Pro's and Con's of Vulcanized Bandsaw Tires

[Terry Stellman]

What are the pro's and con's of vulcanized bandsaw tires for an average home user? Most bandsaw tires these days seem to be polyurethane and easily replaceable. Do the rubber tires last as long? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks.


Terry

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

What are the pro's and con's of vulcanized bandsaw tires for an average home user? Most bandsaw tires these days seem to be polyurethane and easily replaceable. Do the rubber tires last as long?

20 years in machine shops and I never heard of any one changing the rubber tires on an industrial band saw.

[Jim DeLaney]

What are the pro's and con's of vulcanized bandsaw tires for an average home user? Most bandsaw tires these days seem to be polyurethane and easily replaceable. Do the rubber tires last as long? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks.


Terry

The rubber tires on my 14" bandsaw are the originals. They've been on there since 1981, and show no signs of needing replacement.

Can't speak for the poly tires. I've never (yet) needed to use one.

[Terry Stellman]

The reason I ask is that on the Mini Max MM16 video they mention that when you need to change the tires in about 7 years that their tires are easily replaced versus the vulcanized ones that need to be sent away to be done. I have also been considering the new Grizzly 17" Euro saw and it has the vulcanized tires (I verified this with their customer service) and I was concerned that this would run up the maintenance costs over the years. Thanks for the responses so far, it seems that it may be a moot point. I still wonder why a manufacturer would choose one method over the other.

Terry

[Pete Bradley]

MM's advice is bogus. Replacing rubber tires is not difficult. I'm told that since they're thicker, they can also be re-crowned when they wear but I've never had to do that.

Pete

[Chuck Saunders]

20 years in machine shops and I never heard of any one changing the rubber tires on an industrial band saw.

Let someone get the clever idea to slit a roll of duct tape in two. Never could get it all of of our Do-All 3 wheel. Finally admitted defeat and ordered 3 new tires.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I still wonder why a manufacturer would choose one method over the other.

A tune form the O'Jays springs to mind:

For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
For the love of money
People will rob their own brother
For the love of money
People can't even walk the street
Because they never know who in the world they're gonna beat
For that lean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, money