Sliced bread.

On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.

Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
resharpened once an hour!

I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!

They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
production rates. I was curious, anyway.

Andy
--
I'm no longer a danger to society.

On Jul 24, 8:52*pm, Andy > wrote:
> Sliced bread.
>
> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
> Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>
> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
> resharpened once an hour!
>
> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!

Wonder bread is barely bread as far as I'm concerned. It's so light,
diaphanous and full of preservatives it would fold up and die from
anything less than a razor sharp blade.

My mother gave up Wonder Bread one year when she put a plate of it out
to dry out to make Thanksgiving turkey dressing, and it would NOT GO
STALE! Ruined the dressing that year, and my mother switched to
Pepperidge Farms bread.

I use Panera's sourdough myself, which is also somewhat squishy to cut
when fresh and
unrefrigerated. It makes outstanding dressing when dried out though!
YUM!

John Kuthe...


>
> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>
> Andy
> --
> I'm no longer a danger to society.

John Kuthe wrote:

> On Jul 24, 8:52 pm, Andy > wrote:
>
>>Sliced bread.
>>
>>On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
>>Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>
>>Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
>>resharpened once an hour!
>>
>>I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>
>
> Wonder bread is barely bread as far as I'm concerned. It's so light,
> diaphanous and full of preservatives it would fold up and die from
> anything less than a razor sharp blade.
>
> My mother gave up Wonder Bread one year when she put a plate of it out
> to dry out to make Thanksgiving turkey dressing, and it would NOT GO
> STALE! Ruined the dressing that year, and my mother switched to
> Pepperidge Farms bread.
>
Wonderbread is what my mother always used for dressing. But you can't
just set it out on a plate, you've got to lay it out on the racks in an
old-school gas oven (the kind with a pilot light) with the door ajar,
and you've got to start it the afternoon before.

Personally, I have no interest in using bread that has apparently been
embalmed.

> I use Panera's sourdough myself, which is also somewhat squishy to cut
> when fresh and
> unrefrigerated. It makes outstanding dressing when dried out though!
> YUM!

Panera's sourdough rocks. It makes the best grilled ham and cheese
sandwiches in the world (this is my George Foreman Grill's sole
justification for the space it takes up). I also make sourdough butter
and garlic croutons that my kids prefer to any sort of chip or pretzel.

John Kuthe said...


> Wonder bread is barely bread as far as I'm concerned. It's so light,
> diaphanous and full of preservatives it would fold up and die from
> anything less than a razor sharp blade.


I meant bread slicing at ANY bread factory. The program just happened to tour
THEIR factory. Growing up we called it "white puss bread"!

As far as slicing, they also didn't mention what did more dulling, the blade
width or rpm factory line speed or what?

Andy

Andy wrote:
>
> Sliced bread.
>
> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
> Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>
> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
> resharpened once an hour!
>
> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>
> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>
>

It's so very soft that only a very sharp blade would cut without
squishing the loaves entirely.

On Jul 25, 7:16*pm, Arri London > wrote:
> It's so very soft that only a very sharp blade would cut without
> squishing the loaves entirely.

Just like angel food cake!
Lynn in Fargo
(this bad girl loves that "marshmallow" bread!)

Lynn from Fargo Ografmorffig wrote:
>
> On Jul 25, 7:16 pm, Arri London > wrote:
> > It's so very soft that only a very sharp blade would cut without
> > squishing the loaves entirely.
>
> Just like angel food cake!
> Lynn in Fargo
> (this bad girl loves that "marshmallow" bread!)

LOL how can you stand that stuff? Haven't made angel food cake in years.
ISTR we sliced it with a thread rather than a knife. But maybe not...

