Sharpening chain....tips

[jj3500]

I've got one of those hand held grinders and have used it with great success. My question is sometimes the cut goes crooked(comes down and then veers off to my right). If the wood is big enough, the turn is very prominent. I've also taken down the rakes a touch.

Like I said, I've used this method a lot in the past. I've retired two chains already with all the cutting I've done(and all the sharpening too).

Other than giving my chains to the shop, how do I get my chain that sharp?

Thanks

 

[smokinj]

I've got one of those hand held grinders and have used it with great success. My question is sometimes the cut goes crooked(comes down and then veers off to my right). If the wood is big enough, the turn is very prominent. I've also taken down the rakes a touch.

Like I said, I've used this method a lot in the past. I've retired two chains already with all the cutting I've done(and all the sharpening too).

Other than giving my chains to the shop, how do I get my chain that sharp?

Thanks

are you using the stops on the grinder for each cutter? This will make sure each cutter is the same.(do your frist cutter then set the stops and do the rest of the cutter until your at the stop limits)

"I’ve got one of those hand held grinders"

just caught that disregard me!

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I've got one of those hand held grinders and have used it with great success. My question is sometimes the cut goes crooked(comes down and then veers off to my right). If the wood is big enough, the turn is very prominent. I've also taken down the rakes a touch.

Like I said, I've used this method a lot in the past. I've retired two chains already with all the cutting I've done(and all the sharpening too).

Other than giving my chains to the shop, how do I get my chain that sharp?

Thanks

This can be caused by having one side of your chain sharper than the other, or, the rails on your bar are uneven.

 

[Gooserider]

If you've gone through two chains on the same bar, then the bar probably needs some serious attention... Check it for burrs and uneven wear on the rails, and also whether or not the gap between the rails has openned up so that the chain can rock sideways... Bailey's sells a couple of tools to deal with both problems, or a good saw shop should also be able to take care of it for you.

There is a fair amount of debate on what causes the cut on a curve problem, and while its not real obvious what kind of impact chain sharpenning has on it, the bar definitely seems to be an issue.

Gooserider

 

[computeruser]

Angled cutting is attributable to one or more of a couple things:

1. Grossly uneven cutter length on one side compared to the other.

2. Uneven sharpness on one set of cutters compared to the other. This includes edge quality and angles.

3. Rakers/depth gauges ground or filed in a jig that requires separate adjustments for right and left cutters, and you use the same setting on both sides.

4. Worn bar. Can be groove slop (chain is able to cant side to side), or uneven bar rail wear (one rail higher than the other.

5. Bad AV buffers on the powerhead. The saw is actually torquing to one side, even though you are pulling/pushing straight and true.

6. Uneven or damaged bucking spikes, or a single-spike setup that gets used like there was a pair of spikes installed.


Though I'm no expert, I've found that 2 and 4 are most common. 1 makes surprisingly little difference until it is of profound magnitude and depth gauges are not adjusted accordingly. 3 occurs sometimes, and is the reason I no longer grind my rakers. 5 occurs on some saws more than on others. A number of the ex-Home Depot Makita/Dolmar saws have trashed upper AV springs, which allow the engine part of the powerhead to behave differently than the handle part until the worn out spring is replaced.

A sharp chain, where both sides of the cutters are razor sharp, tends to be pretty forgiving and usually wants to cut straight even when rakers are wrong or where cutter length is uneven. So I'd probably check out your bar if your chains are sharp. Many of the cheaper bars will wear or have the rails splay apart much more quickly than you might figure. Oftentimes, just filing the rails true (either with a bastard file or one of those perpendicular bar truing block things from Vallorbe) can help, even where the groove is a bit worn.

