How to cut the tire tread with his own hands

How to bend the blade without breaking it?

When making a homemade device for cutting tread, the knife or blade, with which the rubber will be cut, plays an important role. The knife for this purpose must be very sharp and thin. When making a pencil sharpener from a soldering iron, you can use a paper cutter. In the case of the burnisher, it is better to use a razor, it has a smaller blade section than the knife, so it will heat up faster. Please note: if you try to bend a U-shape knife or razor, the brittle metal is very likely to break. You can get rid of this problem if you pre-fire the material from which the knife or razor is made. This heat treatment increases the plasticity of the metal: it reduces the brittleness.

Firing is performed in the following sequence:

  • The blade is heated over a fire to a temperature of 400 0 C. You can tell when the material is hot enough by the reddish hue that the metal will take on. It is easier to distinguish this shade in a dark room.
  • After heating, allow the material to cool in the open air for about 6 minutes.

This procedure will increase the plasticity of the blade, allowing it to bend at the desired angle. The angle you specify depends on the shape of the tread grooves you want, it can have different shapes, in most cases it is an English letter U.

After giving the blade the desired shape, a wooden bar is placed inside its outer parts, and then this construction is clamped in a vice. Next, a hole is drilled in the blade for the fastening bolt.

Making knives and blades for triggers

A good knife for a homemade knife harvester must be thin and sharp. The above example talks about a kitchen knife, but for soldering iron reguers, a paper cutter will do just as well. Only razor will fit the burner (all because of its low power. the smaller cross section of the blade, the faster it will heat up). The main problem you will face is the brittleness of the metal. If you try to bend an ordinary razor into a U shape, it will simply break. The same thing will happen to a box cutter. This is why razors and knives should be annealed (that is, made less brittle and more malleable by a heat treatment called annealing) before making razor blades for regulation.

Step by step instruction

  • The blade is held over the fire with pliers until it acquires a subtle reddish tint (difficult to see, so it’s better to do the procedure in the dark). This will indicate that the blade has heated to about 400 degrees.
  • Once the metal is heated, you should quickly extinguish the torch and let the blade cool in the open air for 5-6 minutes.
  • After such treatment the plasticity of the blade will increase and it will be easy to bend it to the necessary angle (what kind of angle it will be. depends on what form of grooves are planned to cut in the tread, but most often it is U-shaped).
  • Once the blade is bent at the necessary angle, a flat wooden bar is put between its halves and the whole construction is clamped in a vice, and then a hole is drilled in the blade for the fixing bolt (the drill thus passes through both halves of the blade and the wooden bar between them).
  • A second variant is also possible: one can make do without drilling a hole by simply cutting a U-shaped notch in one side of the blade, as shown in the picture. It is better to cut such notches with a file.

Tread cutting with their own hands

Off-road tire tread pattern has a direct impact on its cross-country ability. For example, a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle on regular road tires can sometimes yield even to a sedan with a toothed tire on the drive axle, especially in the mud. Therefore, for nature trips is better to equip your car, quad bike or motorcycle good off-road tires with developed grousetets. Here you can go in two main ways: buy new off-road tires or modify existing ones. Retreading” means cutting the tire’s tread into a “chiseled” shape. I should immediately mention that any change in the tire tread can lead to a sharp deterioration of controllability on the asphalt, especially at high speeds. Therefore it is better to use “cut” tires only for off-road, and movement on them on the highway and in the city should be minimized, t.к. the tires are not only uncomfortable (vibration, noise) but also dangerous. So, how to make off-road tires independently? Let’s talk about.

A little bit of theory

Wheels with fine tread ride on mud, snow and other slippery and uneven surface is not good. Understandable, these tires are made for asphalt. On such surface they possess perfect traction, provide proper safety, maneuverability and comfort of driving. Off-road tires, on the contrary, on the highway lead to additional vibrations, noise, increased fuel consumption, deterioration of controllability, and they themselves wear out quickly. And when they’re off-road, they’re at their best and take you through even the toughest terrain. As a rule, the more “toothy” rubber is, the better it is off-road and the worse it is on a freeway.