Andy wrote:
>
> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
> Wonder
> Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>
> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
> resharpened once an hour!
>
> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>
> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>
Are you sure? That doesn't seem right. Were that true a loaf of Wonder
bread would cost like $500. I don't think they'd actually sharpen those
band saw blades, band saw blades for wood and metal cutting are never
sharpened, the labor cost would make it prohibitive. When they become dull
they simply put in a new blade and toss the old blade in the trash. But a
loaf of bread would need a separate blade for each slice and even though
those blades are not worth the cost of sharpening they're still too costly
to throw away like 24 blades every hour.... and Wonder must have hundreds of
bread slicing machines.

Bread slicing blade teeth are made in many configurations, I once posted a
link to a company that made those blades, there are literally hundreds and
hundreds of variations... I'm sure they last a lot longer tthan one hour...
just the time to change 24 blades would take more then an hour, a lot more
than one hour... they'd each need to be realigned and retensioned too... if
all went well it would take like a minimum of 2 hours to change 24 bands.
The commercial bread slicer I had aboard ship only had recipricating blades,
like your local bakery... it sliced more than 100 loaves every day, all
types of bread from soft white bread to tough crusted loaves with nuts,
seeds, and twigs... in the four years I used that machine no blades needed
changing.

In article >,
"brooklyn1" > wrote:

> Are you sure? That doesn't seem right. Were that true a loaf of Wonder
> bread would cost like $500. I don't think they'd actually sharpen those
> band saw blades, band saw blades for wood and metal cutting are never
> sharpened, the labor cost would make it prohibitive. When they become dull
> they simply put in a new blade and toss the old blade in the trash. But a
> loaf of bread would need a separate blade for each slice and even though
> those blades are not worth the cost of sharpening they're still too costly
> to throw away like 24 blades every hour.... and Wonder must have hundreds of
> bread slicing machines.

I work in a machine shop, and we get many machinist oriented
publications. I recall an article from one of them many years back.
The Wonderbread slicing bands do have a serration, but nothing like a
bread knife serration. It is wider dimples with no hooks, if I recall.
These things travel very fast, and have something like a 5-7 degree
angle point, sharper than even a restaurant kitchen knife. At that
sharp an angle, even soft bread causes the point crest to wear quickly.
Add to that the rollers to take it through odd angles to get back to the
top and the guides to keep each band in line, and those guides actually
to more damage to the crests than the bread actually does. But the
depth of damage is shallow so that resharpening these goes very quickly,
and it thus quite cost effective. Of course, they have a automate
machine that does the process. Hand resharpening would take much more
time and cost a lot more.

jt

jt wrote on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:10:46 -0500:

>> Are you sure? That doesn't seem right. Were that true a
>> loaf of Wonder bread would cost like $500. I don't think
>> they'd actually sharpen those band saw blades, band saw
>> blades for wood and metal cutting are never sharpened, the
>> labor cost would make it prohibitive. When they become dull
>> they simply put in a new blade and toss the old blade in the
>> trash. But a loaf of bread would need a separate blade for
>> each slice and even though those blades are not worth the
>> cost of sharpening they're still too costly to throw away
>> like 24 blades every hour.... and Wonder must have hundreds
>> of bread slicing machines.

> I work in a machine shop, and we get many machinist oriented
> publications. I recall an article from one of them many years
> back. The Wonderbread slicing bands do have a serration, but
> nothing like a bread knife serration. It is wider dimples
> with no hooks, if I recall. These things travel very fast,
> and have something like a 5-7 degree angle point, sharper than
> even a restaurant kitchen knife. At that sharp an angle, even
> soft bread causes the point crest to wear quickly. Add to
> that the rollers to take it through odd angles to get back to
> the top and the guides to keep each band in line, and those
> guides actually to more damage to the crests than the bread
> actually does. But the depth of damage is shallow so that
> resharpening these goes very quickly, and it thus quite cost
> effective. Of course, they have a automate machine that does
> the process. Hand resharpening would take much more time and
> cost a lot more.

