Had to pick between a band saw and a grinder with my $1,200 gear budget, went with the saw

Wren Foster · 2026-10-19T06:50:05.173128+00:00

So last month my old band saw finally gave out on me (a 20 year old Hobart I got secondhand from a guy in Fresno) and I had about $1,200 set aside for gear. I could either replace the saw or finally get a good commercial grinder, and I sat on that decision for a week. I went with the saw because breaking down whole primals by hand was eating up two hours of my Saturday and my shoulder was killing me. Six weeks in and my yield on chuck is up maybe 4 percent just from cleaner cuts, which honestly surprised me. But now I'm stuck grinding with the old 3/4 horse unit and it's slow as molasses on a 40 pound batch of sausage, so I'm second guessing the order I did things. Curious what you all would have picked first, the saw or the grinder, and whether the grinder upgrade actually paid off for you in time or quality.

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Had to pick between a band saw and a grinder with my $1,200 gear budget, went with the saw | Butchers - Rigidtalk