Comparison of sliced and uncut sides of a tire

From the above it can be concluded that in order to improve the cross-country ability it is necessary to make the tire as “evil” as possible (within reasonable limits). Let’s look at the tread-cutting process itself.

What types of tires can be retreaded

The ubiquitous ecology craze and the threat of global climate warming have changed the fate of worn tires. Such tires used to form man-made mountains at every landfill. Today, according to common European Union requirements, the following types of tires are subject to compulsory refurbishment:

  • R-16C R-22 truck tires.5;
  • All solid tires for special vehicles;
  • Most swamp (mud) tires for off-road vehicles.

Retreading of truck tires and swamp tires for off-road cars is only possible with the help of the manufacturer which included compatibility of the regrooving technology at the stage of rubber production. Therefore, you can cut tires at home only if you can read the inscription REGROOVABLE on their sides.

If you do not see this inscription, contact a machine shop or give up the idea of retreading. In fact, a car wheel is pumped up to 2.5 atmospheres, and a truck tire is blown up to 8 bar, so even the slightest error when slicing will reduce the service life of the tire several times.

Grouver or how to cut the tire tread with his hands

Today we will consider how to make the simplest grouver or a device to cut the tire tread in the car from an ordinary soldering iron. Maybe this will be useful for those, who need to deepen the tread a bit, so as not to buy new rubber.

How to cut through the steel of a tire‘s tread

tire, tread, hands

So, if anyone is interested, please come to our garage )))).

To make our gouver we need a soldering iron, a paper knife blade, a piece of wire and a bottle of gas.

It is desirable to take a soldering iron more powerful, in my case I took 80 watts. We need gas or a gas torch to tread our paper blade, because it is a glazed blade and you can’t bend it without heating.

We heat up our blade and bend it into this shape.

Here is what we get from the blade. Make small cuts in the billet so that the wire can fit well into them.

This is how we attach the workpiece to the soldering iron with the wire. Let’s first test it on a piece like this. It cuts well and quickly and without any effort. Now we’re going to torture car tires. It cuts quickly and easily, if I had a more powerful soldering iron it would be cool!

In about 10 minutes I made a beautiful pattern on an old tire. And the main thing is that you can cut not only the factory seams, but as you would like, that is, you can create your own pattern tread.

An important point

When cutting the tread, make sure the cuts are clean. This means that the rubber to be cut must not melt or burn. The tread, threaded in such conditions, will not last very long. The cuts should look as if they were made with an ordinary cold knife. And if the rubber burns, it means that the booster is overheated and it is necessary to switch it off for a while.

So we found out that it is very easy to make a unloader with your own hands and even a beginner car enthusiast can perform this task. But you should remember: it is not enough to have a home-made unloader, you should know how to use it correctly. And if you do not watch the heat of the blade on this homemade machine, you can hopelessly spoil even a high-quality tire.

Regrover. cutting the tread.

Hi there ! With the help of forum members “Homemade mini-tractors”, I made for myself this “machine” for cutting the tread on old and new a / v tires. It turned out like this.

The blade holder used a zero brass bar. I think everything will be clear on the photo. And the handle itself did what I thought was convenient for me. Power wire 1.5 m, 6mm2, just in the bus bar.

Good day! Question. What voltage and current is the blade?

This may be a silly question, but how does it work??

This may be a silly question, but how does it work??

The blade is energized, it heats up and cuts the rubber. It’s like this.

Good day to you! Question. what voltage and current is applied to the blade?

Current is within 30. 40А. Voltage up to 3 volts

This may be a silly question, but how does it work??

Good day to you! Question. What voltage and current is applied to the blade?

Current is within 30. 40А. Voltage up to 3V

Renewed the summer tires for my car today.

Now I have to open a rubber factory, I’ll be the first in line

Now we have to open a rubber factory I’ll be the first in line

Now I need to open a factory on the rubber I’ll be the first in line

Choose a tread, we’ll make one to your liking.

Your choice of tread, we’ll make it to your liking.

