like much, until you try to grind it off with a sharpener. For use as in a grocery they generally only get sharpened but 1-2 times a week. it could take several years to take that much off. For avg home use...you might not live that long.
Now things depend on just how bad the currrent blade is. Only you can judge that. A new blade will be scalpel sharp and should outlast you, your kids, and perhaps grandkids. If the blade will take a good edge it might at least outlast you, if you don't get over zealous with sharpening. It only takes a couple seconds of the sharpener to do the trick. Don't use a ton of pressure or use for more than a few seconds at a time. Doing so will create sparks (a bad thing) and overheat the cutting edge, making it loose temper, become soft and lose edge retention.
Not real sure on blade material. I would think either will outlast you. The stainless blade would without a doubt be best for commercial use where the machine gets cleaned and sanitized daily. Those chemicals can be a bit rough on non stainless materials. The chrome blade should be fine with home cleaning products and light coat of oil after use.

What about the gap between the gauge plate, the plate that supports the product and moves perpendicular against the blade to adjust thickness, and the blade.

When a slicer is new and gauge plate is completely closed or slightly higher than the blade where the blade can't cut anything, the gap between the the blade and plate is almost water tight. As the blade wears down that gap keeps getting larger and larger even though you might be able to keep the blade super sharp. I wonder that gap there (having 1/4 inch of the meat not supported by the gauge plate as the blade is hitting the product) would have any negative effects on the end product, especially for cutting super thin slices.

I mean I'll probably start with the current blade, sharpen it and see what it does.

Edit: I am a tight wad as well.

 

[mosparky]

That will remain to be seen. The gap should only be 1/8 inch. Remember that 1/4 inch wear is 1/8 off from center. all the way around. So 1/8 off the side towards the support plate and another 1/8/ off the opposite side where it is free floating.
I don't think I have ever used one with a blade that worn down, but maybe. Most problems I've run into have more to do with tails on the meat and/or tapered cuts, mostly due to dull blade, gap between the sliding plate and the blade ( they all have it always seems too much) or meat just not cold enough to cut cleanly.

 

[jannickz]

It sounds like you're well on your way to giving that Hobart 2612 slicer a new lease on life! Don't lubricate roller bearings, belts, or any areas that need friction to function properly. Keep track of springs, washers, and other small parts. Place them in labeled containers to avoid confusion during reassembly. As you clean, inspect parts for wear and tear. You might find additional parts that need replacing beyond what you already ordered. Consider replacing worn gears, bearings, or any components that seem damaged.