band saw tires

[Kizar_Sozay]

Where's the best place to buy bandsaw tires?  Looking for one for a 19" Grizzly/Shop Fox.

[Tony Z]

Grizzly! That's where I got them for my Grizz.

[Kizar_Sozay]

Grizzly!  That's where I got them for my Grizz.

Mine from Grizzly will be here on Thursday. 

I wanted to get an insert for my JessEm router lift as one of my bits was wider than the insert.  Boy, do they hold those dear.  $18 for one insert or a set of 10 for $52.  I decided to use a forstner bit and a drill press to open the insert another 1/8".  Wow, that phenolic resin is hard stuff.  Looking at it I think I could make my own from ipe or hard maple but that's a project for another day.

The price for the lift, a Router Lift II is through the roof at $269.  Quality stuff but I think I paid about $300 for the lift and a router table from Rockler way back "in the day."

Now the weather has turned nice, I'm back in the shop wondering who tinkered with all the settings on my tools.

[sweensdv2]

I got mine from bandsaw tire warehouse thru ebay for my Rikon bandsaw. Very happy with them. Here's a link to the Griz G0514Z if that's the model you have; https://www.ebay.com/itm/352316320953?ep...BM4MyJ_Mhj

[Kizar_Sozay]

I put new tires from Grizzly on the saw, a ShopFox 1729 19".  Removing the wheels that had been on the machine for twenty years was quite the undertaking despite they being held on only a single Allen screw and a washer to the secure against a bushing. 

That said, getting the tires on seemed impossible to stretch them.  What I ended up doing was to cut half a dozen pieces as wide as the wheel rim out of some 1/4" scrap wood and about 1 1/2" long.  I started the new tire by placing on the rim by one of the holes between the spokes.  I added the scrap wood to protect the tire and secured it with a cable tie.  I then began repeating as I worked around.  By the time I was half way around the circumference, I then took a hefty round screwdriver and used it as a lever to repeat the scrap and cable tie on the next hole.  Went to the other side and repeated.  It took some leverage but by the time I got the next in line secured, I was able to lever the last bit in place.  I then stood the wheel on edge and ran the screwdriver 2-3 times around the circumference to even out the tension.  Took maybe fifteen minutes.  Grizzly said they don't use any adhesive any more.

To get the wheels off and on requires a lot of disassembly of the guide and drive parts.  Once together set the guides and fired it up.  There is intermittent noise and I can hear a tick-tick which I concluded was at the blade weld.  I'm thinking, as I was removing bits of the old tire I must have put a kink in the blade because it tracks right but the drift is terrible, a test cut on a 2 x 4 started out OK but halfway through I couldn't even hold it against the fence. Decided this was from the kink as all the guides and thrust bearings were visually operating as designed until I tried to feed material.  Next step is to get a replacement blade.  Next to the saw is the box from Suffolk the resaw blades were shipped in and luckily the packing slip was still on the box after 20 years.  I opened it to see the length.  What I found was I had ordered two of the resaw blades 3tpi, bi-metal, 1" x 143" and I had a brand new one in the box.  The packing slip showed the price at $16 per blade.  Went to see what the price is today and they are $76 ea.  That's inflation for you.  I'll put the new blade on Friday.  Spent the morning in a hot garage trying to isolate the noise and ticking sound and mucking about with feeler gauges.

[Stwood_]

Did you find the noise?

[Kizar_Sozay]

Did you find the noise?

Yes, I did and it was entirely pilot error.  When my tires disintegrated they actually caked and melted on to the blade.  To remove the gunk from the blade I hand rotated the upper wheel and used a heat gun and an old wood chisel to clean it off.  Near the weld but not on it, there was some stubborn gunk and I created a "hump" deflection in the blade.  Originally, I thought the noise was coming from the upper wheel bushing but as I backed off the thrust bearings, then the upper guide wheels the noise-tick persisted.  I discovered it was coming from the lower guides that cover the lower guide wheels. The "hump" was hitting the bottom of the blade near where they mount.  I was able to get the noise-tick down to what I thought was acceptable.  However, when I tried to run a 2x4 through like I was resawing, I couldn't even keep the stock against the fence. as the hump was pulling the stock away from the fence.  That's when I concluded it was the blade and happily found a brand new one I'd ordered two years ago.  I got it on and the noise issue was gone.  Started up and ran quietly and was able to resaw the test piece easily.  However I noticed on the lower wheel it wasn't tracking in the center.  the blade kept riding forward enough so the teeth were almost at the edge of the wheel.  More tuning neededl

When I was trying to remove the lower wheel with no luck I ended up loosening the set screws and nuts where the axle mounts to the machine. Totally unnecessary as that part is threaded.  I just had a stuck wheel which finally popped off with the pulleys attached.  When re-assembling I figure I had not centered the axle in the mount.  Taking a vernier gauge I measured the distance from the center to the axle housing to see if there was any discrepancy.  Left/right I was within .002" but up was .783" center to housing and the bottom was .727" so almost 1/16" out at the small end of the axle which would be magnified at the rim of the 19" wheel, causing the co-planer error.  What I did was split the difference between .783 and .727 = .755" /2 =.028. less than a 1/32" but magnified considerably.  with the blade just under tension, I loosened the left/right screws 1 turn each.  I then loosened the top and bottom and backed off the set screw .028" and then tightened the bottom one about half a turn until I met resistance.  Tightened it all up and the bottom wheel tracks.  Got it all buttoned up and clearances set and double checked.  Then I decided I had the upper guide wheels a bit too far back from the gullets of the blade which would cause deflection under load so I moved the arm of the guide wheels forward to just below the gullets, reset everything and finally happy with a quiet and accurate saw.  I polished the table top to celebrate.  I don't even have a project in the works but a clean, accurate tool is a happy tool.

Wow.  Didn't mean to go into such detail but, if you are having similar issues, I hope my issues and remedies help you sort it out.

[fredhargis]

Kizar, thanks for that recap on tire installation. I've been wanting to add a second BS to my shop and had my eyes on the same model (Facebook Marketplace, at what I thought was a fair price). The ad read needs new tires, minor job (!). Should I decide to pursue this further your info will be useful.

[Kizar_Sozay]

Kizar, thanks for that recap on tire installation. I've been wanting to add a second BS to my shop and had my eyes on the same model (Facebook Marketplace, at what I thought was a fair price). The ad read needs new tires, minor job (!). Should I decide to pursue this further your info will be useful.

The manual is available on the Grizzly website but its now the model 1825.  Worth the download just for the exploded drawings.

[Stwood_]

Good deal on finding the problem.

The last tires I bought for a Taiwan 14" knockoff were silicone, and they came from Highland Hardware.