Large Bandsaw Tires????

I need some help with an old Tannewitz bandsaw. The original wheels are 24" OD x 1-1/2" wide and are flat. There is no crown. Someone has added rubber tires in the past. The problem is blade tracking. An employee had a finger injured when the blade came off. I need to get this issue resolved. Can anyone describe the best way of solving the problem? I've seen urethane tires advertised. Do the wheels need crowned before appling the tires? If they do, what's the best way of machining the wheels? Any info would be really appreciated.

Thank You!

Chuck

With limited band saw tweaking experience, I would say that the alignment of the idler wheel is the secret to how the band stays on the saw. If anything loosens over time, such as worn bores in the wheels, or worn bearing housings, this will alter the blade path. If the saw used to run fine, then I would look for worn elements as the cause of the blade suddenly coming off.

The blade does need to be really tight on the wheels, as well, or it will stall and come off the drive wheel in a split second.

CC said:

I need some help with an old Tannewitz bandsaw. The original wheels are 24" OD x 1-1/2" wide and are flat. There is no crown. Someone has added rubber tires in the past. The problem is blade tracking. An employee had a finger injured when the blade came off. I need to get this issue resolved. Can anyone describe the best way of solving the problem? I've seen urethane tires advertised. Do the wheels need crowned before appling the tires? If they do, what's the best way of machining the wheels? Any info would be really appreciated.

Thank You!

Chuck

Click to expand...

The saw needs tires and there needs to be a crown on the tires so the blade tracks properly. If the wheels are crowned, no problem ... the tires, being flat, will reflect the crown. If the wheels are not crowned, the tires need to be crowned *on the wheels* ... a dirty, messy job. This is discussed quite a bit on the OWWM site. Go to:

http://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=56e148c4f065ecb69432356a63af8729

and do a search on "crowning". Lots of info there.

Peyton

Is it a horizontal or vertical one
If it is a vertical it is probably for different bandsaw wides so you need to have a soft surface Otherwise the teeth when running on a steel surface go blunt very rapidly
However if you use only 1 bandwide you can run the back of the bandsaw against a edge on a steel wheel and have the teeth extend the wheel
Like done on a horizontal



BTW there is some information about changing tires on their website
http://www.tannewitz.com/index.html


Peter from Holland

Can't really comment on tires that size. My Do-all runs 16" wheels.

However, I will say, on the old woodworking saws there wasn't much in the way of guards. The thought of a resaw blade coming loose at 5,000+ FPM has always scared me. Now might be a good time to update the guards and guides if you haven't already.

Tires do NOT have to be crowned. If you can adjust the wheels good enough, they should track regardless. You may have a bad bearing that is allowing it to run out quite a bit. Bandsaws are among the safest of all saws. I have had blades break or come off a number of times and everything was completely captured by the housing and guards.

A crown tire is probably easier to make track, but the real big saws I have seen, all have flats in lieu of crowned tires. This is mostly saws designed to cut wood but the most recent metal one I worked on had flats as well.

My DoAll has flat tires and I used to have an old Crescent saw with 36" wheels that we ran up to friction sawing speeds. In fact, the tires had to be glued on because they would throw out from the wheels. They were also flat and all we had to do was adjust them so the blade would track gently against the rollers on the guides. Just jog the saw or turn it by hand and adjust the top wheel angle until the blade starts to leave the guide rollers and then back up to get it against them.

Bill

I don't believe anyone offers polyurethane tires over 20". could be wrong.

I don't know of urethane tires over 20 either. Rubber tires are available here:

http://www.carterproducts.com/product_list.asp?cat_id=22

When rebuilding the Oliver 18", leather belting was used to tire the wheels. Scarfed and glued with contact cement. A bit of crown was put on with coarse sandpaper on the spinning wheels. Not much at all, just breaking the edges really. The bump at the joint was smoothed the same way.

Been sawing wood, plastic and alu whenever needed.

Hmmmm. that was over 15 years ago. Guess it's worked.

CalG

If your tannewitz saw has tannewitz wheels, they take a special tire direct from tannewitz. The tannewitz tire is pre-crowned and needs no glue to adhere. It takes special tools to pry it over the wheel, but tire changes can be done instantly with the saw immediately back up and running.

Of course this convenience comes at a price, The tires for my 30" were about $250 ea when I priced them out and that was close to ten years ago.

Someone may have applied regular tires over the original tanny ones to save that money. And you may end up doing the same.

FYI the Tannewitz wheels are solid disk wheels with several rounded ridges running concentric to the hub.

Pete

I have a 36" Yates woodworking bandsaw. I have put new tires on it and for now Run only a resaw blade on it. One inch wide. I want to do some scroll work useing a 3/8 blade. The blade is almost 20 ft long. I will be takeing it to a friends house shortly to have them crowned. He uses a 20 inch disk sander with a very course disk. He has a jig to put the wheel on and lowers the table to some degree. I am not sure now but will know next month. he slides the table into the disk little at a time untill it cleans up all the way around. Then flips it over and dose the other side and indicates the last side to get the crown in the center. He says it takes about 30 min for both wheels.
Tour

When I first took over the shop where I work the Rockwell/Delta 20" metal and wood cutting bandsaw had eaten its tires. There were just a few chunks inside the wheel cover doors. The blade was running on the bare wheel and wouldn't last a few cuts before all the cuts would drift off the line. The bands had no problem running on the wheels because there is a tracking adjustment on the top wheel.

