# Custom Bar. Anyone ever try making their own chainsaw bar?



## aesache

Has anyone ever actually tried making their own chainsaw milling bar?

i suggested it to a machinist friend of mine and he said it would be really easy. Said if i had the template it would cost about 200 bucks all said and done to make out of any material of my choosing. His shop was even willing to make it out of titanium for 250 all in? it got even cheaper is i wanted more than one made 600 bucks(thats the avg cost of a 60inch bar here) would get me Ten 60inch bars all made up

Is there a reason that this has never been done? to me it doesnt seem like a chainsaw bar is a very technical piece of equipment. 

there is zero info that i can find anyware on this topic


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## cityslicker

That sounds like it's worth investigating to me. Would they temper the metal along the groove of the bar and could they machine the tip to accept a replaceable roller sprocket style tip? I have been considering cutting some large holes in the center of the longer mill bars to ligthen them in hopes to reduce the amount of sag. If they could custom make CSM specific bars that are lighter in the center that may interest some people on here.


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## BobL

cityslicker said:


> That sounds like it's worth investigating to me. Would they temper the metal along the groove of the bar and could they machine the tip to accept a replaceable roller sprocket style tip? I have been considering cutting some large holes in the center of the longer mill bars to ligthen them in hopes to reduce the amount of sag. If they could custom make CSM specific bars that are lighter in the center that may interest some people on here.



That won't work as well as you might think, the lighter they get the weaker they get and the more they will sag. I have two 60" bars, a narrow thinner GB and wider thicker Stihl - guess what - they sag by the exact same amount.

There's a good reason that people don't make their own bars and that is the special hardening and tempering requirements of the rails. A 60" bar is not exactly something that you can place in a small furnace. The way it is done is quite technical and time consuming and apparently not something that the average metallurgist is familiar with. Most people don't realize that chains do not just slide along bar rails, they are constantly lifter off the rails and snap back down onto the bar. Get the tempering wrong and the chain will eat a dent in the bar in a few minutes.

BTW Even the hardest Titanium alloys will not be hard enough for a CS bar. The rails need to get up to a Rockwell hardness of around 60 which is some way short of where Ti can get to. 

But by all means have a crack and let us know how it goes. 

Cheers


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## StihlKiwi

BobL said:


> That won't work as well as you might think, the lighter they get the weaker they get and the more they will sag. I have two 60" bars, a narrow thinner GB and wider thicker Stihl - guess what - they sag by the exact same amount.
> 
> There's a good reason that people don't make their own bars and that is the special hardening and tempering requirements of the rails. A 60" bar is not exactly something that you can place in a small furnace. The way it is done is quite technical and time consuming and apparently not something that the average metallurgist is familiar with. Most people don't realize that chains do not just slide along bar rails, they are constantly lifter off the rails and snap back down onto the bar. Get the tempering wrong and the chain will eat a dent in the bar in a few minutes.
> 
> BTW Even the hardest Titanium alloys will not be hard enough for a CS bar. The rails need to get up to a Rockwell hardness of around 60 which is some way short of where Ti can get to.
> 
> But by all means have a crack and let us know how it goes.
> 
> Cheers



Does that mean the GB Ti bars have no titanium in them?


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## mtngun

Speaking as a machinist, I wouldn't go near it for $200.

Raw material alone would cost $100 or so. You are talking about pre-heat treated 4140, most likely, which would be similar to what is used on the less expensive bars. The premium bars seem to use something much harder. 

He may have a CNC plasma or laser cutter to rough out the shape ?

But then the groove would have to be cut. The saw blades used to cut the groove wear out quickly, I'd plan on buying several of them just to do one bar. 

The nose would have to be CNC machined to accept a standard replaceable sprocket nose (add $25 or so to purchase the nose). The nose area would have to be grooved, too.

Tooling and setup would be a killer. If I charged $600, I would be lucky to break even for a one-of.


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## BobL

StihlKiwi said:


> Does that mean the GB Ti bars have no titanium in them?



It may have Ti in it but Ti is classed as a Microalloy component in steel production which means it is used at the <0.1% level.
Ti is, amongst other things used to control grain size and adds strength and toughness (different to hardness) through the formation of TiN
A better microalloying element than Ti is Niobium but it is rarer and this more expensive than Ti.

