# Can tires be cut in half?



## DixyDoodle (Nov 15, 2005)

Ok, I still have a good 40 tires laying around here, thanks to the previous owner of our property and STILL looking for things to do with them. I have a few ideas but they all involve cutting the tires in half or into pieces.

What exactly does one need to cut tires in half? Will a certain kind of saw work? I don't mind buying a cheapy saw at WalMart if it will do the trick, so who would care if after a few tires, the saw was no good anymore. Well, I mean some saws cut metal pipes, correct? So I could cut through the steel belts or no?

Or do I need something else?

Most but not all of these tires on still on the rims, so they have to come off there first (I suspect that THIS will be the hardest part of the whole thing). Probably a crowbar is best to get the rims off? Again, if I can just buy some tools that I don't mind destroying in the process, please tell me what I can use! Maybe I could damage the rim to the point it would be dented, and I can pop the tire off? 

Please tell me that I can cut tires without being superhuman! LOL And is it dangerous to cut tires? Ok, that's probably a stupid question, but steel belts are tight and if you cut them, do they go BOING!!! and snap out of the tire or something, possibly injuring oneself? :angel: 

Thanks for all help!

DD


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Do a google search for "earthships". That's the best use of that many old tires that I can think of.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

There's a bunch of links at the bottom of this page for you

http://www.wuvie.net/tireplanter.htm


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## kuriakos (Oct 7, 2005)

I cut through one tire with my reciprocating saw and I can tell you that is NOT the way to do it. I don't know if there's a good way, but I have my doubts. Those belts are tough, and difficult to cut because they move around.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Most tires of today have steel belts in them. Cutting them in half wouldn't be easy. However it is easy to cut the sidewall away from them and leave them a little deeper. A utility knife will do that pretty quickly. Just keep the rubber bent away from the cutting area and the knife sails through pretty easily. 

Read yesterday about a company that turns old construction equipment tires into stock tanks. I expect a tractor tire with the sidewall cut out would make a tank about right for sheep.


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## BeckyW (Mar 11, 2003)

Link to article on making tire gardens as well as composters. You may extend your growing season appreciably in Canada.

http://www.wovoca.com/survival-tire-gardens.htm

U of KY Dept of Agriculture article on gardening in tires:

http://www.ca.uky.edu/ENRI/gardening/smspacegardening.pdf

BW


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## mtman (Sep 2, 2004)

to me old tires belong in reecycle we spent 1 year takeing crap out of this place im not going to clutter it up again


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Like Windy said, easy to cut out the sidewalls, very difficult to cut down the middle of the tread.

To dismount you need to break the bead from the rim on both sides. A handyman jack with base on bead next to rim and jacking against say a good size tractor or truck or other very heavy object will do this. Good tool to pry bead over lip of rim is couple foot leaf out of a car/truck leaf spring. A large flat blade screwdriver also is very handy. You can buy regular "spoon" tire tools also, but I really like the leafspring. When you get one tire bead over rim lip, then take other bead over same lip. A large hammer that you can hit against the bead while you pry helps a lot. I have honed my technique down to an art where I can manually change a tire or fix a flat much quicker than driving to the tire store and waiting for one of their guys to get to it. As they say, practice makes perfect.


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## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

Unless you have a REALLY good use for them, keep them whole for now. They're good for setting round bales on or weighing down tarps. We have about 2000 on our bunker silos.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

kuriakos said:


> I cut through one tire with my reciprocating saw and I can tell you that is NOT the way to do it. I don't know if there's a good way, but I have my doubts. Those belts are tough, and difficult to cut because they move around.


Darn! I was going to use those old tires left by a renter as an excuse to buy a reciprocating saw.  My renter left about 20 and I'm down to the ones still on rims. It costs $3.50 for those on rims and $1 for just the tire at the landfill.

What direction did you cut and what blade? I just want to get them off the rims so I pay less for the tire and can recycle the rim.

Tires should make durable steps when partially buried into a steep slope.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

If you don't mind the burnt ruber a skill saw with a diamond blade is the way to cut them in any form. Use any skill saw and a diamond bit picked up form any hardware store. The diamond blade is about $15 and the cheep skil saw is about $40. Then when you are through with the tires you can change the blade and use it for lumber.


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Dismounting a tire from the rim is difficult work. You need 2 or 3 tire spoons - special crowbars - and if you let one fly it can really hurt you. I would not get into that lightly.....

