Bandsaw tires- grind or not?

I adopted an orphan SCMI bandsaw last weekend. It is a SC600, vintage

1989, weighs 700# and fit under my garage door fram by less than 1/2 inch. It turns out to work well, though it needs a new 3 phase magnetic starter (anyone have one to sell?) and new tires and blades. It has nice guides, especially compared to my 14" POJ Walker-Turner.

The 600 in the name I presume is the size; 600 mm translates to about 24 inches, though it measures out to 23", (I'll have to check that). One quote for tires concluded with "you'll have to grind them to a dome" which I have seen other places.

However, it is hard for me to imagine that the folks buying the 14" urethane tires are all grinding them to a dome... Don't these hi-tech beauties come pre-domed? I believe that I can get urethane tires to fit, especially if I'm wrong and the wheels are close to 24".

What's the consensus? Is grinding only for old-fashioned wheels? Will I be able to install the urethane tires myself without grinding? The place that recommended grinding offers a service to mount tires and grind them, but that would mean shipping my wheels, plus a price of $50 a piece.

Thanks!

Merle

Yep... by doming the tires a bit, the blades will track a LOT better..which becomes more important for a bigger saw like this.

Well, it depends on the saw. It happens that my Delta 14" does not need to have the tires ground. it has little rims on the wheels and some "built in" dome that shapes the tire well enough.

Well, it depends on how "handy" you are. Some wheels have grooves down the center, which match a rib in the center of the tire...these are pretty easy to mount and glue. If the wheel is flat, then, you will have to work the tire on, get it flat, then, carefully work some contact cement under it to hold it in place before shaping it. You really need to "roll" a length of broomstick under the tire, to even out tensions before gluing. There was a good article in Fine Woodworking (I think) a few years ago about making up a jig to hold a die grinder to trim the tires. Basically, it is a pivoting arm that gets clamped to the frame of the saw, so a straight cutter chucked in the die grinder will cut a 1 or 2 degree slope about 1/3 up the width of the tire. Use light cuts and a couple or three passes to cut the ramp, and, it should be fine. The jig does not have to be complicated...just something to hold the grinder at the same angle all the time as the tire is ground. It is not backbreaking work...just kind of finicky, and can be a good way to burn a weekend (or at least a Saturday). Which is more important to you...the $150 or so that shipping and mounting will cost or five or six hours of time spent on a project?