Somewhere on this site is a link to a video of I think it was a Stihl factory showing how bars were made, in particular the heat treatment requirements. This is not something possible to do in a home shop even a what a regular heat treating service could provide.


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## the westspartan

CNC and "special" heat treatment LOL. I make all my own 60" bars out of old lawnmower blades MIG welded together. I shape them and cut the groove with an angle grinder and heat treat them with a propane grill and a bucket of rainwater. They are hard nose of course and when they wear out I forge them into hunting knives. When the hunting knives have been sharpened down to nothing, I use the remaining metal to forge into tips for my homemade lawn darts. When the tips are worn off of the lawn darts, I bring them to the lathe and turn them down into ball bearings for my skateboard wheels. When the bearings go out of my skateboard wheels I use the bearings as slingshot ammo for hunting squirrels. If I ever find one lodged in a dead squirrel I save it on a magnet that I keep out in the shop for scrap metal collection.:jester:


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## tlbsg

the westspartan said:


> CNC and "special" heat treatment LOL. I make all my own 60" bars out of old lawnmower blades MIG welded together. I shape them and cut the groove with an angle grinder and heat treat them with a propane grill and a bucket of rainwater. They are hard nose of course and when they wear out I forge them into hunting knives. When the hunting knives have been sharpened down to nothing, I use the remaining metal to forge into tips for my homemade lawn darts. When the tips are worn off of the lawn darts, I bring them to the lathe and turn them down into ball bearings for my skateboard wheels. When the bearings go out of my skateboard wheels I use the bearings as slingshot ammo for hunting squirrels. If I ever find one lodged in a dead squirrel I save it on a magnet that I keep out in the shop for scrap metal collection.:jester:



had me going when i read first 2 funny


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## aesache

*misc points*

Hi all this is a great forum lots of knowledge to soak in.

i have my machinist buddy here now and we were just reading over the posts. 

mtngun - my buddy says yes makes sense if your not doing it at cost for a friend (he owns a large business not a home shop). he mentioned 4140 is realitavly cheap and can be heat treated easily afterwards as only the rails need heat treating.......now he is going on about how you can cut harder materials with softer tooling if you......blah blah.....way beyond my pay grade. I guess he is going to rough it out with a water jet? and thinks the tooling will last for all ten bars...... Honestly this is way past my grasp of the subject. 

cityslicker- yes they will be designed to accept a standard roller tip


Well looks like we are going to give it a try i figure even if each bar is only half as durable as one i can buy then i am still farther ahead as i will have 10 for the price of one. 

we were talking to an older fellow that has a saw shop in town today and he said he used to weld 2 shorter bars together to make a long one on his old race saws. 


my last question is should this be 3/8 or .404 chain size? i am thinking .404 because of the bar length but thats alot of lost kerf


going to start fabing next week i will post pictures as we go


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## glennschumann

*Blue Babe*

I'm curious about this.

I've been curious about Chainsaw Bar Repair as they do custom bars of all types and they also do bar repairs. They must have equipment to do the work, and may be willing to shed some light on how they do things if queried politely. I'm not in a position to purchase a new bar now, but would be interested in following up with them when the day comes. Has anybody had any contact with them?

Chain Bar Repairing


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## mtngun

aesache said:


> mtngun - my buddy says yes makes sense if your not doing it at cost for a friend (he owns a large business not a home shop).



Well, if he already has the equipment and wants to *GIVE AWAY* his services, let him have at it.

A 6 foot bar is going to need a *BIG* heat treat oven. And it will warp when you heat treat it. That's why I suggested using pre-hardened 4140 -- if you can even get it in that size, which I doubt. The catch is that it's moderately difficult to machine, particularly for cutting the groove.

I'd suggest the entire bar needs to be hardened, not just the rails, unless you want the bar to bend like butter. It would be very easy to bend a mild steel bar that's 6 foot long. 

Most people use 3/8 chain.

Good luck with your project.


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## scor440

Saw a new 60" on Ebay for 335.00


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## srcarr52

I'm pretty sure only the rails of a cannon bar are hardened. Probably by flame or an induction furnace built just to heat the rail quickly. I don't know if they are roughed in before heat treatment but the final grove is ground in.


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## BarkBuster20

Goodluck to your endeavors, would like to see how it turns out. dont worry about the negative nancys in here


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## mdavlee

Chain bar uses stellite to weld on the rails to make them harder and then re grind the rails and groove.


