Safety Chain

[Henz]

Well, was finishing the bucking of the 6 cord, got it done. anyways, running a Husky safety chain I guess it is. The raker has a rounded over area too it. I dont like it..ANyways, I was having a heck of a time bucking oak..Checked the chain out, the teeth were still above the raker..Didnt think it needed to be filed..But after awhile of really having to force the saw I decided that I needed to file..Made a big difference really wanted to pull out of my hand. Anyone else ahve any thoguhts on these chains..( oh darn, I posted this in the wrong forum)

 

[Corey]

IMHO, I wouldn't get a safety chain. They're really made for the inexperienced home owner who cuts a couple limbs a year and barely knows which end of the chainsaw to hold on to. For real wood cutting (ie 6 cords of oak) It would take twice as long to cut the wood, meaning you're twice as tired at the end and twice as likely to make a mistake, plus as you mention - pushing on the saw - that's not really a safe practice either. I'd much rather get a normal chain and be careful with it.

I once heard a guy exclaim "The way to get people to be safer drivers is not to equip cars with more air bags, seat belts and other devices to help survive a crash...that just leads to more aggressive driving. If you want people to be safe, ban seat belts and weld an 8" steel spike to the center of the steering wheel." I suppose the same would go for chainsaws. If you know that thing is a monster and will tear into what ever it touches, you'll be careful when you use it. If you think the blade is going to have a tough time cutting warm butter, you probably don't mind as much where you swing it.

As far as filing, I give the chain a touch up ever tank of gas or two. Just a few rakes to restore that razor sharp edge. You really shouldn't let it go so long that you notice a huge drop in performance.

 

[smokinj]

i grind them down alot

 

[Henz]

well, I sharpen the chain at least every tank of gas, I was talking about hte rakers solely. Yeah, I think I will hit the saw shop and buy a new regular chain for it and leave this one as my third backup! I bought it at TSC and they didnt have any regular chains just this kind. Need some more bar oil anyways

 

[savageactor7]

Adirondackwoodburner do you also buy your saw at TSC too?

The reason I ask is BB stores have huskys with .50 bar and chains while dealers have .58 bars/chains...just another way they cheapen a brand name product for the BB stores. You don't want a chain that flops side to side on your bar. I mention that because you're forcing your saw even after sharpening after every tank.

As far as the rakers go just take an angle grinder an take a couple 3-4 thousands off. Yes there's supposed to be a perfect way to do it but in the real world it doesn't matter. I supposed if I had a safety chain I'd take even more off.

 

[flyingcow]

All good posts. Stay away from the safety chain. Now just use it for cutting trees on line fences, then chuck it. If you're leaning hard on the saw, it will lead to problems. Least of which is getting worn out, which might lead to getting hurt. Depending what your saw is, you can file your rakers down some, but it's a learning thing. Too much and you're pulling your saw up out of the wood, because saw is getting too much of a bite. Right now all I got is a husky 345. Had the local sawshop touch up my rakers and sharpen chain before I started. Then every 2 tanks, touched up chain. About 6 rubs with a file seemed to work. I have to use a vise because my filing leaves a lot to be appreciated. I was cutting up rock maple and beech. Very clean, didn't see any dirt in wood, got a nice load. This was 12 cord by weight. By the time I got done the saw was cutting slightly to one side. I will take saw back and have it corrected. This time I'll stay and watch to see his technique. I am lucky to have this saw guy in my area, he's an old wood cutter, and is truly a saw man.
I was about 12 hours cutting up this load of wood, thought I did ok, for being out of shape and having a small saw.

 

[Henz]

very interesting..I bought my saw at the saw shop. I bought a second chain at TSC..I am pretty sure that I got the same dia chain cause it was a Husquvarna chain made for my particular saw so I am not worried about that point. was back there this morning to find a better chain. They just dont carry them and my saaw shop is closed until next week!

 

[Jay H]

FWIW, I bought 2 non-safety chains from Amick's Superstore for pretty cheap prices and a flat rate shipping (i.e. not outrageous). Don't think I'm going back to safety chains after cutting up just two logs awhile ago. I was in lowes the other day and just verified that all the chains they sell at mine are safety chains...

