Bandsaw basket case?

[StoneyD]

The new to me SS Mk-V has been fairly easy thus far to get into a useable condition. Due to easily noticeable issues, I left the bandsaw for the final SPT to tackle, and it has not gone well. At time of purchase the blade was hanging loose, the saw guard had a slice almost all the way through, the rubber tires had many dry rot cracks and dings in them, the table insert was missing. Ordered new urethane tires, blade guard, table insert, ½” and 3/16” blades from SS. Installed urethane tires while still mounted and powered on at slowest speed, without a blade installed and within blink of an eye the lower wheel tire came off and wrapped around the inner portion of the wheel, which has ruined that tire. Pulled the lower wheel off for closer inspection and found a nick on the inner rim of the wheel. I have ordered a new lower wheel and another set of orange urethane tires and am hoping that will be all that is needed because the cost of the parts for the bandsaw rehab is nearly as much as the price I paid for the whole unit. Any advice on what else to examine closely before I proceed further on the bandsaw would be much appreciated.

[JPG]

Blade guard? What does that nick look like? How did the new tire slip UP over the raised rim?



You DID remove the rubber tires?

[RFGuy]

I would NOT use the SS urethane bandsaw tires. Myself and several others on this forum have reported issues with them whereas the bluemax urethane tires off of eBay work great. Below is what I wrote on this forum before about them and some links with more info on the issue. Honestly SS should stop selling their bandsaw urethane tires IMHO. Supposedly if you overstretch uretheane bandsaw tires on installation it can cause this failure. Honestly, unless you are a gorilla, I don't understand how this is even possible. It was everything I could do with my hand strength just to get the SS urethane bandsaw tires to stretch just enough to go on, but the bluemax urethane bandsaw tires went on fairly easily with minimal effort and haven't once slipped off on me like the SS red (orange) urethane bandsaw tires did. So, I don't think I over-stretched the SS urethane bandsaw tires. IF I did, then I am NOT the only ons as several forum members over the years have had similar experiences to mine with them. In fact the old website had bad customer reviews on the website for the SS urethane tires. I don't know if the new website kept up these customer testimonials or not.

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Other than the stains, those original rubber tires actually look pretty good for 30+ years. Mine were very dry rotted after 20+ years, but then I live in a hot, dry climate here which may explain it. Like others, I made the mistake of replacing them with the urethane tires that look red in the web picture but are orange in reality. Those have bad reviews on Shopsmith's website because they are garbage (tire separated from wheel for me). If you choose to replace them with urethane, I would only buy bluemax tires from eBay (just search for Shopsmith and bluemax) and have worked well for me so far. If the original rubber tires can clean up nicely, then keep them as long as possible.

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[StoneyD]

Picture shows the crack in the blade guard and the lower wheel as I had to remove the wheel to get the tire that was wrapped all around the backside when it came off. The upper wheel was easy to clean as the adhesive came off almost entirely in one piece. On the lower wheel I used bit of acetone and small brass brush took probably an hour to get it cleaned. To install the orange tires, I used 4 zip ties to hold the tire on as I worked my around. for the last 6" or so I used a wooden dowel and bit of laundry detergent to stretch the tire on. Then cut the zip ties off, took couple of tries and 20 minutes or so for each wheel. I have ordered a used lower wheel from eBay seller and two more orange tires from a 3rd party. If those orange tires fail, then I will probably try the blue ones as suggested. The original blade had two pretty good crimps in it, so guessing that the blade came off and cut thru the blade guard. All of the bearings seem fine. Also, I am wondering how much effort it should take to move the tension arm up and down when there is no blade installed?

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[RFGuy]

Honestly kinda shocked by your response, but hey its your equipment. When these orange urethane bandsaw tires comes off, it is often destructive. That is what happened to me and what it sounds like happened to you. Also its been discussed a good bit in the past on this forum with consensus among forum members here to either go with replacement rubber bandsaw tires or only the bluemax urethane tires. Shopsmith dumped all of the negative reviews for their orange urethane bandsaw tires when they updated to the new website and there were several negative reviews before, but there is already one negative comment on the new website that says the same thing about these orange urethane tires not staying on the wheel. For me, personally, I wouldn't want to have a repeat of my bandsaw incident when one of the two orange urethane tires decided to come off. I wish you would reconsider on trying another set of these defective orange urethane bandsaw tires from the mothership. I just hope that your fingers are far from the blade when that 2nd set of orange urethane tires decide to act up. Be safe...

[StoneyD]

RF guy, prior to posting about this problem, I unfortunately believed that I have a defective lower wheel assembly and ordered a new used one. Also ordered a less expensive orange tire set from a third-party seller on Amazon. When they arrive, I will see if I can return those and exchange for a set of blue ones.

[RFGuy]

RF guy, prior to posting about this problem, I unfortunately believed that I have a defective lower wheel assembly and ordered a new used one. Also ordered a less expensive orange tire set from a third-party seller on Amazon. When they arrive, I will see if I can return those and exchange for a set of blue ones.

Sorry, if you want to try the 2nd set of orange ones, go ahead. I don't know why they have a problem, but I suspect that they are slightly too small compared to the bluemax ones. Whether this really does cause them to become overstretched during installation, as some have suggested on this forum, or whether it is a different issue, I don't know. Or it might be a yield problem with these tires...meaning that some percentage of them install and operate just fine, but some fail. After mine failed I starting searching old forum posts and discovered that I wasn't alone with this issue. Since you have another set of them, if you do install them and use them, please let us know here on the forum how they perform to give us insight. I believe some owners of the orange tires have had no issues, but others have had problems with them. It could also be that some orange tires fail sooner and others take some time before they decide to have a problem. My point was this is a known issue with at least some of the orange urethane tires from SS. Presumably other orange, Shopsmith bandsaw size tires from other sellers are the same product. I just didn't want you to be surprised/startled by another orange tire failure and definitely don't want you getting hurt. It is frustrating to me that SS still sells them despite several of us complaining about them. They could easily source this from a different vendor like the bluemax ones that seem to have unanimous positive reviews from those of us that own them.

P.S. Of course, if it is an Amazon purchase and you can return it for free and get the bluemax ones that may be an attractive option, albeit it will cost you time.