Saw someone mention flipping the bar over after every use. Someone please explain please? Have not been doing it, I should be?
Excellent tutorial, Dave. I was going to try and really explain bar maintenance.....it would've taken me a week to write all of that, not to mention it is hard to explain. Easy to understand looking at those pictures!
As the others have said, flipping the bar will increase the life of the bar significantly .
My ritual is to bring the saw (s) that i have used that day into the shop ,remove the bar , clean the saw and bar ,flip and remount the bar and either put on a fresh chain , or sharpen the one that was on the saw . Sounds cumbersome , but it ensures a saw thats ready when needed .
You just gave me another idea.....I'll be making a small handle out aluminum and mounting it to a jigsaw blade. That is a great idea, Nixon!!I use an old jig saw blade , it's pretty effective at getting the mung out of rails . Then i hit the bar with compressed air just to be sure its clean and the oil hole is clear.
I use duct tape .You just gave me another idea.....I'll be making a small handle out aluminum and mounting it to a jigsaw blade. That is a great idea, Nixon!!
I use an old toothbrush and it works well and they are freeWhile we are on the subject, here, a great tool to have in your saw's arsenal is a narrow paint scraper or drywall knife.......they work excellent for digging the gunk out of your bar rails.....
That gunk makes it hard for your chain to properly lube, which leads to premature bar and chain wear.....
I use an old jig saw blade , it's pretty effective at getting the mung out of rails . Then i hit the bar with compressed air just to be sure its clean and the oil hole is clear.
This may or may not be of any practical use, but I scrape from the tip of the bar to the back . Hopefully it avoids getting the mung into the sprocket .I do the same with a sawzall blade, using the tang at the top end of the blade. Nice and stiff, narrow enough to easily fit. And finish the same, with the compressed air in the oil ports.
As the others have said, flipping the bar will increase the life of the bar significantly .
My ritual is to bring the saw (s) that i have used that day into the shop ,remove the bar , clean the saw and bar ,flip and remount the bar and either put on a fresh chain , or sharpen the one that was on the saw . Sounds cumbersome , but it ensures a saw thats ready when needed .
I use this end to clean my groves! >
You do rotate you tires on you vehicles?? So why not the bar?
First off, i'm not anything close to a professional cutter. Just an old man that heats his house with wood ,and likes saw more than he should . I completely understand having a shortage of time do do things . Been there done that ,even got the t- shirt . But, now I'm retired ,and enjoying it immensely . One of those things I enjoy most is at the end of a day of sawing ,is sitting down in the quiet of the shop tinkering with the saws .Wish I had that amount of time. I used to clean the tools and guns at the end of every use. Nowadays, tough enough to find time to clean the tools and guns once a year.
Me, I have about 7 chains for each saw. When a chain is dull, I swap it for a sharp one and flip the bar at the same time. Once I have 6 or 7 dull chains, I will sit down at the chain sharpener and get them done. Makes more sense to me to sit down and sharpen a bunch of chains at once versus one at a time.
Then again, I am not a professional cutter like you and others on here. My saws do not get used quite that much. Just enough for firewood for me, my parents, and sometimes a few other people.
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