Bar Condition

[xman23]

• My Stihl 260 is 18 years old. I buck about 2 cords a year. Done nothing except normal maintenance. I'm careful about running sharp chains, flipping the bar and filing the bar edge. But when is the slot worn? When do you replace the bar?

 

[Sawset]

The chain teeth create a kerf wider that the bar. If you can press a straight edge against the side of the bar, and also push the teeth to the side with it, the groove itself is worn. Time for a new bar, chain, or both.
Looks like you have about 36cord through the saw already. I got about 40-50 and had enough. The chains were ground to nubs, and the bar would not maintain a straight cut. The straight edge test failed. All new bar and chains last year.

 

[xman23]

Thanks, I'll check my bar out. I had crooked cuts, but the issue was the chain. I couldn't sharpen it and make it cut straight. A new chain fixed it. Since then I touch them up before they get very dull.

 

[salecker]

You can squeeze the bar groove together to get longer life from your bars,dress the edges to remove burrs.If your rails get wore more on one side than the other you can true them back up with a grinding or sanding wheel with a 90 degree table.
And in the past people would grind the groove deeper when the rails wore down to the point of the chain drivers hitting the bottom of the groove.
Nowadays people throw stuff out way to soon

 

[jetsam]

And in the past people would grind the groove deeper when the rails wore down to the point of the chain drivers hitting the bottom of the groove.
Nowadays people throw stuff out way to soon

Hm, tablesaw with a thin carbide cutoff wheel?

 

[Sawset]

Hm, tablesaw with a thin carbide cutoff wheel?

I still have the old bars. Keep them for brush work. How to squeeze the rails too so they are consistent?

 

[jetsam]

I still have the old bars. Keep them for brush work. How to squeeze the rails too so they are consistent?

Put a new chain on the bar and clamp the bar down into the chain using a couple 1x2s and c-clamps? Maybe I'll try to refurbish an old bar later and see how it works.

I've bent rails in and out before, but I've never cut the groove deeper. Interested to try.