I wonder if packaged sliced bread is not made as by a bread slicer in a
deli? The bread is held in a comb arrangement and there are vibrating
blades, one for each slice. If I ask for a rye loaf to be sliced,
that's how it's done.


--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

In article >,
"James Silverton" > wrote:

> I wonder if packaged sliced bread is not made as by a bread slicer in a
> deli? The bread is held in a comb arrangement and there are vibrating
> blades, one for each slice. If I ask for a rye loaf to be sliced,
> that's how it's done.

A band saw is a saw whose blade is a continuous loop of metal. This
loop keeps moving in a continuous motion without reversing, and at the
area where the item is being cut, it moves downward. In the mass
slicing machines a bread mass manufacturer like Wonder has, I believe
(now that I think about that article I read) that it is one long loop
and at the point of cut, it is zig-zagging up and down with guides to
keep it aligned. The pulleys are positioned such that the band blade
rides wide circles, and this makes the band loop very long, along the
order of 40-50 feet. But the speed of the band combined with the speed
of the bread conveyor has these machines slicing bread continuously at a
rate of dozens of loaves per minute.

jt

"James Silverton" wrote:
> jt wrote:
> > Brooklyn1 wrote:
>>> Are you sure? That doesn't seem right. Were that true a
>>> loaf of Wonder bread would cost like $500. I don't think
>>> they'd actually sharpen those band saw blades, band saw
>>> blades for wood and metal cutting are never sharpened, the
>>> labor cost would make it prohibitive. When they become dull
>>> they simply put in a new blade and toss the old blade in the
>>> trash. But a loaf of bread would need a separate blade for
>>> each slice and even though those blades are not worth the
>>> cost of sharpening they're still too costly to throw away
>>> like 24 blades every hour.... and Wonder must have hundreds
>>> of bread slicing machines.
>
>> I work in a machine shop, and we get many machinist oriented
>> publications. I recall an article from one of them many years
>> back. The Wonderbread slicing bands do have a serration, but
>> nothing like a bread knife serration. It is wider dimples
>> with no hooks, if I recall. These things travel very fast,
>> and have something like a 5-7 degree angle point, sharper than
>> even a restaurant kitchen knife. At that sharp an angle, even
>> soft bread causes the point crest to wear quickly. Add to
>> that the rollers to take it through odd angles to get back to
>> the top and the guides to keep each band in line, and those
>> guides actually to more damage to the crests than the bread
>> actually does. But the depth of damage is shallow so that
>> resharpening these goes very quickly, and it thus quite cost
>> effective. Of course, they have a automate machine that does
>> the process. Hand resharpening would take much more time and
>> cost a lot more.
>
> I wonder if packaged sliced bread is not made as by a bread slicer in a
> deli? The bread is held in a comb arrangement and there are vibrating
> blades, one for each slice. If I ask for a rye loaf to be sliced, that's
> how it's done.
>
>