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## BobL

srcarr52 said:


> I'm pretty sure only the rails of a cannon bar are hardened. Probably by flame or an induction furnace built just to heat the rail quickly. I don't know if they are roughed in before heat treatment but the final grove is ground in.



As mtngun says the bar must be hardened at least above a fully annealed state other wise it would bend and the hardened rails would shatter. I have never drilled a cannon bar but all other bars I have drilled (Stihl, Oregon and GB) are definitely hardened. The stihl video I'm referring to shows a flame hardening process - they showed a conveyor arrangement with the bar sitting over a long pair of rows of flames for some time and then being moved onto being quenching and then tempered with another set of flames. I can't imagine doing this to a long bar with one or two torches.


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## TPA

4000 series cromoly steels are hardenable up to about 400 BHN considering that the entire bar would have to be hardened. Anything more would probably be beyond tempering to a state that would not be too brittle. 400 Bhn is in the neighborhood of 45 Rc, getting to 60 Rc would require carburizing using a 9000 series alloy such as 9310. It is possible to get in the 60 Rc range with a steel commonly used for such things as knives, but the cost for an amount required to make a 60" bar is something I would prefer not to contemplate.


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## TPA

Here is one of the alloys that is being suggested as used for making chainsaw bars.

http://www.hpalloy.com/alloys/brochures/HPACOBALT6B.PDF


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## OH_Varmntr

BarkBuster20 said:


> Goodluck to your endeavors, would like to see how it turns out. dont worry about the negative nancys in here



Absolutely! Those that say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are going to do it!


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## mikeb1079

they didn't say don't do it, just that it wouldn't work very well. :msp_biggrin:

i am looking forward to your experiences though....perhaps we'll all learn something.


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## srcarr52

mdavlee said:


> Chain bar uses stellite to weld on the rails to make them harder and then re grind the rails and groove.



Most hardnose bars have been hardfaced with Stellite Alloy 6 and then ground.

I do the same on sprocket nose bars in need of repair around the tip area but not for the whole bar. To build up 1/8" for 1" of both rails it will take about 1" of 3/32 welding rod. To weld both rails back from the tip 6" it takes about 15 minutes of *delicate *tig time and 30 minutes of grinding back to size. 1lb of Alloy 6 3/32x36" welding rod cost about $72 which is about 10 welding rods if I remember correctly. So if I have to weld more than 6" of rail on both sides I opt for buying a new bar unless it's a really expensive bar. But HRC 40-45 as welded which is plenty good to dull even the best of files. From my testing it's only slightly harder than a Cannon bar which are too hard to true the rails with a file. 

Referring to the Cannon website their process is:
Rough in major shape with laser table.
Heat treat whole bar.
Straighten and surface grind.
Machine bar and tip mount (possible rough in of bar groove?)
Flame harden rails only.
Grind rail groove to within 0.002 (much tighter rail groove than most bar manufactures, for 63 gauge the rail groove will be 0.064" where Oregon or GB will be 0.066-68" and not always in the center of the bar).
Stress relieve (process unknown).

Super hardened edges with softer core allow for flex without shattering, it's the Samurai sword of the chainsaw world.


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## Kicker_92

Custom size bars are not complex to make, it's making them last that is the hard part.

The above post is correct about the Cannon process, lots of specialized equipment and experiance. Thats what make them the "best bar, bar none". 

With hardened rails, the groove can still be re-ground if needed to clean up the rails. It takes a lot of wear, or lack of oil to damage those rails though...


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## BobL

srcarr52 said:


> But HRC 40-45 as welded which is plenty good to dull even the best of files..



HRC scales are poorly understood, reported and even harder to measure.
Most files can remove some metal from surfaces that have been hardened up to about HRC55 so bar rails must be hardened to about this hardness
Wood cutting hand saws and chisels are usually hardened to around HRC 50 - 52
HRC40-45 is cheap axe hardness
Files themselves can be anywhere from RC 64 to RC67+

When I measured the RC hardness of different chains, although there was not much in it I found that stihl chain had the softest chrome plating, Oregon was a bit harder and Carlton was the hardest.
In terms of the steel used in the cutter, Oregon was the hardest, then Carlton and then Stihl.
Of course hardness is not the only property affecting wear. While toughness and hardness are related it is possible for a slightly softer material to resist abrasion better than a harder one.