Jay

 

[Henz]

YEAH, i was in the saw shop on firday and should have bought a new chain! my bad!

 

[Henz]

just went to Husquvarna website and looked up my saw and related bar/chain. I na nutshell, I guess I ahve to check to see which bar I have before I go an buy another chain. My saw can take multiple bars and sizes I guess.

 

[savageactor7]

Well there is a code # on the bar but I'm pretty sure you'll be all right getting a few chains from the dealer you get the saw from. While I wouldn't bet my life on it I would bet some cash that the smaller drive teeth on the TSC chain is flopping side to side on your bar and that why you're not happy with the cut.

 

[DiscoInferno]

I have to say I have both Oregon safety chain (73V, has the curved raker but no bumper links) and non-safety chain (73LG), both full chisel, and I don't see a difference in cutting speed. This matches Oregon's claims about the 73V. Frankly, I don't even see what about the safety raker design would make it cut slower.

 

[Brian VT]

My saw came with the 73V(Vanguard) and it does cut very well. I didn't notice any/much gain going to 72DP (non-safety, semi-chisel).
I haven't tried boring with the Vanguard, though.
I just tried some full chisel chain by Total tonight and it is a bit quicker. I dropped and bucked 3 dead sugar maples and it held a good edge so I'm going to stick with it unless I get into some dirty stuff.
Fwiw, "reduced-kickback" chain does give some margin of safety if you accidentally screw up. The Oregon 72V will make you happy 95% of the time.

 

[Henz]

savageactor 7, you are totally correct in your assumption. I checked my bar last night and it says 3/8 bar. I bet that I got the wrong chain even though at TSC and I bought the Husky chain for my particular saw my guess is that something isnt right. I took a close look at the bar/chain setup on my saw and it is abit sloppy. I can even see where the bottom of the bar has ben burned due to it. Rookie mistake I guess. saturday I will get to the saw shop and buy the correct chain. I just hope that the bar is ok. What does everyone think?

 

[KarlP]

IMHO, safety chain is actually good for limbing. You're cutting small diameter wood and it is the situation you are most likely to have a moment of inattention with the tip and catch it on another branch. In this situation the safety chain isn't much slower and the potential kickback is substantially less powerful. That's why its made.

Safety chain is adequate for bucking. Its not as fast as non-safety chain, but its perfectly usable. If you're bucking a pickup truck load the difference in cutting time between safety and non-safety chain is insignificant compared to the time spent loading and unloading the wood. If you have a loader and you're trying to cut 6 cords in a day, you'll be quite a bit faster with non-safety chain.

Safety chain is horrible for felling and rip cutting. If you decide you need to make a bore cut you just can't do it. If you want to rip a round in half or mill a plank, you better have a LOT more patience than I do.

 

[Henz]

I want my chain to do it all. I do do several boare cuts

 

[savageactor7]

^Hey I'm a bore cutting sumbaste and if you had a 20" bar I'd recommend the Oregon 73LGX.

Stilh chains are very good/excellent at holding an edge but I find them harder to hand file. Early on I tried many different chains and settled on this one...most of the time unless I ding it up on barbed wire or a rock all it takes is one draw with the file and it's good for a couple of 3 days cutting.

As far as your bar goes, bars are tricky and require proper gaugeing so the few times I had a bar question I just bring it to my dealer Jeff Kahler and he has fixed it right away whether it needed a new sprocket or reground and squared up.

 

[Henz]

I looked that one up. seems decent overall. yeah, 20" bar, 3/8" .050 gauge

 

[Jay H]

I have cut 2 logs with 73DP, basically the semi-chisel chain of the 73LGX and all I can say that if the full chisel is even faster than this, then I will be really smoking. I am still amazed at how much better this chain cuts than the safety chain I bought my chain saw with (Husqvarna 359) Makes me want to get a low profile chain for my Makita UC4000 and see what I can cut with that..


