Old Oliver Bandsaw question

[John Bailey]

Hi All,

A couple of years ago I rebuilt a 1959 Oliver 192, 18" bandsaw. It worked and ran smoothly, but the tires needed replacing. That's where my problems started.

Bear with the story, it gets a bit long.

I tried a pair of rubber tires. The old ones were a bear to get off. Once off, with use of clamps, I got the new ones on and glued to the wheels. I've read many times that on the bandsaws without a crown on the wheels, you should, at least, try setting it up with no crown. I did that and had a little trouble tracking, so, I decided to crown the tires. Crowning the bottom tire was easy because it's the drive wheel.

Because it's a 3 phase, I installed a VFD and can control the speed of the bandsaw. After I crowned the lower tire, I turned the VFD on to 60 to make sure everything was working correctly. It ran very smooth, but, and this is a big "but," the tire snapped and came of the wheel. It tended to be a very exciting couple of seconds.

So, (bored yet) I decided to get urethane tires this time and installed them. This time, after I got them on, I put the blade on without crowning and it tracked very nicely. However, the blade always found it's way to the front of the tire with the teeth hanging over the tire. I've read this works well, and in fact seemed to work well as I made some curved cuts with a 3/16th blade.

About then, it started getting exciting again as it started making a bit of noise. I stopped the saw, opened it up and saw that the top tire had started to move off the wheel.

And thus, the following questions.

1. Do I have to glue the urethane tires. I've read that I don't have to.
2. Should I, or can I, crown the urethane tires.
3. If I crown them, should I crown both, or, just one. I've read both ways.

By the way, after putting the blade to tension, I made sure the wheels were co-planer.

Any and all opinions and constructive criticisms are welcome.

Thanks, John

[Carroll Courtney]

John,over the pass couple of yrs I have installed 5 sets of rubber tires on 14" and 20" wheels and never had a problem with them coming off after the glue has cured.One of the things that a person has to pay attention to is the wheel and tire has to be very clean and the glossiness gone on the glue side of the tire.I have only tried the urethane tires once and did not care for them,due to tracking problems.Give Bobby a call at www.woodworkerstools.com and talk with him about tires and the problems that you have.Below is pics of how I crown the upper/lower tires on a D/M 20" BS.Good Luck----Carroll
Also here is Bobby installing a tire by his self on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbwJD5dh2kY

[Frank Drew]

John,
I had the same machine and need to replace the tires but Oliver was still in business at the time so I pulled the wheels, crated them up, and sent them off to Michigan; they told me they used shellac as a glue to hold the tires on.

[Bobby Knourek]

Thanks for the plug Carroll.

John we have done several, several Olivers in the past....Great machine!
We sell both rubber and poly tires and I gotta say that rubber is the way to go for general purpose woodworking.
Poly we recomend for metal working when there may be coolant or chemicals in the mix. The thinner poly bands also do well on slower wheels
where the crown is machined into the wheel, and tracking a slower wheel is less nutty.

Glue your tires down and crown, but there is a technique to installing without the risk of an airbubble that will lead to a failure, or a nick in the tire
sometimes caused by ''clamp use'' on installation of the tire that will lead to the tire snapping.
I think we cover this on the u-tube video mentioned but if not call us any day toll free 800 475 9991 and one of us will walk you through it.
(industrial tires are in stock and the glue needed is included)

and Frank, shellac was and still is used by many for tire cement.

Bobby.

[Frank Drew]

and Frank, shellac was and still is used by many for tire cement.

Interesting; thanks for the followup, Bobby.

[Gary Herrmann]

John, have you posted your question on OWWM?

[John Bailey]

Thanks for the plug Carroll.

John we have done several, several Olivers in the past....Great machine!
We sell both rubber and poly tires and I gotta say that rubber is the way to go for general purpose woodworking.
Poly we recomend for metal working when there may be coolant or chemicals in the mix. The thinner poly bands also do well on slower wheels
where the crown is machined into the wheel, and tracking a slower wheel is less nutty.

Glue your tires down and crown, but there is a technique to installing without the risk of an airbubble that will lead to a failure, or a nick in the tire
sometimes caused by ''clamp use'' on installation of the tire that will lead to the tire snapping.
I think we cover this on the u-tube video mentioned but if not call us any day toll free 800 475 9991 and one of us will walk you through it.
(industrial tires are in stock and the glue needed is included)

and Frank, shellac was and still is used by many for tire cement.

Bobby.

Thanks Bobby,

I tried the saw again today and it worked great. The thing that worries me is it tracks right on the front edge. I did some cutting on some ash and it worked great. I have a narrow blade (3/16th), that may be a problem.

I've got urethane tires on it right now and I'm going to stick with them for awhile. My question is, do I crown them just like rubber tires, and, do I glue them, just like rubber tires?

Thanks,

John

[Bobby Knourek]

John,
running the blade on the edge of the wheel is not good.
You can crown these just as rubber, but they generally are not thick enough,
and yes you should glue them down before crowning.

Bobby.