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## srcarr52

BobL said:


> HRC scales are poorly understood, reported and even harder to measure.
> Most files can remove some metal from surfaces that have been hardened up to about HRC55 so bar rails must be hardened to about this hardness
> Wood cutting hand saws and chisels are usually hardened to around HRC 50 - 52
> HRC40-45 is cheap axe hardness
> Files themselves can be anywhere from RC 64 to RC67+



They advertise 40-45 HRC as welded, what I know is a typical bar files edges will turn round when drawn over it. Maybe because it's a small weld on a much larger object the cooling is happening faster and creating a harder surface.


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## BobL

srcarr52 said:


> They advertise 40-45 HRC as welded, what I know is a typical bar files edges will turn round when drawn over it. Maybe because it's a small weld on a much larger object the cooling is happening faster and creating a harder surface.



Could be.


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## Adirondackstihl

> Has anyone ever actually tried making their own chainsaw milling bar?



This one looks custom. I believe it belongs to bsnelling.







:yoyo:


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## Bashmaki

*homemade bar*

It's been some years back now but I knew a logger that built a 5' bar for a pulpwood slasher that ran 1/4" chain with a hand made roller nose on it. I don't know the process he went through nor the material he used. I do remember it being an ugly thing as the bar tip would not pass through the curf but stuck out beyond the cradle of the slasher. I do know that it lasted on the slasher for the better part of a year before it needed replacing. By that time he'd made enough with the slasher to buy a factory made bar.

The whole affair was hand made and I remember that cooling the hydraulics was a bigger concern for him than the bar was.

Might be worth a try!!

gus


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## Agustin

aesache said:


> *misc points*
> 
> Hi all this is a great forum lots of knowledge to soak in.
> 
> i have my machinist buddy here now and we were just reading over the posts.
> 
> mtngun - my buddy says yes makes sense if your not doing it at cost for a friend (he owns a large business not a home shop). he mentioned 4140 is realitavly cheap and can be heat treated easily afterwards as only the rails need heat treating.......now he is going on about how you can cut harder materials with softer tooling if you......blah blah.....way beyond my pay grade. I guess he is going to rough it out with a water jet? and thinks the tooling will last for all ten bars...... Honestly this is way past my grasp of the subject.
> 
> cityslicker- yes they will be designed to accept a standard roller tip
> 
> 
> Well looks like we are going to give it a try i figure even if each bar is only half as durable as one i can buy then i am still farther ahead as i will have 10 for the price of one.
> 
> we were talking to an older fellow that has a saw shop in town today and he said he used to weld 2 shorter bars together to make a long one on his old race saws.
> 
> 
> my last question is should this be 3/8 or .404 chain size? i am thinking .404 because of the bar length but thats alot of lost kerf
> 
> 
> going to start fabing next week i will post pictures as we go





Hello, when i readed the topic i whanted to know the material so I take one of my german sthil bars to make a matherial analysis at the university , yes the german ones are made of 4140 (the solid bar with nose) the bar and the nose are made in the same matherial, the rails have a heat treatment probably with induction heating process but not so much hard (also the nose) ,
( sorry I dont have a good english but I hope you understand)


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## rarefish383

Agustin, welcome to the site, your English is fine. Can't wait until you start posting pictures of your milling. We love to see the woods from around the world, Joe.


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## rarefish383

Adirondackstihl said:


> This one looks custom. I believe it belongs to bsnelling.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> :yoyo:


Funny you posted that one, it got me thinking about making a "plunge Cutter", for cutting mortises. I wanted a bar about 2 1/2 inches wide and 6 inches long. Mount the power head on a heavy drill press frame. Turn the handle and plunge through the plank, Joe.


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## El Castor

Agustin said:


> Hello, when i readed the topic i whanted to know the material so I take one of my german sthil bars to make a matherial analysis at the university , yes the german ones are made of 4140 (the solid bar with nose) the bar and the nose are made in the same matherial, the rails have a heat treatment probably with induction heating process but not so much hard (also the nose) ,
> ( sorry I dont have a good english but I hope you understand)




Would be interesting to know the material of brazilian made duromatics, gives me very poor results!
its the only duromatic available here in Argentina.