Today I changed MT front tires because my tires go flat when turning in corners while shoveling snow. It’s much better. Now I have to do the other one. Did it right on the spot, didn’t take the tire off, and it’s raining.

Made another device from the old transaxe, to cut thicker rubber instead of replacing it. Found a Uaz dumped wheel and tried to do something, turned out pretty good. Now you can experiment. The transformer had to be rewound completely. The voltage is 3 volts. The adjustment is smooth with a dimmer, it’s just as I wanted it to be. Depth of cut 7x7mm.

Got my other tire without taking it off. Tire from VAZ 2121, now it will serve for MT.

Renewed the rear tire on the MT, now I hope so. I was going to throw it away already. The center is 12mm deep, the sides. 20 mm. I had to cut 4 kilos off each wheel. The picture turned out pretty aggressive. We’ll be waiting for the ride in the “furrow”. That’s where we’ll see what the result will be.

Upgraded the rear wheels to “green”, also made the nameplates.

Rear wheels on the “green” upgraded, also made the name.

But Ivanovich, now I do not wear “purse”, again, not without your help, and Sanya helped.

But Ivanovich, now I do not put on the “purse”, again not without your help, and Sanya helped me.

Renewed the tires on the “green”, also made a name for it.

Renewed the wheels on the “green”, also made a name.

Hi Edik. Where the hell are you?? Here are such wheels, and now without “purse” with a knife does not slip

Tires on the back of the “green” updated, also made the name.

Hey, Edik. Where the hell are you?? These wheels, and now without “purse” with a knife does not slip

A tread cutter with my own hands

Homemade machine for slicing tire tread (Regrouver) with his own hands.

tire, tread, hands

I wanted a good off-road tires for summer, but not too noisy, I wanted something in the style of A / T. Looked at the for my size 215/65/16 about twenty thousand per set! There are no such days now! A regular highway tire new is about 12 grand.р., and if you can find used ones, it starts at 3,000.р. for a set! I compared AT and highway tires and realized the only difference is the tread, or more precisely the number of slots and the width of the slots! Off-road tires have more transverse slots, the width of these slots is more, there are no longitudinal slots and most importantly side soil hooks!

I watched a few videos, with the Regrover slicing machine, change the tread pattern and realized that this is what I need! Looked at the of Regruvers and got a little upset, too! The cheapest one was ten grand.р., and a normal 20t.р.

Without thinking too much, I decided to make this wheel reliever with my own hands.

I just had a microwave that wasn’t working, so I took the transformer out of it. Removed the secondary winding and wound a thick copper wire instead. I didn’t get many turns of the secondary, about four.

Handle sawed from a piece of laminate, a button from a microwave oven. Holder blade made from brass tires, they are used to connect the wire. I couldn’t find any special blades for the wheel cutter in the local store, so I had to make one myself out of ordinary construction blades. They had to cut their width of about 3-4 mm and by heating over a gas stove bent with a letter U or V, depending on the desired shape of the tread groove.

At first I tested the home-made device on an old tire, almost bald. It is best to cut on the pumped up wheel and in advance having outlined the cut with a mowing line!

Also cut new tire tread on bald winter tire. Using the retreader you can cut any pattern on the old tire. Of course, it is better not to drive on such tires on the highway, but such tires can be used for off-road trips. This way you can make tires for homemade buggies, mini tractors and other homemade equipment.

Ways to restore the tread pattern and tire restoration with their own hands

High-quality tires are an important part of safe, comfortable and economical operation of the vehicle. Do not underestimate the role of rubber, as it is of great importance for any vehicle. When the tires wear out, the tread pattern is seriously worn out, most car owners simply send the rubber to the dump, buying a new set to replace it. However, not everybody knows that in certain cases it is possible to restore the tires, which is carried out with the help of special equipment. In some cases the work can be done with your own hands. This allows you to bring the tires back to life and give them some more time to serve the vehicle. And sometimes the service life turns out to be quite long. Much depends on what method of restoration was used. It is important to understand that the recovery is not always possible. Especially for tires designed for passenger cars.