Band Saw Woes and Oar Work

I was working on the oars when the bandsaw blade came off the wheels! It may have been the "back and forth" motion I was executing on the oar handles. Not sure. Well, it ruined the blade and I figured the "tires" needed changing anyway. 

I ordered new tires from Amazon and installed them tonight. The top wheel is a little less than 12" and the bottom is almost 13" in diameter. The top tire went on fairly easily. The bottom took some work. I made a couple attempts and then measured to see the wheel was bigger; so I stretched the tire holding it with my foot and pulling up hard. The next attempt was successful.

I rotated the wheel a good bit to center a new 1/2" 6 tpi blade and made the necessary adjustments with the screw in the middle of the top wheel per the instructions. Turned the blade on for a bit and all looked fine. 

I figured I would go back to working on the oar handles. I had made a jig so I tried to finish them up. I did finish one and ran out of time on the second.

The jig works pretty good. Here's my finished  (almost) handle on the first oar.

It looks a little off center. I guess I missed getting the hole in the end of the handle in the center. Hope the second turns out a little better. 

Here's a pic of my sanding getup. Not original but I believe it's going to work fine for the handles, looms and all my spars. I do need to put something on the reel to get some good friction on the inverted belt. I believe a strip of an old pool bottom will do it. Right now I'm using 60 grit paper.

I do plan on making a rounded end on the handles and a rounded transition from the looms to the handles. Not sure how yet, but I'll figure it out. 

I plan on making a longer jig to round off the looms. I'm expecting good results. We'll see.