Chainsaw question - are all cutting chains equal?

[ruserious2008]

Got a new Ryobi 18" chainsaw and was wondering if there are different types of cutting chains or better ones than what came with it? No particular reason for asking except thinking maybe what comes with a saw is "basic" and you can upgrade to something better- like I would for my table saw having blades for different types of wood or plutonium tipped or something?
Thanks

 

[smokinj]

All types of chain out there. Full chisel will be the fastest but dulls the quickest. Lots of other chains out there.

 

[RNLA]

The saw you have may only be capable of running one size or gauge of chain. This is the width of the drive link that fits in the bar. You may be able to run a full compliment chain rather than the stocker that came with it. You may have a full on safety chain. If you go to your local saw shop you could see about a skip tooth type chain. Most likely you'll have to change the bar. Look into the OREGON brand bar and chain combinations, see if they have one to fit your saw....

 

[CTYank]

The saw you have may only be capable of running one size or gauge of chain. This is the width of the drive link that fits in the bar. You may be able to run a full compliment chain rather than the stocker that came with it. You may have a full on safety chain. If you go to your local saw shop you could see about a skip tooth type chain. Most likely you'll have to change the bar. Look into the OREGON brand bar and chain combinations, see if they have one to fit your saw....

Note also that if you change the chain's pitch, you'll have to change the drive sprocket.

I'd suggest that the biggest factor in how your chain will cut is how you sharpen it. The cutters should at all times be like razors. Hand-filing is simple and cheap, with a file guide like Granberg's "File'n'Joint" so there's little excuse.

Dull chain snags and grabs (dangerous), wears side-straps and bar rails (expensive) and makes engine work much harder (also expensive.)

If you know how to maneuver saw to avoid kickbacks, you will get better performance without anti-kickback chain, not to mention the ability to make plunge (boring) cuts. No performance improvement will compensate you for facial surgery.

 

[Thistle]

All types of chain out there. Full chisel will be the fastest but dulls the quickest. Lots of other chains out there.

Yup. I always run Full Chisel,plus Skip Tooth in the big stuff over 20".Do keep a couple older safety chains & 1 semi chisel hanging on wall of shed in case I run into some old yardbird with embedded wire etc.Cant bear to ruin a new sharp chain on that .Low Profile cuts like a champ on that little Echo in the right material.

 

[wkpoor]

For that saw basically very few additional options. Best just to use what it came with. On saws with standard 3/8 chain the variables become endless. Best thing you can do with that saw is maintain a sharp chain.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

I stihl think "ruserious" spelled husqvarna wrong.

 

[MarkinNC]

No they are not all equal. I only run/buy Stihl chains. The steel (in a stihl chain) seems to be much harder and holds it edge much better. I used to change my chain every tank of fuel with Oregon chains. With Stihl chains they are good for more than a tank unless I hit something. In my opinion they are clearly superior to Oregon. I have a Carlton that I liked before I wore it out. I recently tried and love full skip chains on my bigger saw. It is not available in .325 pitch though.

Try a Stihl chain, I think you'll like it.

 

[mikes67]

No they are not all equal. I only run/buy Stihl chains. The steel (in a stihl chain) seems to be much harder and holds it edge much better. I used to change my chain every tank of fuel with Oregon chains. With Stihl chains they are good for more than a tank unless I hit something. In my opinion they are clearly superior to Oregon. I have a Carlton that I liked before I wore it out. I recently tried and love full skip chains on my bigger saw. It is not available in .325 pitch though.

Try a Stihl chain, I think you'll like it.

Speaking from personal experience, I totally agree with this

 

[lukem]

No they are not all equal. I only run/buy Stihl chains. The steel (in a stihl chain) seems to be much harder and holds it edge much better. I used to change my chain every tank of fuel with Oregon chains. With Stihl chains they are good for more than a tank unless I hit something. In my opinion they are clearly superior to Oregon. I have a Carlton that I liked before I wore it out. I recently tried and love full skip chains on my bigger saw. It is not available in .325 pitch though.

