Replacing tires on 14" walker turner bandsaw

[bill ward]

I have about finished restoring my WT band saw. The only thing remaining is to replace the tires while I have everything disassembled. Never done this before. The old tires look like black rubber and appear to have been glued on the wheel. From some of the articles I've been reading the tires need to be glued on and crowned. Any advise: what kind of glue, is glue really necessary, are urethane tires a better fix, and please tell me the best way to crown a tire and is that really necessary? Thanks.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Moved this from another forum... hopefully someone here can answer his questions.

[jack forsberg]

The best band saw tires are vulcanized rubber because in most cases its 3 times as thick as the tires we buy today for retread. retreading band saw wheels that had the thicker vulcanized tire with the thinner rubber/urethane bands can cause problems with the guilds and table slot. This is because the wheels will be smaller in diameter and shift the blade towards the column. Vulcanizing is Not really a do it yourself way of doing a retread so it has to be out soured and can cost a fair amount but its is the best tread. The things I like about the vulcanized ones are most of the time there is plenty of rubber left to return a crown and refresh the band saw wheels true.

i had a big chucks are missing on my little speedAX wood/metal band saw but the tire are not in bad shape other wise. I thought i would try a repair on this one with PL construction adhesive to see if I could save the tire. I can tell you it is going to turn out so far it looks like its working well. If it does not work i will just turn down 1/8 off the vulcanized rubber and glue a new band over top to maintain the same diameter whells.

the chuck filled in with PL
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/speedAx001_zpsb1f72d7d.jpg

turned done and it does seams to be about the same hardness as the rubber.
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/speedAx002_zps6cc25a67.jpg

PL expands as it cures and so there were small air pockets. I pressed in a new layer of PL to fill in the air bubbles . Going to let it cure for a day before I turn again.
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/speedAx003_zps4ff61d9e.jpg
I must say the PL worked great for this repair. The density is the same as the surrounding rubber and you can not beat the adhesion of PL. I did go looking for vulcaning rubber but only found the glue for tire patches. It was a lot more money . there were kits for $200 but new tires are only $15 each. This was a machine repair to put the machine back in service and i would say an honest repair to the tire.
time will tell how good the repair will be.
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/speedax2003_zpsd701e008.jpg

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/speedax2001_zpse4e1b05f.jpg

Cost for repair= nothing.

I used a black marker to blend the color of the patch. I recommend this repair to to anyone as you got nothing to louse.

[bill ward]

Looks like you've solved your problem. Good work. I think I'll go with rubber as you have suggested. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going crown the tires. Thanks for your reply

[jack forsberg]

Looks like you've solved your problem. Good work. I think I'll go with rubber as you have suggested. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going crown the tires. Thanks for your reply

If you have a disk sander here is how i did my wood cutting Bursgreen saw with new rubber tires. I used the upper tension tilting hub jigged to the table to feed the wheel into the sanding dish and the tilt/tracking adjustment for the angle.

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/IMG_0012-1.jpg (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/tool613/media/IMG_0012-1.jpg.html)

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/IMG_0013-1.jpg (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/tool613/media/IMG_0013-1.jpg.html)

[jack forsberg]

Looks like you've solved your problem. Good work. I think I'll go with rubber as you have suggested. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going crown the tires. Thanks for your reply

If you have a disk sander he is how i did my wood cutting Bursgreen with rubber tires. I used the upper tension tilting hub jigged to the table to feed the wheel into the sanding dish and the tilt/tracking adjustment for the angle.

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/IMG_0012-1.jpg (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/tool613/media/IMG_0012-1.jpg.html)

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/IMG_0013-1.jpg (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/tool613/media/IMG_0013-1.jpg.html)

[bill ward]

Great idea. I'll borrow this if you don't mind. Thanks

[Tai Fu]

What about attaching a cloth belt to the wheels to allow you to crown the upper wheel? I know you can crown the lower wheel by turning the saw on without a blade and using whatever to crown the tires... but the upper wheel is a little hard.

[bill ward]

good idea. why not use a worn out thin blade (1/4" or <) to turn the upper wheel?

[Tai Fu]

A worn out blade will still cut you... and I hate to be there when it snaps... at least cloth won't hurt too much if it snaps.

[Patrick Grady]

When my original urethane tires started breaking into pieces I went for a quick fix which worked well enough to be permanent (have three years wear on 'em and they look fine). Obvious first is thorough cleaning. The wheel rims were crowned (but you can experiment to build up a crown with some center padding). I used one of those woven (nylon?) cat leashes cut generously to circumference length and attached with plain contact cement (I may have wound a ribbon band to assist during drying). Then finger coated the surface with white glue (I think I only needed one coat). The result is the surface is semi-rigid and feels almost like a rubber surface. The wheels worked perfectly. This is a simple fast repair that might work for you too.

[Rick Whitehead]

There are a lot of good ideas here.
However, when I restored my WT 14" bandsaw, I had Woodworker's Tool Works replace the tires and re-crown them for me.They did a great job, and I was pleased with their work.
Link to their site:http://www.woodworkerstoolworks.com/services/items/show/26.php

[bill ward]

That makes way to much sense. Great

[bill ward]

Amazing. Thanks

[Tom Trees]

Going to be trying Jack's solution with the glue soon, hopefully the original gorilla glue will be sound for the job.
Wondering if Jack or anyone else has some additional tips for the job, since it looks like Jack's busy with his new workshop build (on instagram.)
I don't really partake on that format, so thought I'd ask here.

Haven't seen him online at his local place, must see if he's about there still.
What's the worst that can happen eh? ..
Somewhat miffed when I seen same bottle from the hardware store also at the poundshop for near half the price lol! :p
Know where to get some more at least.

Must see if I can find more threads on the subject

Tom

[Mike Kees]

Bill I have an older Taunton press book "the small woodshop" . There is an article in it that Robert Vaughn wrote all about restoring a Walker turner bandsaw. Also a second article about how to install and crown your own tires on a bandsaw. Pretty sure these articles originally appeared in Fine woodworking.