Being a DIY guy, I wanted to give a go at comp cutting my Sand Blaster paddle tires. No tutorials out there that I could find, so had to wing it a bit. I went cheap and picked up an Ideal Tire Groover and some #12 blades/head (3/4" wide).



My Blasters have the 16 #2 paddles. There's quite a "hump" left where the #1 paddles use to be. To even out the rubber for cutting, I used my belt sander with a 36 grit belt to level them out. Here's a picture of the tires before sanding:



And after:



Now I'm ready to tear into it. I set the blade depth to 1/8" which kept me just a hair above the belts in the tire. The iron is hot, so here we go:





Here it is all done



And the left overs



The results are 4 pounds less weight per tire (less rotating mass for you gear heads!), a softer carcass that will float much better on the sand. Just gotta watch out for those sharp rocks now!

It was a bit of a pain, but glad I did it instead of paying someone else. There are 6 cuts per section, 16 sections per tire. That's a total of 192 cuts I had to make....ouch. One of the nice $350 tire groovers would have made short work of this job, but I got the groover cheap at $40 used and another $20 for the #12 head/blades.

Nice job Eric, Looks great!!

You will for sure like the way the tires work with the comp cut..

Later,
Scott

Very Nice job! Looks great. Thats a lot of cutting.
There is a fear factor, of cutting to deep and destroying the tire. The tools cut faster, than you'd think they would. Smells bad, don't it.

I had a few Ooops moments. I used a grooving tool to add sipe cuts and grooves to my Big Horns. It was defiantly worth the time. I borrowed a tool from a friend.


See....
https://www.redlineutvforums.net/a/3...-grooving.html

I saw your thread. Nice tire plugs!

Nice write up there Bear Foot! I could find plenty of info on grooving, but the comp cutting thing seems to be some kind of industry secret (shhhh! ). The pro's cut the paddle tires clean down to the belts, but knowing many people with the full comp cut tires - they always seems to leak a bit of air. I was hoping for good air retention with the cut I tried...

I see in no way that you did anything wrong or different than anyone else.
Actually, I think your cuts are better.
Comp cuts on pro rigs only need to work for a limited time. thus they try to maximize the weight reduction.
Air leakage is a byproduct sometimes.
Between your cuts & their cuts the weight performance is not that much different.

Well done!

From Cannondales to Comp Cutting! You are going to have everyone sending their STU's to you now. Clear out a space in your garage!!

Easy E,
Thanks you and I think your right about the industry secrets. It can be really hard to the find information you need. You can be very proud of the job you've done. You took your time and did a fine job. We have some good craftsmen on this forum.

A few years ago I went looking for information about tuning headers and exhaust systems. Nothing but dead ends, until I approached the problem from a different direction. It turned out that they work like a brass instrument. They are tuned to a specific frequency. Like a trumpet.
The trick is not to give up, but, to stop back up, and try to find a different approach to the problem.

After this job I have to regretfully announce my "retirement" from the comp cutting business...that was brutal

Nice job Eric. Lessons at St. Anthony???????