Thread: Bandsaw tyres

Yesterday I went to use my 19" Carbatech bandsaw (last used a few days ago) and after cutting about 15 mm there was a dull thunk and then the saw started making a racket. I hit the foot brake and opened up the cabinet to find the top tyre had come off. The blade was still on the wheels and didn't look damaged, and it cut OK when later I put it back on.

The tyre had not broken but was hanging off the back of wheel axle. It still had good flexibility but when went to remove the tyre it was easy to remove over the wheel so it had clearly been stretched. It was also not forming a symmetrical circle but had a section that was significantly warped. Not sure if that happened after it came off and was rubbing on the wheel/axle. Clearly it was not going sit well on the wheel so no reusable.

So off to Carbatec and an hour later I as fitting the new tyre - tyre in hot water and hot air gun on the wheel and it went on pretty quickly - still have to tug on it pretty hard. As an aside I then noticed one of the guide bearings so off the the bearing suppliers to replace that one.

Black to the tyre that came off - this is the second top tyre I have replace in 13 years of use but have yet to replace the bottom tyre. The first tyre basically disintegrated into many pieces after about 8 years of use whereas this one was still together. In trying to determine what might have caused this, one possibility was that in the last few years I have been cutting up lots of dog bones. The bones are usually frozen but the process ends up producing considerably amounts of fatty bine swarf which coats the blade and of course the tyres. I do clean this off when I finish but I have to admit its a fairly cursory clean. Anyway if it is the bone swarf, why is bottom tyre still OK?

The next thing is that in the last few years I have not been releasing the blade tension anywhere near as much as usual. However, again, why is the bottom tyre still OK?

Any ideas?