 

[Gooserider]

Also I've heard, and it makes sense to me that if the chain starts to cant over to one side, it makes the problem worse, and harder to fix, as the chain will wear the bar more on the side it's leaning towards, and also wear the underside of the chain where the sideplates rub on the bar... Then even if the bar is trued back up, the chain will still want to lean over because the chain is worn unevenly on the two sides... Unfortunately, while you can flip the bar, it really doesn't work to try and flip the chain... :roll:

Gooserider

 

[Apprentice_GM]

Angled cutting is attributable to one or more of a couple things:

1. Grossly uneven cutter length on one side compared to the other.

2. Uneven sharpness on one set of cutters compared to the other. This includes edge quality and angles.

3. Rakers/depth gauges ground or filed in a jig that requires separate adjustments for right and left cutters, and you use the same setting on both sides.

4. Worn bar. Can be groove slop (chain is able to cant side to side), or uneven bar rail wear (one rail higher than the other.

5. Bad AV buffers on the powerhead. The saw is actually torquing to one side, even though you are pulling/pushing straight and true.

6. Uneven or damaged bucking spikes, or a single-spike setup that gets used like there was a pair of spikes installed.

<snip>.

7. Incorrect chain for the bar (ie too large or small eg 0.050" bar with 0.058" chain, particularly the "chain too large for the bar" combo) leading to groove slop and uneven bar wear as in #4 above. Ask me how I know . . .

 

[firefighterjake]

I had some issues with the curving cut . . . when my brother informed me that my file was no good and I filed again with a fresh file it made a big improvement.

However, when my bar died (the sprocket on the end grenaded) a few weeks back and I replaced it with a new one I realized just how important it is to have a good chain and a good bar . . . cutting with a new bar has breathed new life into my saw.

 

[WoodMann]

All these thing have an effect on cutting. I'm still learning, just learned a good lesson on taking too much off of the rakers, saw bogs and gets stuck because it's taking too much bite; more is not necesarily always better, but the media will tell you otherwise. RIght now I'm hunting down a .040 depth guage, I think any more would be too big of a bit but I'll keep experimenting..........

 

[Gooserider]

All these thing have an effect on cutting. I'm still learning, just learned a good lesson on taking too much off of the rakers, saw bogs and gets stuck because it's taking too much bite; more is not necesarily always better, but the media will tell you otherwise. RIght now I'm hunting down a .040 depth guage, I think any more would be too big of a bit but I'll keep experimenting..........

Your chains should have a spec on them about how far the rakers should be taken down, most that I've seen call for between .020 and .030, though I suppose there may be some that are more... You can go .005 more on some chains if you are cutting mostly hardwood, but I'd really be hesitant about going much deeper than that...

For what it's worth, I just thumbed through my Oregon chain manual (A freebie from Oregon BTW, you can ask for a copy off their website, and it's worth doing so...) and I didn't see ANY chains other than for harvester machines that called for more than a .030 raker depth...

Gooserider

 

[smokinj]

All these thing have an effect on cutting. I'm still learning, just learned a good lesson on taking too much off of the rakers, saw bogs and gets stuck because it's taking too much bite; more is not necesarily always better, but the media will tell you otherwise. RIght now I'm hunting down a .040 depth guage, I think any more would be too big of a bit but I'll keep experimenting..........

Your chains should have a spec on them about how far the rakers should be taken down, most that I've seen call for between .020 and .030, though I suppose there may be some that are more... You can go .005 more on some chains if you are cutting mostly hardwood, but I'd really be hesitant about going much deeper than that...

For what it's worth, I just thumbed through my Oregon chain manual (A freebie from Oregon BTW, you can ask for a copy off their website, and it's worth doing so...) and I didn't see ANY chains other than for harvester machines that called for more than a .030 raker depth...

Gooserider

http://www.baileysonline.com/saw-chain-cross-reference-chart.asp

 

[WoodMann]

Thanks goose- as I've thought of everything I'm reconsiddering the .040' depth. This last one I did totally free handed and well- too much of a good thing, but a learning experience nontheless. Right now I hafta get a new sprocket for the saw; all the little things........

Edit also the shallower depth of the raker would prolong the life of said compnents; sprocket and bar, and everything else to a lesser extent. So I'm easing up on the depth...........