UK Source for bandsaw wheels/tyres?

[PCPaul]

I've been given a decent quality bandsaw with a broken plastic top wheel. It's had a hard life (at a small company) and the tyres are shot... The motor, fence and basic frame are fine though.

The manufacturer wants £100+ for a new wheel without the tyre. I'm hoping I could DIY it for a lot less than that.

I've seen suggestions to just layer up some ply, use a circle cutter jig on my tablesaw or router table then fit a tyre and balance it - but I'm wary of fitting the bearings successfully into the centre.

Is there a better way to do it? Are there any good UK suppliers for bandsaw wheels and/or tyres, or a recommended DIY approach to making them?

The wheels are 12" diameter, tyres are about an inch wide, should be ~1/4" thick.

[dom]

I bought new bandwheels for my Startrite 352 from this chap Harry Hayward gbservicing @ hotmail. co .uk (get rid of the spaces) - very reasonable prices

He runs a very small spares business, but bought up the old tooling to make bandwheels for Startrites.

I'm sure he will be able to help or offer tiptop advice.

When you say "broken plastic top wheel" - bandwheels are usually aluminium (cheapies), steel (midrange like mine) or cast iron (good ones) - did you just mean the rubber tyre?

I believe there are companies specialising in fitting new tyres to bandwheels - start off by contacting woodworking machinery suppliers.

Otherwise many of the traditional British machinery manufacturers still offer support on all their products since they equipped Noah.

[PCPaul]

This one is a Delta/Elu 3401 (IIRC - haven't looked at it for a week or so). I think the new spare would be pressed steel, but this one comes from a time when they were experimenting with solid plastic wheels.

Thanks for the info though, I'll follow it up.