Warco 314 bandsaw spares

[LambtonParticipant @lambton]

Warco 314 bandsaw spares.

As I turned on my trusty Waco bandsaw at the weekend there was a bang and the blade became slack. This normally happens when the blade breaks. I took the covers/guards off and found the top wheel (of 3 ) had shed its tyre. I made a temporary repair by sticking it together with fibre glass reinforced packing tape after priming the back face of the tyre with contact adhesive that was allowed to dry . This got me going and allowed me to complete the small job that I was doing.

I phoned Warco spares department and explained what I wanted. Now I appreciate that this machine is 20 years old and that I would be lucky if they still held spare parts for it. I was not disappointed the man as I spoke to confirmed it was an old machine and in a totally disinterested voice also confirmed that Warco had no spares for it. I asked if he knew anywhere else to try and in an even more disinterested voice said he did not.

Now this bandsaw was made in Taiwan by a company that made many, many thousands of this model selling them world-wide. In fact some sources on the internet state they are still producing them.

I found out that Clarke International imported them and until fairly recently they were sold by Machine Mart. I contacted Clarke spares dept. and they could not have been more helpful. Yes they stocked spare wheell tyres at £5 each + vat so I ordered 3 new ones. The very nice and helpful man who took my order suggested that as they had a minimum postal charge I could also purchase a new drive belt which would not add to this cost. I paid by card and the good arrive two days later.

The Clarke part number & description is “FM355012 Wheel Tyre CBS355”

The drive belt is “FM355031 Drive Belt CBS355”

Now that is service Mr. Warco!

Fitting the new tyre seemed an impossible task at first. The tyre looked to be too small in diameter and a tad too wide for the space between the small flanges on the wheel. Of course it was correct it just had to be stretched over the wheel and this stretching would reduce the width so that it would fit snuggly between the flanges. Understanding this did not help with the task of fitting so after 10 minutes of total failure to accomplish what looked at first to be a simple task I reverted to YouTube and found a very useful site where the demonstrator suggested that the tyre should be soaked on very hot water for a while to make it more pliable. Whilst the tyre was heating up I put a small “F” clamp through the spokes and secure it to the machine frame. This did not clamp the wheel in any way it just stopped it rotating whist I fitted the tyre. Once the wheel was immobilised and the tyre made more pliable I soon fitted it with a lot of pressure from both thumbs.

I also looked on eBay for 6.5” x 0.5” wheel tyres and found none in the UK but lots are available from the USA stated to be made from polyurethane rather than rubber and were claimed to last a “lifetime” which at my advanced age is not much of a consolation!

[LambtonParticipant @lambton]

Thank goodness for Clarke International and the internet.

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

I have often recommended people to check with Clarke/Machine Mart for spares for Taiwanese machines of a generic nature which the original vendors no longer support.

Very often they can help.

Phil

[Ancient engineerParticipant @ancientengineer]

I've just done a complete rebuild on what was a NuTool version, and again Clarke International came out on top, they are brilliant.

I also have one myself, an excellent bandsaw.

Dave.

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