# Solutions for dicing 135lbs of product a few times a week



## redbeerd cantu (Aug 7, 2013)

We have one of these,





  








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redbeerd cantu


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Aug 1, 2014








but it smashes the tomatoes and the red peppers. We've only begun dicing by hand within the past three weeks because of this.

During the week, I close on Weds and Thurs, so I do prep when I'm done closing and, if it happens to be slow, spend the down time doing prep. There's four of us, including my Chef, and we split up prep duties as needed. On Sat and Sun, I open and do prep during the day, between rushes.


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## allanmcpherson (Apr 5, 2007)

Mr. choppy needs a new blade.


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## redbeerd cantu (Aug 7, 2013)

Sounds legit...the unit does have some miles on it.

Do you have experience with it? Think a new set of blades will stop the crush?

Makes sense, since we've only recently stopped using it...

Thx!

Whoa!!  Just checked it out.

$119 for replacement blades?!

Don't think the owners would sign off on that.


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## chefboyog (Oct 23, 2013)

Get a tomato dicer. No need to do it all by hand. Get a slicer too if you want it to be really easy. Just saved you ten hours a week. Enjoy.
Do the prep in the morning?


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## grande (May 14, 2014)

Yeah, the blade is how they get you. You could try to sharpen the one in there with a fine file.
You ccan buy diced tomatoes out here, I personally don't like the product, but it might be worth it for you guys.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

You can go 1/2 way and get  a "Tomato witch", you place a whole cored tomato in the cradle, shove it through the serrated blades, and you catch the slices in one bunch as they come out the other end.  From there it's just a few knife cuts to diced, but if you do a lot of s'wiches or burgers, it's a pretty sweet deal.  They are expensive, but I always got mine used.  What you need to do is to show the owners on paper how much time you are spending manually cutting something stupid, like toms, instead of cutting meat.

The cat's buttocks for dicing just about any kind of fruit or veg is the "Power-dicer" by Hobart. It's an attatchment for any mixer 30 qts and up.  It's actually an attatchment for an attatchment, you take off the door on your shredding attatchment, and hang this contraption on the hinge.  Basically it's a cradle that is driven by an auger. You put your food item in the cradle, give it a twist down so it engages on the auger, and the auger (which is powered by the Hobart) pulls and shoves the food through two opposing s/s grids, and a  propeller blade chops it into cubes. It goes lickety-split and is a lot of fun to use  You can configure this contraption to cut any dice from 1/4 to 3/4, or julliene of any length from 1/4" to 3/4".  A lot of places use this for fries.  With any type of rotatry food processor (ie robot-coupe, Dito-sama,  and the like) YOU are the one shoving the food item through the grid.  This can be very tiring and a royal p.i.t.a.  At least with a manual f/f cutter you have a 2:1 leverage advantage shoving a spud through the grid. 

It (power dicer) is (deleted)-ing expensive though.  But any used food equip't place has used ones, usually several.  Not many people know about it, and those that look at it get scared of it's complexity.

Hope this throws some light on the subject.  Remember though, you gotta show the owners on paper with $ signs how much money theya re spending with you manually cutting toms, or they'll never fork out for any equipment.


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

Grande said:


> Yeah, the blade is how they get you. You could try to sharpen the one in there with a fine file.
> You ccan buy diced tomatoes out here, I personally don't like the product, but it might be worth it for you guys.


I haven't seen the blades but if you can't get at them with a regular stone then I suggest a fine Norton silicon carbide "slip." Basically a thin and narrow stone.

You can find various sizes and shapes on ebay a wedge-shape will likely work best.

Rick


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

Amazon as well for the slips.


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## chefboyog (Oct 23, 2013)

I use one like this
It's worth about 150 Canadian dollars
Can get blades to do wedges as we'll.


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## dillon green (Jul 29, 2014)

Back in my camp days. We had almost 500 kids a day for breakfast lunch and dinner. We cut everything by hand. I found good knife skills, a good knife, and taking time to set it up so everything take less time. " If you save seconds, You can save minutes, you can save an hours"


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

@chefboyOG what make, model?


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## chefboyog (Oct 23, 2013)

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chefboyog


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Aug 8, 2014








http://www.webstaurantstore.com/nemco-n55500-1-1-4-easy-chopper-vegetable-dicer/591N555001.html

I just googled the model number to find that link to buy it I have no idea if it is a good online store.

This works faster than by hand I have knife skills, this makes a good product. You basically never need to sharpen these. Get new blades when they get old.


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