Flat BS Wheel and narrow blade

[David Ragan]

Hi All,

Have run a 1 or 1/14" blade on a MM16 forever. The wheel is flat, or not crowned.

Now, I would like to run a 1/2" or 3/4" blade, and am concerned about the teeth chewing up the tire. I have the Woodslicer on hand.

Additionally, I had read somewhere that w a flat wheel, you run the teeth off the front, avoiding the tire. This does not seem wise w such a narrow blade.

I posted this (just yesterday) on the owner forum for that make of BS, and some very knowledgeable folks were stumped.

The owners manual does not address this.

As always, thank you

[Robert LaPlaca]

David, I run narrower width blades all the time on my mm16, center the blade on the wheels. Saw is 15 years old and no issue running the blade centered.

[glenn bradley]

I also run them approximately centered. No problem with the tires.

[John Lankers]

On my Hammer N4400 I use 1", 3/4", 3/8" and occasionally a 1/4" blade centered and it never occurred to me it could cause damage to the tires. If so, the tires are wear parts anyway. Only readjusting the da... guides keeps me from changing blades more often.
Edit: I release the blade tension when I know I won't be using the saw for a few days and stick a magnet backed note to the blade guard so I won't hit the start switch before tensioning the blade.

[Bill White]

I'm with Mr. Lankers. No probs at all with running the blades on the tires. The old Magna BS I had for years had flat tires.
I also release the tension and use a lock out as a fail safe.
Bill

[Jim Becker]

1/2" and 3/4" blades are run with the teeth off the wheel on my MM16. I only need to reposition onto the wheel with the tiny 1/8" and 1/4" blades I very, very occasionally use.

[David Ragan]

So-

Most folk run any width band on flat tires w no problem w the tire getting chewed up by the teeth.

And, a lot of folks run blades 1/2" and over w front teeth off the tire w no problem supporting the blade.

Part of me likes clear "Always do this/never do that" kind of consensus.....looks like this is not one of those times.

As Always, thank you