bandsaw tires

[cathouse willy]

My new LV. bandsaw tires are approx 3 mm narrower than the wheels on my delta 14 b/s. LV's site says they fit most 14" saws. Will this affect blade tracking? They're fine for length, a good snug fit.
Chw.

[sp_clark]

If they’re properly crowned and mounted straight & even, I’d think they’ll work fine. (What’s “LV” mean?)

These the blue urethane kind that don’t need gluing down, or the black rubber kind your saw (and mine) likely came with? The black rubber tires should be glued down I’ve heard but mine aren’t.

Blades ought to track with their flat part riding the tire crowns, teeth should not touch tires anywhere, let alone get close to the wheels’ rims.

[neil.henderson]

There are some excellent videos online which explain what type of tyre to use and how to get it onto the wheel (less than easy!). I can recommend the videos by Albert Snodgrass, and yes he is American!

[willin woodworks]

I think if you ask ten woodworkers how to install a bandsaw blade you'll get 11 different answers. I was taught to adjust the blade so the back of the gullets are dead center on the wheel or with a really wide blade, just a hair forward of the crown.

[Gordon Bartlett]

Blades ought to track with their flat part riding the tire crowns, teeth should not touch tires anywhere, let alone get close to the wheels’ rims.

I don't think I've ever seen a tire crowned steeply enough to prevent the teeth from touching the tire, at least not the kind of narrow blades normally used on a 14" saw. I always assumed that the softness of the tire allowed the teeth to push slightly into the tire without disturbing the set of the teeth.
On the other hand, I have seen numerous larger band saws on which the blade rode directly on the iron wheels without any tire at all. In those cases, the teeth hung off the front of the wheel and never touched anything but air and the workpiece.

[Sailor]

I seem to recall Snodgrass saying the gullet of the teeth should ride on the high part of the tire. I'll have to re-watch his videos to refresh my memory.

[sp_clark]

I seem to recall Snodgrass saying the gullet of the teeth should ride on the high part of the tire. I'll have to re-watch his videos to refresh my memory.

These be where you watched him explain saw set-up?

https://acanthus.com/2019/09/23/30-m...lex-snodgrass/

https://youtu.be/wGbZqWac0jU

I thank you for posting your reply. I’d never heard of him (yet I’ve been using Carter’s upgrade bearing guides since before he says he started working with bandsaws!) but what he’s saying makes sense. I learned something from listening to that Youtube video, will put it into practice with my saw, see what happens.

[John Meachen]

I've always tracked the saw so it runs in the centre of the top wheel.Unless the wheel in question is very close to the width of the blade it ought to be fine.

[sp_clark]

I've always tracked the saw so it runs in the centre of the top wheel. Unless the wheel in question is very close to the width of the blade it ought to be fine.

I have also yet with what Albert Snodgrass suggests in that video there's something to be gained having a blade running with the teeth just ahead of the blade side guides down between blade wheels when it comes time to change blade width: no need to change the guides' position relative to the teeth gullets.

I want to learn more about what he said there about how the two wheels should not be co-planar too.

I've noted how changing how a blade tracks - by altering the 'pitch' of the upper wheel's axle - tends to cause the blade to move off the crown of the lower wheel's tire. My Rockwell 14" is at least 40 years old and though I've long ago lost the manual I've always thought the wheels should be 'in the same plane' but apparently that may not be true.

Never too old to learn new tricks. 'Specially if those tricks lead to better results....

[willin woodworks]

This is a good place to learn a few tricks. The depth and width of experience on this forum is enviable. I've learned a handful of things that are now second nature.

[J.Madison]

Just to confuse things, my 36" bandsaw has no crown at all, and runs 1-1/4" wide blades. No way to center those gullets on the wheel.

[John Meachen]

There is a lesson there in itself for the perceptive.