The wheels are grooved in the center. The original rubber tires were crowned. I replaced them with urethane tires (bright orange) about 4-5 years ago. They work fine except they are too thin (about 1/16") while the original rubber tires were quite thick (about 3/16" no including rib for groove). The result is that the blade rubs on the housing in the "C" of the frame and is offset inboard at the cutting guides. So eventually it still wears out the blades prematurely.

Rockwell/Delta still sells the tires for about $50 each so last week I ordered a pair. I think they are the same part number for all Rockwell/Delta 20" bandsaws. While the urethane tires only cost about $20 each at the time it was false economy because the saw would still wear out blades.... just not as fast.

So, in my limited experience, a bandsaw with adjustable tilt on the wheels will track just fine without a crowned tire. It will also perform a LOT better with the correct tires fitted in place. Whether that tire is from an OEM or some urethane loop from a guy on eBay depends on the actual construction of the particular saw. If I could get urethane tires that are at least as thick for my bandsaw I would happily pay any reasonable premium because urethane will simply outlast rubber nine times out of ten. I tried to order thicker urethane tires but no one that I could find would supply them.

-DU-

Hi

I purchased some new tires from an ebay supplier

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/SULPHUR-GROVE-TOOL__W0QQ_armrsZ1

his handle is ohioblademan

When I purchased mine he asked for details of size etc. He then came back and said I really needed the thicker one, which he gave me for the same price as thinner. He also cut it to match my diameter which was an odd size.

They have been running fine for several months. I also have a flat wheel and have had no problem tracking. This is on a 60+ year old vertical band saw.

Good luck

Bob

Here's what I don't get - the Carter website says tires must be adhered by epoxy or glue. But everyone also says they're very hard to stretch on - so why do they need to be glued also? It's not like they are transmitting tons of torque.

It seems like if you did apply epoxy it would dry before you could get the tire on.

piedmontg said:

Hi

I purchased some new tires from an ebay supplier

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/SULPHUR-GROVE-TOOL__W0QQ_armrsZ1

his handle is ohioblademan

Click to expand...

Bob,

That is who I originally got my R/D tires from... but that was years ago. I guess he has expanded his knowledge and product line since then. In fact...he now offers exactly what I want:

20" Urethane tires with crown kit for delta. He uses a narrow rib that looks like it projects about 1/16" above the surface of the rim and a 1/8" tire on top. Dunno why I didn't find that link last week (I DID look.)

Ah well... good to know and thanks for posting the link.

-DU-

You will never get saw like that to track unless the tires are crowned. Been there, done that.

I don't know which saw Pierce is talking about, but I re-tired saws up to Olivers about 36 inch and Tannewitz, the same, as well as DoAlls and Grobs and others.

They were VERY difficult to stretch over the wheels. Canvas or whatever reinforced, didn't want to stretch. .

However, with the reinforcement, they also did not stretch out from centrifugal force. Try to fly off the wheels..

Flat or crowned, not really any difference. Tip the top wheel, it will climb to equilibrium. Biggest thing is to keep the blade just kissing the guide bearings behind the blade. Welds are not dead nuts. The bearing may spin, stop, but it should be about like that at worst. If you have too much clearance you will drive the blade back and it will try to fall off the wheels..

True, the bandsaw is one of the safest cutting instruments we have. If the blade pops off, it stops damned near right now. IF you push a piece of stock thru the blade with force, it will take your thumb off in an instant when the stock parts. Push stick at all times.

Cheers,

George

David Utidjian said:

Rockwell/Delta still sells the tires for about $50 each so last week I ordered a pair. I think they are the same part number for all Rockwell/Delta 20" bandsaws. While the urethane tires only cost about $20 each at the time it was false economy because the saw would still wear out blades.... just not as fast.
-DU-

Click to expand...

David, I've got the same saw and I replaced the tires with the ones from Delta a few years ago. The new tire was a different material than the original, or at least it was a different color. New ones are black and appear to be some sort of hard rubber, while the originals were sorta whitish/yellowish looking and had the crumbled appearance of some sort of plastic with too much sun exposure. The replacements have held up fine, but I'd have to say stretching them over the wheels was one of the most difficult jobs, in terms of brute force and awkwardness, I've ever attempted.

Munch,

Thanks for the info. As I said... my old one was hard black. I haven't seen the new ones yet. Believe it or not someone managed to break the code lock on our mail room door and our locksmith was out sick. My new tires are probably in the mail room somewhere. Ah well.

I figured I would do it like I did the last time and remove both wheels and set them on the bench. A bit less awkward to get at them.

-DU-