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Urethane band saw tires - quality differences

Jamie Straw

Jamie Straw

Joined
May 28, 2015
Messages
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Location
Bainbridge Island, WA
So, the upper tire on my Grizzly 1029Z (old!) is squeaking. Stands to reason I need to replace both, they're looking kinda tired anyway. "Normal" prices on Amazon seem to run from $28 to $39 per pair (leaving out the pair that's $109😱). Near as I can tell, most of them are .095" thick. Suffolk Machinery, whom I trust always, has them for my saw, .090" with tolerance of .002", at $25 each. I have no problem paying a little extra if they're likely to be better quality. Looking for your experiences here.
 
I would do business with the people doing it right (good customer service, quick shipping, fair pricing).
Too many companies I must work with are suffering from the "lowest common denominator" after a decade or two of
this business strategy too many of them provide (poor customer service, slow shipping, poor packaging, limited inventory, cheap pricing).
 
I installed urethane tires on my old no-name Jet knock-off bandsaw about eight years ago. It was part of my overhaul to convert the "sow's ear" into a "silk purse". About the same time that the project was nearing completion I bought a MiniMax MM16 and more or less forgot about the old bandsaw. The bright orange urethane tire look as nice as they did back when, but it hasn't had much use besides test running. If it were rubber tires, they probably would be getting hard and losing their elasticity due to ozone cracking by now. The tires on my MiniMax will probably need replacing soon and I am considering urethane tires.
 
A few years ago I bought an old Rockwell 14", with trashed tires. So I bought some urethan ones from Carter.

Observations:
- a real challenge to mount, took a lot of stretching (and some swearing)
- Supposed didn't need glue. But constantly came off, drifted off centre etc. Eventually I got frustrated enough to glue them on, using tire glue from my old tubular bicycle tires. That worked!
- more slippage than the previous rubber tires. But mostly when cutting aluminum.
- if you ever need to crown them, I wouldn't know how. (not sure you would need to though)

As for longevity, I can't comment. Its been 5 years and had little use.

Shortly after that I bought a much larger, MUCH older saw, with what might be original rubber tires.
Yes, the tires were cracked in many places, but still worked very well and I use it regularly.
And those tires might be 100 year old.
 
Thanks for your post, Olaf. Bummer that they slipped. I discovered something surprising this afternoon -- the original tires on the Grizzly do not appear to have glue beneath them.😵 I peeked underneath an edge and it lifted easily, with no evidence of glue residue on the surface of the wheel. I placed an order for urethane tires today, they should be here Tuesday or Wednesday, so we'll see if they make a difference. Have read about the hot-water bath needed for manageable installation, and at least one reviewer was able to install the tires without removing the wheels from the saw. That would be a happy thing, but not expecting it to work.

Door is open for any other helpful installation tips.
 
I hear a lot of people saying that the titles need to be glued, but the two bandsaw books that I have say they shouldn't be glued. Of course, there are always exceptions. I have replaced tires a couple times and never used glue. The old tires come off fairly easily because they have lost most of their elasticity, but the new ones are a bear whether rubber or urethane.

Olaf, your tire may have slipping off because the tension around the perimeter wasn't equalized. The tension can be equalized by inserting a couple large screwdrivers (such as #3 Phillips) between the tire and wheel so that the tire is pulled away from the wheel for a few inches. Work the screwdrivers around the perimeter several times. On my 14" Delta clone, the rim of the wheel is raised on both sides so that the tire sits in a shallow channel.

The urethane tires were somewhat harder to install than the rubber ones, but they were the same width, so they also fit in the channel.
 
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