First hint: keep your fingers away from the blade!

I've nused rump with great success, not any of the others. I've never sliced any meat raw, but imagine if it were slightly frozen it would work. Mine is jot particularly easy to clean, so I would hesitate doing raw meat.

I do not use the slicer for any raw meat, and mine is also difficult to clean. Which one are you getting? Mine is the Avantco with the 10" blade.

Agree that if you want to thinly slice raw meat, it should be slightly frozen. I've not sliced beef of any kind because DB will not eat it, but I do slice a lot of turkey breast. Normally I buy boneless turkey breast that has been rolled and tressed for smoking or roasting, and I generally smoke it in the smoker or barbecue it. Then it is a simple matter to slice it with the machine. If it is bone-in, then of course you have to remove the bone and make sure that you slice it against the grain, which can be tricky. If you put it in with the grain lined up with the blade, the breast will come apart during slicing and you will end up with chunks that do not get sliced.

Most of the tips you will need may concern how to clean it, and if you tell us which slicer you are getting, that will help. Despite being difficult to clean, I use mine almost every day.

Thanks for your replies. I found out the model. My husband ordered it, and I don't know how much research he did. It's a Costway, model EP21999. I'll look it up and find out more info. Hopefully, it's a decent machine.

The model you referenced is almost identical to the first slicer I got, which is a Waring Pro. The only difference I can see between those two is that yours is 150 watts, and the WP is 130 watts. Both have serrated blades and are easily disassembled for cleaning, and so the good news is that yours will be very easy to clean. The bad news is that it has limited power and therefore will be slower than the more powerful models that cost 3 times as much.

Yours will do fine for slicing meat, but it will be a bit difficult to adjust the thickness, as that is controlled by a lever instead of a dial. It can be adjusted to what you like, but it will take a bit of effort. It is not powerful enough to slice hard cheese, but it does an excellent job with vegetables, especially bell peppers, which I like to slice thinly for sandwiches, and also for pickles, which I slice on it longways. When you adjust it to the widest setting, it is perfect for slicing sandwich bread, and I have kept my old Waring specifically for this purpose. I cannot slice bread on the Avantco because the motor is in the way, and there is nowhere for the sliced bread to go. If I have it out, I also use it on the pickles and bell pepper. I really like using it with vegetables. I was never able to get mine to slice paper-thin salami, but that was really the only disappointment. To get paper-thin slices, you will need a machine that has a dial adjustment instead of a lever - it is not an issue of power in this case.

Lars, thanks for your input. Paper thin slices aren't exactly what I'm looking for. Just thinner than what I slice by knife and not crooked. I love the idea of slicing bread on it. I'm slicing challenged when it comes to bread. I rarely, if ever, cut a slice that doesn't have one edge or side that's quite a bit larger than the rest of the slice. I appreciate you taking the time to research the slicer and give me some help based on your experience.

I have a cheapy slicer from Menards but don't recall the maker. It does a good job for my purpose. Both rump and leftover standing rib work well slicing relatively thin for French dips and Italian beef . Just chill the meat to make it easier. I have also sliced ham and sausages like salami for sandwiches on it.

Clean up is ok and I can easily remove the blade for cleaning. A toothpick or cotton swab will get into tight spots. After a few uses it gets easier as you learn its "hot spots".

A kitchen equipment mechanic once told me you should not slice juicy vegetables on a slicer as it can wick the juice into the motor and cause damage in the long run. This was after he had been called in yet again because the boss insisted on slicing tomatoes on ours.

My MIL had one that I inherited. She used it a lot because she cooked big cuts of meat for dinner and made sandwiches every day from home-made bread. I just cook for DH and me. Seldom cook anything very large, let alone big slabs of meat, and I like my bread really thick, crookedly is OK. After using it once to slice a big block of cheese, and once for leftover roast, decided that cleaning the dang thing was way too much work and dangerous for a klutz. I gave it to a friend who is a chef, who uses it for his specialty "catering for the small home" business. He has a staff who cleans it.

I would not slice tomatoes on mine either, and I only use the Waring to slice any vegetables. It works especially well on zucchini and will make even lengthwise slices, which is difficult for me to do with a knife, and the machine is also much quicker. The restaurant quality machines are more likely to be damaged by juicy vegetables than the smaller machines, which have more space between the motor and the cutting edge.