Bienvenido a AS paisano


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## splitpost

I take it the OPs bar never happened


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## aesache

splitpost said:


> I take it the OPs bar never happened


Hey all. So we actually did end up doing this. ended up with 6 bars not 10 and they worked out very nicely some minor learning items. We made them from laminated pieces a core sandwiched by 2 other pieces of metal to serve as the rails. Untreated the bars work but after about 1000 board feet the rails started to peen over pretty bad. Lube is your friend if you want these these to last We took the second bar and heat treated it to cherry red with a torch while someone followed cooling with a wet sponge. Then after cold it was heated up again until the metal turned a light brown then cooled by air. This seemed to harden the bar substantially. Several full days of cutting produced no significant wear on the bar. You need to cool it though it can get hot a constant water flow over the bar end prevents that. Seriously this method was no where near as hard or complex as everyone had thought. The hardest part was finding metal in the right thicknesses. Once we did we welded it together and only had to touch up the nose with a dremmel so that the standard sprocket nose would fit in. This was the only tweeking we had to do. The rails required no additional work after hardening. The only complaint i have is the bar sag it is about 3/8 of an inch in the centre on the alaskan miss. On our other mill that uses a band mill style bed this is not an issue as you can "stretch or tension" the bar. I may still have the file with dimensions of everthing that we used on the water jet i am happy to share them with whomever would like them


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## Yellowbeard

Wow. Glad you didn't let the (I hesitate to say "negativity," ..."hard nosed practicality?") get you down and went for it. Good on yer.


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## Rodrickmills

Hey all; I am new to the forum and milling both. I have a grandberg for my 064, and a woodland mills 126. I am not new to machining though, I have worked in job shops and currently work as a tool and die maker. I have been considering this process as well, but the thought of milling or grinding the slot in a bar sounds very daunting. I did however consider making the bar out of 3 pieces fastened together with flat head capscrews flush mounted or even rivets. This process would be very easy to pull off and make for easy repairs. High temp rtv should keep oil and sawdust from finding its way in between the layers I would think. Any opinions?


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## Rodrickmills

Rodrickmills said:


> Hey all; I am new to the forum and milling both. I have a grandberg for my 064, and a woodland mills 126. I am not new to machining though, I have worked in job shops and currently work as a tool and die maker. I have been considering this process as well, but the thought of milling or grinding the slot in a bar sounds very daunting. I did however consider making the bar out of 3 pieces fastened together with flat head capscrews flush mounted or even rivets. This process would be very easy to pull off and make for easy repairs. High temp rtv should keep oil and sawdust from finding its way in between the layers I would think. Any opinions?


Wow, I just read the post above, not sure how I missed it lol. Sorry everyone, what a first impression!


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## Maintenance supervisor

Pictures?


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## grizz55chev

Maintenance supervisor said:


> Pictures?


Time machine?


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## Maintenance supervisor

grizz55chev said:


> Time machine?


They had cell phones in 2015 ! , but that cellphone is probably in a drawer with fingernail clippers, a dog brush , maybe some pens and rubber bands.


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## Brent Nowell

Maintenance supervisor said:


> They had cell phones in 2015 ! , but that cellphone is probably in a drawer with fingernail clippers, a dog brush , maybe some pens and rubber bands.


Hahaha yes that’s exactly where my old phones reside. I am not kidding! Too funny


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## McLeach

I've considered making my own bar. I want a fat elliptical for essentially a hot saw build I'm doing.

The way I figure I'll do it is order 1095 spring steel strip. You can get it in quite a few thicknesses ranging up to .063 thick from places like mcmaster carr. A strip 6 inches wide and 6.5 feet long would give you enough material for two sides of a sandwiched bar. 100 bucks, as-hardened with polished finish quality "blue hardened." Its nice stuff. I'd expect it to be flat enough. Probably 60 or so HRC.

I might go with a non-ferrous core, or at least a steel core with big lightening holes in it, to drop the overall weight. Has to handle heat.

Would have my bud cnc plasma the shapes. I can grind them nice, square, and smooth once its all riveted together. I've got machining equipment, so the holes and stuff is easy. No steel is too hard for carbide.

If you make the sides symmetrical, you could actually flip them around when they slop out. Now you have fresh sides again. Another cool thing about a separate core, is you could run an internal oil journal to the nose ofthe bar if you wanted to get razoo.

