Bandsaw basket case?

[RFGuy]

I'll let others comment on the speed calibration, but are you thinking that perhaps speed could have been a factor in the orange urethane bandsaw tires slipping off? It is certainly a thought to consider, but then many woodworking bandsaws have a low speed at/or above that speed. Only newer ones with variable speed control can go much lower. Your post got me curious. I did search around online a bit on this issue of urethane bandsaw tires coming off. It seems like it can be a common problem with other bandsaw brands as well from the other woodworking forums that I have read. Two interesting points came out of what I read. A particular brand bandaw has wheels that are not 14", but a bit under and the owner purchased a common 14" bandsaw wheel urethane tire. I guess the small difference in wheel diameter resulted in the urethane tires slipping off over time, i.e. the tire was slightly too big. Another discussion was that urethane tires have to bond to the bandsaw wheel. So, having a good and clean bandsaw wheel, e.g. when removing rubber tires and installing urethane ones is imperative. Even with this, perhaps if the wheel surface is too smooth or chemical residue is left behind, etc., perhaps the urethane tire is more prone to coming loose? A theory proposed in another forum is that basically the pressure at the contact point of the urethane tire can cause a pucker of urethane to be raised ahead of it causing the tire to dislodge. A good bond is supposed to prevent this. A proposed fix that several indicated worked is to use your wife's hairspray on the wheel contact surface prior to installing the urethane tire. Only a special adhesive could be used to bond urethane tires to a metal wheel, but the hair spray trick leaves enough of a friction surface behind that a loose bond forms between the urethane tire and the wheel. Several commented that this worked for them after having experienced urethane tires come off, but one did comment that they had to reapply the hair spray after a few years. I am not too keen on this "remedy" because I imagine it will cause lots of sawdust to adhere to the wheel's surface. Just sharing what I found online to offer a possible explanation for why orange urethane tires are more likely to come off the bandsaw wheels than the blue urethane tires. My hunch is there is a difference in the diameter and/or elasticity rating of the orange versus the blue tires. IF anyone tries out the hairspray trick on the orange tires that slipped off before and it fixes them after, please let us know. By the way, below is another past forum article that talks about the Shopsmith orange urethane tires coming off of the Shopsmith bandsaw. There have been several prior posts on this issue with the orange tires, so I just wanted to include it here for anyone interested. Good luck with it. Hope you getting it working well soon.

viewtopic.php?t=27551

[StoneyD]

RFguy, glad you responded, seems very important that I deal with the rpm readings I am getting from a $30 tachometer since each operation according to SS has an optimal dial setting. In hindsight probably should have done an rpm verification after the 50-hour maintenance I performed as recommended in the owner's manuals. I have received a new lower wheel assembly today that looks to be barely used, but it has no grooves in the wheel as does my original wheel that came with the bandsaw SPT. I have a third-party provider of orange belts coming and have an unused SS provided belt also, so I can take measurements for comparison. There are enough battle-scars to indicate that this bandsaw has suffered some mishaps, but the bearings and guide blocks have been upgraded at some point. There seems to be a valid suggestion to use the "blue" urethane rather than the "orange" urethane. I am going to order the "blue" urethane tires tomorrow. I appreciate the responses from this forum as I am new to bandsaw use and intend to explore making bandsaw boxes and rough out rounding for lathe turning.

[RFGuy]

Well, "A' on the speed dial should be 700 RPM ideally from the speed chart, but I think I have seen others indicate theirs was closer to 1000 RPM. A few factors can cause this. So, your RPM is high for "A", but I don't know if that caused the tire to fail. I just hadn't thought much about why my orange urethane tires failed, so your posts here got me thinking about why I and others might have had a failure. Other woodworking bandsaw brands have owners reporting some issues with specific brand urethane tires. So, at least the problem is not Shopsmith specific. Keep us updated on how it goes with the bandsaw. Also, hopefully others will chime in on adjustments to get the RPM dialed in to the correct value. I haven't tach'ed mine so I don't know what my actual RPM is and if that could have been a factor in my orange tires failing.

[chapmanruss]

StoneyD,

There is more than one possible cause for your incorrect speeds.

The simplest might be the Speed Control Dial being out of position. When turned down to the slowest speed with the Speed Control Handle does it go past the slow position towards fast? If so, the Speed Control Dial needs to be repositioned. With the Speed Control Assembly correctly adjusted the speed at slow should ideally be 700 RPM.

Another cause for incorrect speeds would be a worn or mis-sized V Belt between the Motor and the Idler Shaft Assembly.

Excessive "drag" in the system due to worn Bearings could slow the speed down. Not likely in your case since your speed runs high.

Other speed inaccuracies could be caused by the Motor itself. Something that causes the Motor not to run at its rated speed of 3450 RPM. You could use your tachometer to check the actual Motor RPM. That would be another easy thing to check.

The Speed Control Dial should stop at SLOW as shown on the Headstock below.

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March 1982 Headstock.jpg (129.44 KiB) Viewed 5 times