Chain specs/ question

You can but not recommended.
The narrow drive link (.050) in the wider grove of the bar (.063) will cause excessive wear, wobble, may not oil as well.
My guess is you'd ruin the bar & chain pretty fast.
Oregon has a .325 X .050, 20" bar for your saw. Are you due a new bar for the saw?

The 50 gauge will not work. The bar needs to match, either going to be too big or too small. All my mid size saws run 50 gauge for uniformity. This way when I make up loops of chain it is one roll on the bench, pull off the number of drive links I have marked on the bench, then break it & spin it.

Mecreature you definitely want to use the chain that was designed for the bar. Last thing you want is for that chain to hop the bar under throttle. Be safe and get the proper chain.

One other thing, I used to use skip chains thinking I was lightening the load on the saw when cutting. In reality, the only thing that a skip chain really does is allow for faster sharpening as there are half as many cutters on a skip chain. So I went back to regular chains.

If you have ever seen how a saw cuts with a wore out bar it would be 10xs worse putting a .050 on a .063 bar. Well I guess that would be one way to cut circles with a chainsaw.

Scotty Overkill said:

One other thing, I used to use skip chains thinking I was lightening the load on the saw when cutting. In reality, the only thing that a skip chain really does is allow for faster sharpening as there are half as many cutters on a skip chain. So I went back to regular chains.

Click to expand...

+1
If your saw moves a full comp chain with out bogging down, it's the most efficient & faster cutting.

mecreature said:

Can I run a WOODLANDPRO .325 X .050 / CHISEL 81 WP325 20RCS chain on my
MS 280 with a stihl bar .325 X .063 / 3003 008 6821 Rollomatic E Standard

That would be cool since I already have this woodlandpro chain.

I just wanted to see how the skip chain acted.
I wanted to see how woodlandpro compared to the stihl chain.
After using this saw I am sure it would run the 20RC just fine.
But you know how it is.

anything else I should consider before I throw any more money away.

I also see narrow kerf chains and bars. how does this figure into the bar and chain formula.
Is it just like I think it is. A thinner chain cut

just curious.

Click to expand...

Yes.

Or. . .

You can pry open your wallet and go buy a skip tooth that actually fits your saw.

mecreature said:

Can I run a WOODLANDPRO .325 X .050 / CHISEL 81 WP325 20RCS chain on my
MS 280 with a stihl bar .325 X .063 / 3003 008 6821 Rollomatic E Standard

That would be cool since I already have this woodlandpro chain.

I just wanted to see how the skip chain acted.
I wanted to see how woodlandpro compared to the stihl chain.
After using this saw I am sure it would run the 20RC just fine.
But you know how it is.

anything else I should consider before I throw any more money away.

I also see narrow kerf chains and bars. how does this figure into the bar and chain formula.
Is it just like I think it is. A thinner chain cut

just curious.

Click to expand...

NO! ;-)

RMC3 (semi-chisel, low kickback) in .325 pitch is probably one of my least favorite chains. RSC (full chisel, regular) in .325 pitch blows it away in terms of speed through the cut.

* * * *

How Narrow Kerf (NK) fits into the picture:

NK bar + NK chain = a narrower kerf than a standard bar & chain combo. It often is a much smoother cut than a regular kerf chain. You can run regular kerf chain on a NK bar, but not NK chain on a regular kerf bar. In general, NK bars are lighter than the same length regular kerf bars.

The usual setup on my 346XP (another 50cc saw) is RSC (full kerf) on the 16" NK Husqvarna bar that came with the saw. It makes me very happy!