Urethane tires throwing me for a loop

bend the housing where it rubs. this can be fixed with a hammer

-- measure once, keep cuttin' til it fits

Buy a shorter blade. Or have some welded by your local saw shop.

-- Michael Murphy, Woodland, CA.

HF has 93” blades on their saws and sells them. Ya oughtta try gettin on eon a Ridgid that takes 93.5”. I ground under neath part thatthe wheel was rubbing. Well, actually hadda grind it just to get the blade on…and yes, I have new urethane tires on it too, didn’t help.

-- Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Wood Works

So I just had an idea. What if I used a longer, stiffer spring. This way, the blade would see more tension with less vertical displacement and could make it so that I don’t actually get the wheel up high enough to rub against the housing (it is rubbing on the little indentation on the back that therefore protrudes into where the wheel is). That would make it so that I wouldn’t have to use shorter blades. Besides, the spring in this thing is the original spring, and therefore most likely very tired (I’ve been eyeing the Cobra Coil, I must confess). It measures something like .75”x2.7” or thereabouts. Would this work or am I just fooling myself?

-- Brian T. - Exact science is not an exact science

It may work , but keep in mind that your bearings could be tired also. So putting more pressure on them may make another problem. Not sure of this and I would probably try the spring, just thought I would mention it.

-- F.Little

Are the new tires quite a bit thinner than the old rubber ones?

If the originals were 1/4” thick and the urethane ones are 1/8” thick, assuming the original wheels with tires were 14” dia., now with the 1/8” thick tires they are 13 3/4 diameter, that’s a difference of around .8 inches or 11/16” in circumference you have to make up for by raising the top wheel farther. Could that be causing the wheel to scrape?

-- Michael Murphy, Woodland, CA.

The new tires are thinner. Also, I was thinking some more and I don’t think a new spring is a valid solution. The blade is a certain length and has to be displaced a certain amount to achieve a certain level of tension. A new spring will just make it so that I can get more tension (i.e., the appropriate amount of displacement) on bigger blades. It looks like I will either need to try to grind the casing a little bit so that the wheel doesn’t rub on it or get custom length blades made. Too bad I can’t find anyone locally who welds blades. Anyone know of anyone who welds blades in Syracuse, NY?

-- Brian T. - Exact science is not an exact science

I would think a different spring would throw off the tension indicator if you have one. The spring compresses to get the desired tension on the blade. Different spring size would certainly affect that.

There is no saw sharpening shop in Syracuse? Tool Suppliers that make custom blades? Most of the ones I know of in my area can weld b s blades. Maybe you would have to mail it to someone to cut and re-weld it or go to the local Harbor freight and get one that’s just a bit shorter.

-- Michael Murphy, Woodland, CA.