Best way to fit eurethane tyres to bandsaw

I have an old Laguna 14/12 bandsaw for many years, and today the original tyre on the lower wheel broke and jammed the saw blade.
I was able to extract it and removed the blade. Not sure if the resaw blade is damaged.
Found the last 2 replacement tyres in Carbatec for $15 each. No Express Post available, saying it makes no difference these days.


QUESTION: What is the best way to fit replacement tyres?

A couple of videos, including one from Carbatec, show the wheels removed, and the tyres soaked in hot water for 5 minutes then manually stretched and fitted, with a lot of effort. Would be rather hard, and painful, with my arthritic hands.

I am not too happy about removing the wheels, esp if the top wheel is a press fit

Looking for guidance please

C:\Users\greg.j\AppData\Local\Temp\msoAE98.tmp (carterproducts.com)


No need to remove wheels. I replaced tires on a small Ezycut bandsaw a few years ago with urethane tires and followed the Carter procedure. No issues and not difficult at all. Its a lot easier if you use two small dia (<6 mm) dowels to help roll the tire on the wheel and to distribute / equalize tension around the circumference. It also pays to be organized with the tire in the hot water right beside the bandsaw as it gives you more working time.

Don't use boiling water, hot water straight from the hot water tap should be at the recommended 120-140F i.e. 40 - 60 C.

" Australia's National Plumbing Code AS3500 requires that hot water is stored at a temperature above 60C (140F) and that hot water delivery temperature (at the plumbing fixture) shall not be above 50°C (122°F)."

I fitted polyurethane tyres to my 14” bandsaw last year; I warmed it in hot water first, put the tyre into the groove and then pulled it down using two screwdrivers, one on each side. Once the tyre was on I then removed one screwdriver and rotated the wheel with the second screwdriver still inserted; this evens out the “stretch” on the material.

I put urethane tyres on my 18" saw last year and started out trying to fit them 'in place' because I thought it would be too difficult to get the wheels off :no: - very quickly gave up on that idea. Turned out the wheels came off with little more than a tap with a rubber mallet - sooooo much easier to fit the tyres with the wheels on a workbench :2tsup:

I too have arthritic hands, but I was with a little effort able to fit some pretty tight Carter tyres to my 14" bandsaw.

Second page has pictures as well as a picture of the tool Carters send out with their tyres.

Urethane Band Saw tyres (tires)

Mick.

As well as hot water I also warmed the CI wheels of my BS to about 60ºC with a hot air gun to . While that will expand the wheels a tinse (< 1/4 mm), more importantly it won't cool and shrink the tyre as soon as it makes contact with the wheel.

I warmed the urethane tyres on the dashboard of a well beaten up ford for 30min(on a nice sunny day). It worked great.

To put them on I wrapped the tyre to the rim with some 25mm wide webbing,about 600mm long. I then just rolled the rim and stretched the tyre on by hand. This is the way I did it Bandsaw Tire Install ONE man - 15 Seconds! - YouTube This way also works good... Easier band wheel tire install - YouTube

I would advise having the wheels off if you are short of grip. Let the webbing do the work.

Thanks everyone for sharing your valuable experiences. In the end I decided to remove the wheels, which was just as well as there was some surface rust on the shafts holding the wheels, and under the tyres on the wheels. I concluded this was from the Pitch Rx and water I used to clean the tyres before fitting another blade. Fortunately I was able to remove it with a brass wire brush on a hand drill. Took a while on the wheels.

I decided to use a simple jig to fit the tyre, comprising a 16mm dowel for the wheel, and a 10mm bolt with a modified tube spanner to help rotate the tyre. This is based on a YouTube video by David Stanton. https://youtu.be/2Gfe9dh4cLs. There is one point in the video you should avoid - don’t stretch the urethane tyre like he does, it is not rubber and does not snap back.

After talking with Laguna, I ended up dropping each tyre into near boiling water for 5 minutes, and used thick rubber gloves to handle the hot belt. BobL's idea of pre-heating the wheel is a good one, if I had remembered to do that!!

I used two clamps to hold one small section of tyre to the wheel, just in case one came away in the middle of the operation. In hindsight this was not a good idea as there is now a small section between the clamps with a different tension to the rest of the tyre.

In the attached pics, the wheel is turned anti-clockwise.

It went well, and I am glad that I did not try it in situ. It was hard enough turning the wheel towards the end when most strength was needed to fit the final bit of tyre on the rim.

After the tyre slipped into place on the jig, I did a couple of complete rotations of the wheel to even out the tension around the tyre, and for good measure lightly tapped the tyre all the way around using a rubber mallet. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The steel tube was easily removed by turning it at an angle and rolling it.




Attachment 489853Attachment 489854Attachment 489851
Attachment 489850Attachment 489849Attachment 489848
Attachment 489847Attachment 489846

Hi all, after fitting the new tyres ( one had snapped after many years of operation), and a new 3/8" blade, I was looking forward to many hours of trouble free bandsawing on my Laguna 14-12. The blade was running in the centre of the upper tyre.

Yesterday I was cutting 3" diameter circles on a simple jig with the table raised at 45 degrees, using a new 3/8" blade, in accordance with the radii chart in the manual. The rear of the blade was still hitting the back of the cut, and the cut was not circular.

Tried it again today with the table at zero degrees, same problem. But I did notice the blade was twisted in the ceramic guides during this cut, something I have never seen before

So I dug out a new 3/16" blade and went to change it, only to find the new tyre on the lower flywheel had come off completely.

Fortunately, as soon as I removed the drive belt, the flywheel came off quite easily. Using machine oil on the shaft while fitting the tyres last week certainly helped with this.

The tyre is pretty badly chewed, as can be seen in the attached link. Even the teeth marks are indented on the tyre:

Bandsaw tyre failure #2 - 25 Feb 2021 - Google Photos

I used the 3/8" tension setting on the indicator located in the upper wheel cabinet. I have not had any trouble using this indicator in the past on various blades.

The tyre on the upper wheel is also chewed, but not as badly.

Q. What would make the tyre come off the lower wheel ?

Here’s hoping someone can shed some light on this disaster. Cannot get replacement tyres in this country at the moment

I had my original rubber type come off the lower wheel but not the urethane one so I really can’t answer why unless they were over stretched?
At $15 each they were incredibly cheap for urethane tyres, not that I’m doubting Carbitec.
I bought 8” ones for my little Aldi unit and they were $50 a pair. I bought them from the Woodkid. His site shows he has 14” in stock.

I used the same sort of jig for fitting tires on my bandsaw no problem at all can't help with the tire coming off I haven't had any issues in about four years, got them from mob in Queensland.{ i will look where I got them and post } can't find the paper work but it was a machinery supply joint I found on google.