There exist both types, reciprocating blades and continuous band blades.
The cutting edge is the same configuration as scalloped blade bread kitchen
knives, there are no kerfed teeth as they don't want to produce sawdust
(that would waste the equivalant of 2-3 slices from every loaf, not to
mention the mess), they are made of various thickness and width steel strip,
of different tempers and hardness, and a vast array of scallop depth,
spacing, and angle of approach.... just like all other multi edge cutting
tools; saws, files, milling cutters, etc. The most important aspect to
longivity of bread slicing machine blades is the same as with any cutting
machine tools, is FPS (Feet Per Second). Those bread blades don't travel
very fast and so can last a very long time... they actually don't travel at
any higher rate of fps than when one uses a hand bread knife. I don't
believe those blades need to be sharpened every hour, maybe once a year,
probably longer, in fact I don't believe they are ever sharpened, if
anything they are honed. In fact when the correct blade is chosen for a
material and set properly and run at the correct speed to a certain degree
the geometry of the blade makes them self sharpening, so they can last twice
as long as expected. And I would assume that a bread company as large as
Wonder could afford to purchase state of the art machines with automatic
hones built in... probably some laser guided honing device that can be
engaged periodically, probably self engaging when sensing a particular
pressure. Next time you're at Lowes check out their key grinders, their new
machines are computer driven and laser guided, the key you want duplicated
is never touched by a follower cam like the old way... in fact the machine
stores your key pattern and they can load like a hundred blanks and produce
a hundred copies of your key in like two seconds each... so perfectly that
there are no burrs to polish off. Expensive commercial meat slicers
incorperate an auto-hone feature.. I've seen them operating at Arbys, an
amazingly fast machine that operates 100% robotically inside a glass
enclosed clean room, logs of meat enter by conveyer at one end where the
machine slices, stacks, and weighs each portion onto a tray on a conveyer
that rolls out into the prep area... it's too dangerous to have personal in
that room during operation, they're lible to end up on your sandwich. When
you buy major brand packaged sliced foods of any kind that's how those
factories operate, robotically. I'm sure Wonder the same. No one is
sharpening those blades, just not worth the labor, and down time.

There are web sites from the bread slicing machine blade companies that
explain the entire process in minute details along with how to choose a
particular blade configuration, I posted it years ago, maybe more than
once.... I just don't feel like searching for it. This is not by any
stretch the first time bread slicing machines have been discussed here.

Andy wrote:
> Sliced bread.
>
> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
> Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>
> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
> resharpened once an hour!
>
> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>
> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>
> Andy

Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
without its just squishing down?

--
Jean B.

Jean B. said...

> Andy wrote:
>> Sliced bread.
>>
>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
>> Wonder Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>
>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to
>> be resharpened once an hour!
>>
>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>
>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>
>> Andy
>
> Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
> without its just squishing down?


Jean B,

The loaves slid down a steep-angled slide to meet the blades for slicing so
I'd guess the blades are slicing upwards as the bread wants to fall
downwards. A gravity thing.

Best,

Andy

Jean B. wrote:
> Andy wrote:
>> Sliced bread.
>>
>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
>> Wonder Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>
>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to
>> be resharpened once an hour!
>>
>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>
>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>
>> Andy
>
> Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
> without its just squishing down?
>

This reminds me of the Wonder Bread Factory that was torn down to make a
local shopping mall bigger - and to build condos. Who wants to live in
the mall?

I miss the smell of baking bread. And the discount moon pies.

Tracy

"Jean B." wrote:
>
> Andy wrote:
> > Sliced bread.
> >
> > On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
> > Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
> >
> > Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
> > resharpened once an hour!
> >
> > I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
> >
> > They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
> > production rates. I was curious, anyway.
> >
> > Andy
>
> Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
> without its just squishing down?
>
> --
> Jean B.

Lasers of course :P

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:28:08 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:

>Andy wrote:
>> Sliced bread.
>>
>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the Wonder
>> Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>
>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to be
>> resharpened once an hour!
>>
>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>
>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>
>> Andy
>
>Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
>without its just squishing down?

kinda related for Andy's benefit.

I did a stint at Honeybaked Ham's. I was a ham slicer. The knifes
were replaced ~every two hours (at break, lunch, break & eod). They
had 3 sets in the store, 1 working, 1 ready to replace & 1 spare. The
supervisor would sharpen the 'used' set of blades as we were in
production.

This may have been overkill but you want to avoid "stopping the
line".

your friend said...

> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:28:08 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:
>
>>Andy wrote:
>>> Sliced bread.
>>>
>>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
>>> Wonder Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>>
>>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to
>>> be resharpened once an hour!
>>>
>>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>>
>>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>>
>>> Andy
>>
>>Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
>>without its just squishing down?
>
> kinda related for Andy's benefit.
>
> I did a stint at Honeybaked Ham's. I was a ham slicer. The knifes
> were replaced ~every two hours (at break, lunch, break & eod). They
> had 3 sets in the store, 1 working, 1 ready to replace & 1 spare. The
> supervisor would sharpen the 'used' set of blades as we were in
> production.
>
> This may have been overkill but you want to avoid "stopping the
> line".