Try a Stihl chain, I think you'll like it.

Speaking from personal experience, I totally agree with this

+1.

I only run Stihl. My dad only runs Oregon. Cutting side-by-side (in the same tree even) with comparable saws he's sharpening at least 3x as much. I would rate our sharpening skills equal (by hand).

Yesterday we were cutting and I made a believer out of him. He's "done with" the Oregon box store chains.

 

[Battenkiller]

I'm not sure yet about Stihl chain staying sharp longer. The Oregon 91VXL I've been mostly using stays sharp for a pretty long time. I do know that the Stihl chassis is more robust and heavier. I carefully weighed two brand new loops (one Oregon lo-pro and one Stihl lo-pro) on my triple beam balance. The Stihl (3.5 gr/DL) weighs about 14% more than the Oregon (3.0 gr/DL). That should amount to less stretch and longer chain life, but will affect the chain acceleration to some degree. To those experts who claim that the mass of the chain itself is partly responsible for decreased performance when longer bars are used in similar size wood, 16" of Stihl lo-pro weighs as much as 18" of Oregon 91VXL. Just sayin'.

 

[Jags]

The Stihl (3.5 gr/DL) weighs about 14% more than the Oregon (3.0 gr/DL).

Leave it to you BK. :lol: ;-)

 

[wkpoor]

I'm not sure yet about Stihl chain staying sharp longer. The Oregon 91VXL I've been mostly using stays sharp for a pretty long time. I do know that the Stihl chassis is more robust and heavier. I carefully weighed two brand new loops (one Oregon lo-pro and one Stihl lo-pro) on my triple beam balance. The Stihl (3.5 gr/DL) weighs about 14% more than the Oregon (3.0 gr/DL). That should amount to less stretch and longer chain life, but will affect the chain acceleration to some degree. To those experts who claim that the mass of the chain itself is partly responsible for decreased performance when longer bars are used in similar size wood, 16" of Stihl lo-pro weighs as much as 18" of Oregon 91VXL. Just sayin'.

Chain mass in short bars like 16-18" are of no consequence IMO. Maybe 36-60" but just maybe. Chain tension would be way more of a factor.

 

[amateur cutter]

If your primary firewood saw has Picco or Low Profile chain on it, you need to quit using your wife’s saw and get your own!

That quote there pretty much says it all IMHO. A C

 

[Battenkiller]

The Stihl (3.5 gr/DL) weighs about 14% more than the Oregon (3.0 gr/DL).

Leave it to you BK. :lol: ;-)

Hey, gotta do something with that triple beam now that my weed smoking days are basically over. %-P

 

[Thistle]

The Stihl (3.5 gr/DL) weighs about 14% more than the Oregon (3.0 gr/DL).

Leave it to you BK. :lol: ;-)

Hey, gotta do something with that triple beam now that my weed smoking days are basically over. %-P

:lol: right on

 

[Battenkiller]

Chain mass in short bars like 16-18" are of no consequence IMO. Maybe 36-60" but just maybe. Chain tension would be way more of a factor.

Maybe not with my saw, but it could have an effect on my wife's saw. ;-P

 

[Battenkiller]

Regarding chain mass, even with big saws, there is a noticeable effect on chain acceleration. I have a carving friend who routinely uses a 16" narrow-tipped bar with his ported and polished Dolmar 7900... running that "sissy" 3/8" lo-pro. With that setup, his saw accelerates like my 346XP - lightning fast. When he puts his 32" bar and 3/8" regular chisel chain on the same saw, though, the saw is much slower in throttle response. He runs his chains just loose enough to be able to easily advance the chain to the next tooth easily by pushing against the raker with his file, so it has to be the mass of the chain that is affecting it's performance... even with a torque monster like his 7900. With a pro saw, you are going from 0 to 70 MPH every time you pull the trigger. F=ma. A 18" loop of 91VXL weighs 204 gr., while an 18" loop of 3/8" regular chain weighs 324 gr. That's a quarter pound more steel you have to accelerate to 70 MPH in a fraction of a second. You just can't accelerate more mass at the same rate without increasing the magnitude of the accelerating force as well. The max power of the saw you are using is fixed, so if you want that instantaneous throttle response, you have to go with lighter chain.