Tough choice is to give it a standardized mount pattern, or do my own with more oomph.

Expecting to put 15hp and some serious chain speed through it. Not a competition saw, but more of a fun, wild, still usable saw. It'd be cool to pull off a custom bar.


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## Bill G

I hope it works out


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## konstantin87

hi guys! after reading this it seems way harder thank i first expected. i have a pretty tall truck, and i always get it hit and f*$#&d up when i go trough the woods. i was contemplating on putin a horizantal bar and two verticals and run the chains with a 4kW electric motor from an audi steering unit. would it be possible to have just sprockets and a tensioner, the same sort of arrangement one has on a bike?


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## McLeach

Alright. I didnt want to jump the gun before completing it, but the parts came back from idaho laser cutting and they look so dang good.Preston was great to work with, and I'll certainly use them again.

The material used was 1095 tempered spring steel. Mcmaster carr # 9036k313

I'll be on the road, so I won't get to putting it together till next week. The saw is slowly coming together. I only get a an hour on it a day, during lunch, but it's looking more like a saw every week. 

Here's the bar pieces.


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## Bill G

Looks good to me


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## Bill G

What are you using as a tip?


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## McLeach

Its actually a tip cannon uses. Or at least that's what the ebay ad said...

Says made in taiwan on it, so whatever. Theyre replaceable with three rivets, so no big deal. Its something around 3 inch if i remember correctly. 2.8 actual. I can measure it again.


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## Bill G

Is it a roller or sprocket


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## McLeach

Thats a roller


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## Bill G

I figured so but it was not shown in the pics


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## J_Ashley

McCleach said:


> Alright. I didnt want to jump the gun before completing it, but the parts came back from idaho laser cutting and they look so dang good.Preston was great to work with, and I'll certainly use them again.



Fellow machinist here. Reading this thread from start to finish, my mind kept leaning towards laminate construction.

Love the design & work that you have there. 

May I ask - What material are you using for the center?

And what length is that bar?


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## McLeach

The center is just some random steel the lazer folks had in 062. It doesnt need to be hard or anything, so it saved me a little bit. The mcmaster carr stock strip is 6ft, only enough to make the sides. 

Total length of bar is just shy of 36" will probably have a cut length of 30


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## Captain Bruce

Bill G said:


> I hope it works out


Yikes!!! What can possibly justify saving money, over 100 yr. old technology? Start with the wheel.....and let us know how that works out for you?


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## Bill G

Captain Bruce said:


> Yikes!!! What can possibly justify saving money, over 100 yr. old technology? Start with the wheel.....and let us know how that works out for you?


That is a incoherent post


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## Husky Man

Bill G said:


> That is a incoherent post



Incoherent, Debbie Downer posts are Captain Bruce’s Specialty 


Doug


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## Bill G

Husky Man said:


> Incoherent, Debbie Downer posts are Captain Bruce’s Specialty
> 
> 
> Doug


Well it sure seems that way. Not sure what his/her/its problem is but he/she/it seems to want to tail me around

McCleach, 

if I was not clear (which sometimes I am not) I have a TON of respect for what you are doing. I asked a bunch of questions so I could gain some knowledge. I took the McMaster number you listed and looked it up Thursday afternoon. I know Cannon probably charged a few bucks on the the tip but they are fair and I do mot know what Idaho laser charged but I really think you should be into a very nice handmade bar at a good price. Sometimes price is irrelevant when it comes to the satisfaction of completion of a project


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## McLeach

Idaho laser charged me basically 400, including the material. Cant remember what the shipping was, not much. Pretty good price on an 6" wide eliptical. Man, I only wish I had thought to have them etch a huge "yamaha" down the length of it! Silver in blue, Cause its a yamaha motor.

Also, I wanted half inch mounting studs in it, not some pittly-ass 8mm crap.

Havent finished it yet, need a carbide countersink for the brads. HSS wont touch it. Its pretty dang hard stuff, literally a big flat spring. 

Yeah, pretty excited. I know I could've just paid for a bar, but theres fun in making stuff yourself. I could've bought a ms881 for about the amount I'll have spent building this saw, sure, but thats not the point.

This is for a completely homemade saw. If you just need a bar for a factory saw, yeah, not much point in doing a homemade bar.