On a related note...

At one Christmas party we served a large Honeybaked sliced ham and a couple
chateaubriands for the meats. Strangely, nobody touched the Honeybaked ham.

Turned out, everyone was waiting for somebody to carve it. The slices were
so clean, nobody could tell!

After my ex pointed out that it was already spiral sliced, it was gone in
next to no time! LOL!

Best,

Andy

Andy wrote:
> your friend said...
>
>> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:28:08 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:
>>
>>> Andy wrote:
>>>> Sliced bread.
>>>>
>>>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
>>>> Wonder Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>>>
>>>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to
>>>> be resharpened once an hour!
>>>>
>>>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>>>
>>>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>>>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>> Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
>>> without its just squishing down?
>> kinda related for Andy's benefit.
>>
>> I did a stint at Honeybaked Ham's. I was a ham slicer. The knifes
>> were replaced ~every two hours (at break, lunch, break & eod). They
>> had 3 sets in the store, 1 working, 1 ready to replace & 1 spare. The
>> supervisor would sharpen the 'used' set of blades as we were in
>> production.
>>
>> This may have been overkill but you want to avoid "stopping the
>> line".
>
>
> On a related note...
>
> At one Christmas party we served a large Honeybaked sliced ham and a couple
> chateaubriands for the meats. Strangely, nobody touched the Honeybaked ham.
>
> Turned out, everyone was waiting for somebody to carve it. The slices were
> so clean, nobody could tell!
>
> After my ex pointed out that it was already spiral sliced, it was gone in
> next to no time! LOL!
>
> Best,
>
> Andy

That's a funny story. Personally, I've rarely bought the spiral sliced
hams as I prefer to cook my own, but I could see that happening :-)

Bob

"Bob Muncie" > wrote in message
...
> Andy wrote:
>> your friend said...
>>
>>> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:28:08 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Andy wrote:
>>>>> Sliced bread.
>>>>>
>>>>> On the TV program "Ultimate Factories" they took the views through the
>>>>> Wonder Bread factory from start to finish. Great program.
>>>>>
>>>>> Interesting factoid they mentioned is the bread slicing blades have to
>>>>> be resharpened once an hour!
>>>>>
>>>>> I didn't think Wonder Bread put up that much of a fight!
>>>>>
>>>>> They didn't mention the longevity of the band saw blades at typical
>>>>> production rates. I was curious, anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>> Andy
>>>> Hmmm. I'd hate to have to slice Wonder Bread. How do they do it
>>>> without its just squishing down?
>>> kinda related for Andy's benefit.
>>>
>>> I did a stint at Honeybaked Ham's. I was a ham slicer. The knifes
>>> were replaced ~every two hours (at break, lunch, break & eod). They
>>> had 3 sets in the store, 1 working, 1 ready to replace & 1 spare. The
>>> supervisor would sharpen the 'used' set of blades as we were in
>>> production.
>>>
>>> This may have been overkill but you want to avoid "stopping the
>>> line".
>>
>>
>> On a related note...
>>
>> At one Christmas party we served a large Honeybaked sliced ham and a
>> couple chateaubriands for the meats. Strangely, nobody touched the
>> Honeybaked ham.
>>
>> Turned out, everyone was waiting for somebody to carve it. The slices
>> were so clean, nobody could tell!
>>
>> After my ex pointed out that it was already spiral sliced, it was gone in
>> next to no time! LOL!
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Andy
>
> That's a funny story. Personally, I've rarely bought the spiral sliced
> hams as I prefer to cook my own, but I could see that happening :-)
>
> Bob

Then you're full of doodoo, you never bought/cooked any hams, because you
need to cook the spiral sliced hams too.