Band Saw Tires - Crowned or Flat?

[nine4gmc]

I'm in the process of refurbing an old 20" Delta metal/wood saw and it needs tires. From all my reading so far, they suggest crowned tires for proper tracking. The price difference is outrageous, flat tires are around $50-75 per pair and the pre-crowned tires are about $255 per pair. I have read where people are crowning flat tires with success, anyone ever do that and did it make a difference?

BTW, I also have a 20" wood-only version of the Delta and it has flat rubber tires on it that clearly were replaced at some point because they are not factory(they are newer than the saw). I have not run that saw(other than to turn it on to test it) yet either so I do not know if the flat tires work well or not.

 

[yhprum]

There is a good explanation here: http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/crowned_pulleys.html
If you decide to try crowning, look at his DIY bandsaw; doesn't seem too hard.

 

[rlitman]

I've only owned four Delta 14" bandsaws. On all of them, the wheels were crowned under the tires, and the tires were flat, and took the shape of the wheels when installed with a little stretch.

 

[OccupantRJ]

One of my saws has a strip of 3/16" conveyor belt glued on with contact glue. A little trickier to track, but works fine afterward.

 

[22george]

Keith Rucker has a youtube video on replacing band saw tires. He talks about crowning them. My Doall saw had the crowning built into the wheels.

 

[slip knot]

I just buy my tires from Rockler

 

[jlenander]

This link has a compilation of links to show you how others have crowned their wheels. I would highly recommend that your wheels be crowned!

http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/Tire Crowning.ashx

I used a simple hand grinder with great results.