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## McLeach

Just an update. Finally got the bar all riveted together. Took me long enough to get around to it!

Wow, it really stiffened up once all together. Feels like a solid bar. I had been really worried about cracking at the rivets on the nose, but they're only aluminum, easy peasy. I imagine it will have a very long wear life. As hard as it is.

I did order a NOS cannon bar for the saw as well. This eliptical will be for fun. While the cannon will be for work. An eliptical is not the right choice if you plan on turning the saw on its side. I'll match the oil port on the homemade to the cannon. I haven't milled one in yet.

You know, I never did ask who else will make you an eliptical other than cannon. Also, who makes the widest off-the-shelf bar anyway?


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## Bill G

That looks plain awesome. There have been folks on the site over the years that ran down guys that talked about building a bar. The absolute awesome work you did proves it is possible.


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## j-jock

the westspartan said:


> CNC and "special" heat treatment LOL. I make all my own 60" bars out of old lawnmower blades MIG welded together. I shape them and cut the groove with an angle grinder and heat treat them with a propane grill and a bucket of rainwater. They are hard nose of course and when they wear out I forge them into hunting knives. When the hunting knives have been sharpened down to nothing, I use the remaining metal to forge into tips for my homemade lawn darts. When the tips are worn off of the lawn darts, I bring them to the lathe and turn them down into ball bearings for my skateboard wheels. When the bearings go out of my skateboard wheels I use the bearings as slingshot ammo for hunting squirrels. If I ever find one lodged in a dead squirrel I save it on a magnet that I keep out in the shop for scrap metal collection.:jester:


After all those steps, I take the remaining steel, and using my mini lathe, turn them into sewing needles for my wife.  

I had a constant source of old bars from a friend that was in the bar rebuilding business. I would straighten and adapt these bars to fit my other saws, and have even joined bars together to make milling bars to use with dual power heads.
I found I could do an excellent job of grinding the new channels, by mounting a thin cutting wheel on my radial arm saw, and turning the saw to the 90 degree position, so I could accurately adjust the height.
I screw a jig to the saw table, to lift the bar off the main table, which allows excellent control of the bar. I screw down a couple of wood blocks to limit the depth of cut. I found this method was more accurate than attempting to adjust the saw.
As with any grinding and cutting, take small cuts, and don't allow the heat to build. If any place on the bar turns blue, that means it has become hot enough to aneal the bar, at which point it has to be re-tempered. This can be done by immediately quenching the bar in cold water. (Some people might insist on using oil, but water works ok for me).
It is amazing, what can be accomplished with a grinder, the right abrasives, and a little patience.
Bob


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## j-jock

BTW: Before I retired, I used to travel to Japan frequently, and had a Japanese friend that was in the tree moving business, a highly lucrative business over there. To cut the roots back to make a root ball small enough to move the tree, (some trees were over 60 ft tall),
he was using Shindaiwa 575 chainsaws, equipped with titanium bars and special chain. I can't remember what he told me the saws cost, but the setup was incredibly expensive at the time. 
Wear on the saw and accessories, was not an issue for him, because he was making big dollars (yen) buying, and moving the trees all over the country.
My point in telling the story, is that there are (or were), specialty bars available, at a price.


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## McLeach

Bill G said:


> That looks plain awesome. There have been folks on the site over the years that ran down guys that talked about building a bar. The absolute awesome work you did proves it is possible.


Thats why I had to do it. People are just afraid sometimes I guess. But I also understand not everyone has the tools at hand either. I've got mills, carbide tools, and all the goodies. 

Could always spot weld one together too, it'd be way less work, and a less expensive laser quote too. Spot welders are pretty cheap.


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## Bill G

I only have a very limited experience with spot welders. All I every did was thin gauge sheet metal. Are they effective on thicker steel such as what you used?


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## McLeach

Yeah, you just need a lil bigger one. I bet a weld shop would do it for someone for pretty cheap.


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## samhop

how about a pic of the saw please


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## McLeach

Yamaha kt100 homemade chainsaw hot-ish saw


I wanted to wait till I made it into the "its gonna happen" stage of the build to post. I just sold my McCullough SP125. As it was a collector saw, no matter how bad I wanted to use it, I couldn't feel good about really rippin some stuff up with it. I wanted an even bigger saw that I could...




www.arboristsite.com


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