Cutting the tires is best with a reciprocating saw, but the steel belts are hard metal & fine, and do not saw easily. Sidewall works well.

Aren't rims worth nothing to no one? I got quite a collection, always look for more. but then I have about 140 tires on my farm - on tractors, implements, etc.

--->Paul


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## Guest (Mar 23, 2007)

I think cutting them while still on the rim would be easier, but might be more difficult in removing once they are cut. I never intend on cutting any tires such as you suggest, but if I did..... I would use my sawzall with a demolition blade (good for cutting through nails and other tough stuff).


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## DixyDoodle (Nov 15, 2005)

> to me old tires belong in reecycle we spent 1 year takeing crap out of this place im not going to clutter it up again


Ah, come on, you know you want to come over here and haul stuff for another 10 years! LOL I'm not kidding, wait til spring, I'll take a picture of all the junk that was left behind here. We've got tires, about 1000 wooden pallets, an old farm wagon (full of garbage), a few plastic septic holding tanks for cottages.....and lots of mysterious parts that are probably useless. God only knows what is deep in the woods.


> Unless you have a REALLY good use for them, keep them whole for now. They're good for setting round bales on or weighing down tarps. We have about 2000 on our bunker silos.


I'm going to use maybe 12 of them (paint them white) to hold our pool cover down, aside from that.... :shrug: I don't have round bales here though. 

I'm not sure I would want to use them for planting. A few people have mentioned that maybe the chemicals would leech out? These tires are probably fairly old.


> If you don't mind the burnt ruber a skill saw with a diamond blade is the way to cut them in any form. Use any skill saw and a diamond bit picked up form any hardware store. The diamond blade is about $15 and the cheep skil saw is about $40. Then when you are through with the tires you can change the blade and use it for lumber.


Is my using the dh's skihl saw for cutting rubber tires the same kind of no-no as using his razor to shave my legs or his good screwdrivers to open paint cans? LOL Perhaps I should keep my next adventure to myself, although I suspect the rubber fumes in the air might give it away.

Rims here in Ontario are worth a tiny bit at the scrap yard. It wouldn't be worth my hauling them there but I have a "regular" scrap guy that comes out here and hauls stuff away as I find it. I suspect I might be funding his trip to Hawaii. LOL He won't take rims unless they're off the tires though. Rubber tires cost $7 to get rid of at the dump.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

DixyDoodle said:


> Is my using the dh's skihl saw for cutting rubber tires the same kind of no-no as using his razor to shave my legs or his good screwdrivers to open paint cans? LOL Perhaps I should keep my next adventure to myself, although I suspect the rubber fumes in the air might give it away.
> .


Using average skil saw to cut anything but wood is not good for it. Before I got a chop saw, I was using skil saw with metal cutting blade really meant for occasional use on rebar. Shortened life of bearings in saw considerably. After ruining a good saw, I got to going to consignment auction and picking up cheapo saws with some life still in them though usually on their way out. Then finally bought a chop saw and it was so much nicer.

Besides chop saw, there are circular saws designed to cut metal, noticed couple in catalog not too long ago. They are designed to take the punishment but are not cheap.


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## Big Dave (Feb 5, 2006)

Bolt cutters to cut the tires metal rings(I am not sure of the terminology) Cutting tourch to cut the rims in half. They make great water hose racks or plces to hang tack. My friend makes tire swings that look like horses out of old tires. Just my .02


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

fishhead said:


> Darn! I was going to use those old tires left by a renter as an excuse to buy a reciprocating saw.  My renter left about 20 and I'm down to the ones still on rims. It costs $3.50 for those on rims and $1 for just the tire at the landfill.
> 
> What direction did you cut and what blade? I just want to get them off the rims so I pay less for the tire and can recycle the rim.
> 
> Tires should make durable steps when partially buried into a steep slope.



Go ahead and buy the reciprocating saw, I've used mine to cut tires off the rims. It just takes the right blade...I've had no problems cutting thru the steel belts. The tires went to the tire recycler and the rims went to the scrap yard to be recycled... Some of the tires get used as a back stop for our shooting range.


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## pro2nd (Mar 8, 2007)

Big fire at night, throw a few tires in at a time and pull out the rims and steel belt a day or two later. Problem solved.


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