Does any of this matter in the cut? I'd think that the heavier chain having more momentum would allow it to bog down less easily (very slightly less), but the same chain will offer much more resistance in the cut because of the increased kerf width. When it bogs, the response time to bring it up to speed will be slower again.

A lot of guys milling with big saws have switched to 3/8" lo-pro because it saves them time. The chain does not last as long, but I can get Oregon 91VX chain for 15 cents/drive link. That's under $20 for a 32" bar. At that price, even if a chain only lasts for a week, the money they save in increased milling speed will buy several chains.

I don't really have a strong personal opinion on performance differences since time is not a big factor in my cutting. The old standard that many of you grew up on called for saws with low RPMs and high torque. Wide chains that took big bites and held up for a long time ruled the larger classes. They were slow, but almost unstoppable... and they kicked like mules when you pinched the bar in the cut. Today, the emphasis seems to be on achieving power through increased RPMs. With these modern machines, anything that slows the saw down will make it stop cutting. I will say that the world has moved on to using narrow-kerf cutters in all kinds of tools. My cheap narrow-kerf circ saw blades outcut the old 1/8" thick ones by a wide margin. My 1HP homeowner table saw cuts like a 3HP one with a narrow-kerf (1/10") blade mounted in it. My thin abrasive metal-cutting blades cut steel twice as fast as the thick ones (although they wear down three times as fast). So don't be so quick to dismiss the girlie chain, it cuts really well in cases where its use makes sense.


Here's a clip of my friend Mike Page using his 7900 and 3/8" lo-pro to rough out a chainsaw bear in 10 minutes:

 

[mywaynow]

All this talk of cutting is making me want to fire up the saw! Dam rain...........

 

[Battenkiller]

All this talk of cutting is making me want to fire up the saw! Dam rain...........

Yeah, tell me about it! More on the way, too. I haven't even been out trout fishing yet, the rivers are so high I'd end up in Newark. :shut:

 

[smokinj]

All this talk of cutting is making me want to fire up the saw! Dam rain...........

Yeah, tell me about it! More on the way, too. I haven't even been out trout fishing yet, the rivers are so high I'd end up in Newark. :shut:

Heck the fish have all drown here.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

All this talk of cutting is making me want to fire up the saw! Dam rain...........

Yeah, tell me about it! More on the way, too. I haven't even been out trout fishing yet, the rivers are so high I'd end up in Newark. :shut:

Mine are still frozen. Damn snow!

 

[Intheswamp]

All this talk of cutting is making me want to fire up the saw! Dam rain...........

Yeah, tell me about it! More on the way, too. I haven't even been out trout fishing yet, the rivers are so high I'd end up in Newark. :shut:

Mine are still frozen. Damn snow!

Rain? Forecast shows no rain in sight for...at least the next six days...clear skies with a couple of days noted as being "Partly Sunny"....temps warming back into the low 90's. What's this rain ya'll speak of?

Honestly, we *need* the rain down here. We laid a water line a couple of weeks ago and trenching down 20 inches only found dust...no moisture. Since then we've got one good rain but we're back moving into early drought territory again.

The USA is indeed currently experiencing a wide range of climate issues.

Ed

 

[Jags]

but we're back moving into early drought territory again.

The USA is indeed currently experiencing a wide range of climate issues.

Ed

I will trade you some rain for a little of your drought. Oh, who am I kidding, I want my lawn to turn a nice shade of brown.

 

[smokinj]

but we're back moving into early drought territory again.

The USA is indeed currently experiencing a wide range of climate issues.

Ed

I will trade you some rain for a little of your drought. Oh, who am I kidding, I want my lawn to turn a nice shade of brown.

LOL, I cant beleave my sewer never back-up it was under water for a week.