Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey Guys,
I own a 24" Grizzly Vertical Bandsaw that had the lower tire come off. I had noticed that the rubber on the lower wheel was very hard when I bought it several years ago and I guess the rubber was brittle and finally gave way. The wheels have a groove in the center to locate the tire on the wheel. I was just wondering if any of you have ever replaced a tire on a larger bandsaw before and what is typically involved. Unfortunately, I work out of a very small shop and my bandsaw is the only "cutting" tool I have. I have a few days work that I can continue with but then I will be at a standstill. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Simon

The traditional wisdom was to have a saw shop doing it, because gluing on tires is messy and pulling them over the wheels can be tricky, especially on a bigger saw.

The new urethane tires don't use glue and are supposed to be easier to install--they stretch when warmed in hot water and then shrink tight after you get them on the wheel. I should add that I have never done this myself..

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I had to replace the tyre on my 21" when a blade broke and damaged it. Howard is right, I warmed the tyre up to soften it and make it more elastic then gradually eased it on. One trick I found useful was to use some small cam clamps and clamp it in place gradually as I worked round, it's very easy for it come come off one side when you try and lever it on the other. When I learned the warming and clamping trick it too about five minutes.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Thanks Guys,
Hopefully, it won't be too hard to do myself - I am going to give a call to the Suffolk Machinery folks on Monday. Just wanted to have a rough idea of what's involved.

Simon,
Have done many times. If you want you could pm me and we could exchange #'s and I can talk you through it. Too hard to write it out. Not hard to do but you do have to make a jig to true and crown the tire.
Shoot me a email if you want. remove the fruit lvcapple57@c o m c a s t . n e t
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Hi Simon,
I replaced the tires on a delta/rockwell 20 inch bandsaw. It also had a groove to locate the tire. The proper tire fit right on and didn't require crowning or trueing. They were somewhat expensive ($50 each about 5 years ago) but saved a lot of aggravation. I don't know about the grizzly, but if it has a groove it may be the same.

I had to replace the tire on my Laguna 16HD (because Laguna's idea of warranty on a tire coming off on a 9-month old saw is sending you a strip of flat rubber five weeks and three phone calls later ) and it was tons of fun. Pull wheel off with bearing-puller, scrape old epoxied-on tired off with chisel, razor blade, and knives. That was followed by making a new tire from the strip of rubber they sent, epoxying it on with a strap clamp hoping it wouldn't slide off, and then re-crowning it in the saw with a CNCed sanding block.

Short story is I wish there was a local place that did it! I hope you have one of those saws where it's easy to replace, but if you're in the same boat I was then send me a PM if you need help!

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I replaced the tires on my 24" old Italian band saw about 5 years ago. I ordered the tires from Carter, and I believe they told me that urethane tires weren't available in sizes that large. Anyways, I got their regular rubber tires and installed them per the included instructions. Briefly, they said...

First, clamp the tire (with a caul!) to the top of the wheel, then clamp it to the bottom. Next stretch it out to the side and on to the wheel, you can use a smooth lever of some sort if it is really tight and yank it on there. According to Carter, tires of this type and size need to be glued with epoxy. That can be accomplished by inserting a short piece of metal tube between the wheel and tire, applying glue to the wheel exposed in the opening, then "rolling" the tube over so a new area is exposed and repeat the procedure until the whole tire is glued. If your bandsaw wheel is not crowned, the tire should be crowned after installation to insure proper tracking of the saw blade. Thankfully my wheel was crowned, so I didn't have to mess with that, but I have instructions for it in an old "Best of Fine Woodworking" book. It's even harder to describe with words (for my anyways!), so check if you need to do that first.

<edit> I see Bob crowned his with a radiused block. Yeah, that should work too!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

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Simon, listen to Arnt. I installed flat (spliced) tires on a 32" this way, and rolled a 1" dowel around and around the rim several times to equalize the stretch and tension, and then buttered in Permatex's Indian Head gasket shellac, continuing to roll until the joint, the dowel, and my hands were shellacked. The bad part was waiting a few days until the shellac hardened. Since the wheels and tires were flat, I crowned them with router and coarse abrasives on blocks, very dirty, but I figured it out back in the seventies on less information than you've gotten in this thread, so jump in. Considering what a tedious struggle the whole thing was, I would have considered epoxy (had I known) and shaped tires (had they been an option on a machine built in the twenties).

I like Tony's suggestion of a video.

Dan

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

Thanks for all the replies. From what I've found thus far, it seems like crowning and truing the tire is the most difficult part. If I get stuck, I might take one of you up on your offer to walk me thru it.

Once again, thanks for the help. Greatly appreciated.

--
Simon