If they are 165mm wheels, you can buy new tyres online.. (is it a generic 3-wheel 14″ B/S such as Draper, Burgess, et al?)

What is / was the material that you used?

I used Pirelli upholstery webbing cut to appropriate width and attached with contact adhesive. That was years ago, looking a bit worse for wear now, but still doing the business. (the webbing that is! )

It may be heat related. Depends what and how aggressively you may have been pressuring the blade to warm it up, thus melting your tyres. If your material is some kind of foam rubber draught strip, then it is not suitable anyway.

Dennis

My guess is the type of rubber is unsuitable, or – less likely – something in the workshop is attacking it.  More information would help:

1. What sort of rubber is it? (There are at least 5 different materials described as ‘rubber’, plus additives.)
2. What’s the rubber tape normally used for?  (Sealing, shock absorbing etc.)
3. How much use does the bandsaw get?  (Big difference between rubber that perished on a barely used saw, and rubber tyres that are heat and mechanically stressed by regular cutting.)

If the rubber tape is a soft type, not intended to take a friction load, it may be physically damaged rather than perished.  Possibly an unlucky choice such as an un-Vulcanised rubber.

Accidentally using the wrong material is an occupational hazard in Model Engineering!  We often use whatever we have rather than scientifically sourcing the best material for the job.   I’ve come a cropper with scrap metals that turned out to be horribly difficult to machine, and have botched a few projects by using the wrong type of glue, wood, plastic, paint or solvent.

Dave

..could be that the rubber is not up to the constant ‘working’ that the bandsaw is giving it?

I see that American-made urethane tyres are £33/set from

https://bandsawparts.co.uk/urethane-tyres/urethane-bandsaw-tyre-to-suit-wheel-diameter-165mm-6-1-2/

..might be worth it for a regular user (if you’ve already had a look at Scott&Sargent’s prices for larger saws, it will seem pretty good)..

…if not ‘bandsaw tyres’ on Ebay will turn up an array of larger sizes that you could probably cut and join for considerably less..

65mm does sound like a lot of stretch

I am no expert on band-saws, or neoprene; but I suspect you have triggered what is known as “stress corrosion” … where a tiny defect develops into a big crack under stress.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ Wikipedia has a good overview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_corrosion_cracking

Pure gueswork, but 40 – 45mm would probably quite sufficient stretch.

Howard