Question on bandsaw tires

I got a 14" Walker Turner bandsaw which had no tires whatever. The wheels had no recess, they were just flat. The tires get glued on. I had my tires glued on and ground true by a place in Wisconsin called Woodworkers Tool Works. They are perfect. There isn't much crown if any, most vertical bandsaws track via slight tilting of the upper wheel. I've owned 3 vertical bandsaws and none of them has ever had any trouble tracking.

I've also seen Delta/Jet 14" bandsaw tires. They are just plain strips of flat rubber. I very much doubt those wheels have a recess. I bet they're glued on too.

Grant

Roy wrote:

Grant,

My 16" Walker-Turner has similar wheels. I found it at the scrap yard about

20 years ago where it was sent when the original tires failed. I created a slight crown with strips of masking tape and made tires from tractor inner tubes. The tires are not cemented at all but were trimmed after installation so that they are about 1/4" past each side. The overhang keeps them in place. I can't say if it will work forever, but it has been trouble free for 20 years cutting metal at low speeds.

George Willer

These 14" bandsaw wheels do have a recess, and a crown is machined into the surface of the wheels. There are two types of tires, rubber and polyurethane. The rubber tires are glued in place, but the polyurethane ones are heated, usually in water, and stretched into place with no glue.

Jim

Check out

Some tires fit in a recess, some don't. Sometimes the wheel is crowned and sometimes the tire is crowned. I recently replaced the tires on a small (12") Walker-Turner woodworking bandsaw. The wheels on my saw don't have a recess nor are they crowned. I glued the tire on and then crowned the tire with 120 grit sandpaper on a hard block.

I got the rubber tires that I used from:

I ordered the tires about 2 months ago and at that time they only offered rubber tires. Looking at their site today it seems they are now offering urethane tires also.

BTW, Carter also makes very nice ball bearing blade guides for many saws. Photos on their site show enough info so you could coble together some of your own.

Jon Etheredge

Yep they sure do, and I have been working on that aspect of blade guides already. I got sticker shock pricing a wheel from Harbor Fright for their meat cutting saw, and liked to stroked out on Jets replacement wheel costs. My problem with my wheels I already have is clearance to do what I need to do to them on the lathe, due to swing. Even with the gap removed I can not get to what I need to machine. Next thing is try and use a friends lathe thats bigger, or cast my own wheels out of aluminum just a bit smaller but then I can machine them. I may even knock off what I can on my rotary table and mill and see if I can make it work on the lathe to finish up.

Was sent a email and someone said that commercial dryer pulleys of 18" diam make great wheels for a bandsaw. You can laminate a V belt in the groove and it gives it the crown. Sounds like an interesting idea.

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