Jay

 

[Slow1]

Ok - noob here. I'm just starting to read posts on chain saws to learn what's what as I expect to buy one here in a bit... I'm using a cheap electric one that I picked up in a hurry at Lowe's. It does ok for my current role of cutting up small bits I drag in from the back yard, but... I expect to do some real cutting sooner or later.

So - to my question. What is a "Safety chain" - seems to me that this is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? Seems that there isn't anything about a chain on a chainsaw that can make it 'safe' other than how the operator does his job is there?

 

[smokinj]

Ok - noob here. I'm just starting to read posts on chain saws to learn what's what as I expect to buy one here in a bit... I'm using a cheap electric one that I picked up in a hurry at Lowe's. It does ok for my current role of cutting up small bits I drag in from the back yard, but... I expect to do some real cutting sooner or later.

So - to my question. What is a "Safety chain" - seems to me that this is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? Seems that there isn't anything about a chain on a chainsaw that can make it 'safe' other than how the operator does his job is there?

safty chain helps reduce kick back

 

[Gooserider]

Ok - noob here. I'm just starting to read posts on chain saws to learn what's what as I expect to buy one here in a bit... I'm using a cheap electric one that I picked up in a hurry at Lowe's. It does ok for my current role of cutting up small bits I drag in from the back yard, but... I expect to do some real cutting sooner or later.

So - to my question. What is a "Safety chain" - seems to me that this is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? Seems that there isn't anything about a chain on a chainsaw that can make it 'safe' other than how the operator does his job is there?

You have the right idea - the thing that makes or breaks saw safety is the guy on the trigger... I use, and encourage others to wear the appropriate safety gear (chaps, boots, gloves, logging helmet, etc) but if I use the saw properly I should NEVER actually find out if my gear is any good or not... Learning and using proper cutting practices is going to go much further towards keeping you safe than any kind of 'safety chain'.

Safety chain will in theory have a slightly lower risk of kickback, but in the opinion of many the slight safety benefit comes at a cost of a considerable cutting performance hit. Most of the users suggest that once you have gotten some practice with a saw (i.e. used up the chain that came on it) you should replace it with a "pro-grade" chain that doesn't have the "bumper links" you find on a safety chain. This style chain is slightly more prone to kickback (if you use the saw improperly, and try to cut in the "danger-zone" on the bar tip) but will cut much more effectively.

Once you've moved up to pro-chain, then you can also start considering the tradeoff between the faster cutting full chisel style, which also needs sharpening more often, and the slower cutting, but lower maintainence semi-chisel tooth styles...

My own choice is a full chisel, which I touch up after every tank of gas.

Gooserider

 

[DiscoInferno]

Safety chain will in theory have a slightly lower risk of kickback, but in the opinion of many the slight safety benefit comes at a cost of a considerable cutting performance hit. Most of the users suggest that once you have gotten some practice with a saw (i.e. used up the chain that came on it) you should replace it with a "pro-grade" chain that doesn't have the "bumper links" you find on a safety chain. This style chain is slightly more prone to kickback (if you use the saw improperly, and try to cut in the "danger-zone" on the bar tip) but will cut much more effectively.

The Oregon Vanguard (72V/73V) safety chain, and I assume others, doesn't have bumper links. The only difference from Oregon "pro" chain I can see is a larger "folded-over" raker design. As someone mentioned the extra raker mass might slow the saw a little, but I haven't noticed it to be an issue. The one thing I have not tried with it is boring, although Oregon claims no loss of performance there either: (broken link removed)

(I'm not trying to shill for Oregon, it's just what I happen to have.)

 

[Henz]

wait a minute, hold the press. I was underthe assumption that the "folded over" raker was a safety chain. this is the style of chain that I am using at the moment and I HATE IT

 

[DiscoInferno]

It is. But there is also a type of safety chain with raised "bumper" links in between the cutters. (Scroll down in my link above to the 91VG for an example.) That's the kind that I thought people hated, although since I don't have any I don't know how they compare to the folded-raker style.