# chain saw pulling to right



## hottubbrad (Feb 7, 2009)

I have a Stihl with a 20" bar. About 1 year old.

I have just installed a new chain and used it for about 2 hours.
Now I have sharpened the new chain once. 3-4 passes with a manual 3/16" file on each tooth.

I also used a flat file to lower the depth gauges (name?)...again 3 light passes with a flat file....just to make the chain bite more

Now the saw pulls to the right as I cut and it seems to cut very slowly. You can't rock the saw in the cut because the cut is now curved to the right.

What the *&[email protected] am I doing wrong??


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## BC_Logger (Feb 7, 2009)

1 the right hand cutters are sharper than the left 

2 your bar rails are not even in hight and need to be trued 


it the saw was cutting to the right with the new chain ( befor you sharpened it) then your bar rails need to be trued 


hope that helps


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## JONSEREDFAN6069 (Feb 7, 2009)

check your bar, i had that happen to mine and i had to resurface the rails. only a guess, but maybe you messed up on one side while sharpening. that also happens to me if i dont sharpen with the grinder, still trying to get the hand filing down.


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## BobL (Feb 7, 2009)

Most saws I see that have this problem have 

1) uneven bar rail wear - the chain tilts over and cuts in a curve. A quick guide is the bar should be able to stand up on the rails on a level surface. 

2) Worn bar groove is another cause of this problem. The bar rails only have to be slightly off square and the chain will tilt in that direction. Rock the chain back and forth and compare it to a new bar and chain. You may need to crimp the rails in a bit. 

3) The next most common is uneven cutter length, like others have said the cutters on one side cutting more than the other.

Less common are
4) Rakers set too high on the cutters on one side compared to the other. I have no idea how this happened.

5) Wrong size chain on the bar. If you use an 0.058 chain on an 0.063 groove bar that will the same as worn bar groove. 

Seeing as you have a new chain I would bet on # 3) but if if you can rule that out you should look at all the others.


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## BlueRider (Feb 7, 2009)

I'll add one more potential cause, well actually two. the first is a bent bar. it dosen't have to be bent by much to result in a curved cut. 

the other is kind of related to what others have sugested by the cutters being filed unevenly. When hand filing you should file from the inside of each tooth towards the outside. This means that half of the teeth get filed from the right side of the bar and half get filled from the left. This will leave a slight burr on the outside of each tooth If you fille all the teeth from one side there will only be a burr on one side and cause the bar to drift away from the side with the burr. 

If you chain was square ground and you are using a round file, a common and acceptable thing to do. If you filed from one side you may not have filled perfectly perpendicular to the bar and missed the upper corner on one half the teeth. when converting from a square grind to a round this is easy to miss. 

The first thing I do when touching up a chain with a file is to mark the top of one tooth with a sharpie so I know where I started filing from. I file every other tooth then turn the saw around and file the rest of the teeth. A magnafying glass is helpful to examine a few teeth to make sure you hit the entire tooth all the way. it is easy to not see if you get the chipper all the way to the cutting edge. after 3 or 4 times sharpening I flip the the bar over so it wears evenly. After a while with a file you will get a sharper chain than what is possible with a grinder.


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## Brmorgan (Feb 8, 2009)

I found that when I used to hand-file without any guides/holders, I had a tendency to always cut a deeper hook on the left-hand cutters than the right. Just a result of how I moved my hand differently when filing the right side, I guess. This made my chain cut to the left because the left-hand cutters had a more aggressive hook angle than the right side. And after looking at various chains hand-filed by others I've cut firewood with, it seems to be a fairly common occurrence when free-filing.


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## BobL (Feb 8, 2009)

BlueRider said:


> I'll add one more potential cause, well actually two. the first is a bent bar. it dosen't have to be bent by much to result in a curved cut.



Yeah - forgot about the bent bar. I once saw a 36" bar that had been bent into a sort of a slight "z" shape, that one was cutting one way at the nose and the other way at the inboard end - it would cut for about about a bar width before jamming solid.


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## BlueRider (Feb 8, 2009)

Yeah, it dosent take much either. I had 1/8-3/16" bend in a 32" bar and that was enough to cause it to curve in the cut enough that I couldn't cut from both side of the log or from the top and bottom from the same side. 

In my case I have a very good eye but I couldn't see the bend unless I took the bar off the saw and sighted down it or placed it on the top of my table saw.


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## oldsaw (Feb 8, 2009)

Brmorgan said:


> I found that when I used to hand-file without any guides/holders, I had a tendency to always cut a deeper hook on the left-hand cutters than the right. Just a result of how I moved my hand differently when filing the right side, I guess. This made my chain cut to the left because the left-hand cutters had a more aggressive hook angle than the right side. And after looking at various chains hand-filed by others I've cut firewood with, it seems to be a fairly common occurrence when free-filing.



It's the tedency to swing your elbow out on the stroke. Going to a shorter stroke can help that, but in the end, you really just have to watch yourself. I still do it if I'm not paying full attention.

Mark


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## sctstoys72 (Feb 10, 2009)

I messed up a good chisel chain on my 038 one time, i thought i would file the rakers to make it cut faster,count the strokes, Wrong, it needs to be done with a gauge. it would cut a nice Radius,that chain is hanging on the wall now.


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## MotorSeven (Feb 11, 2009)

My bet is on the bar. The easy wasy to check is to take it off, and see if it will stand on edge on a perfectly flat surface like a counter top, piece of glass etc. If it falls over(check both sides) it needs dressing.

RD


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## tlbsg (Feb 12, 2009)

have a real good and close look at the left hand side cutters happens often when cutting you can hit something and blunten only one side even though you have sharpened a close inspection can reveal a lot about chain condition


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## Backwoods (Feb 12, 2009)

oldsaw said:


> It's the tedency to swing your elbow out on the stroke. Going to a shorter stroke can help that, but in the end, you really just have to watch yourself. I still do it if I'm not paying full attention.
> 
> Mark



When I first got started sharpening chainsaws, I had a heck of a time sharpening a saw that would not cut in circles, until I started rotating my wrist and the file thru the stroke. Consistency on both sides of the chain seems to be the key. Oh and leave the rakers alone unless you use a gage, they do not need to be filed down but once every few sharpening.


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## Brmorgan (Feb 12, 2009)

Backwoods said:


> When I first got started sharpening chainsaws, I had a heck of a time sharpening a saw that would not cut in circles, until I started rotating my wrist and the file thru the stroke. Consistency on both sides of the chain seems to be the key. Oh and leave the rakers alone unless you use a gage, they do not need to be filed down but once every few sharpening.



Yeah, I've always rotated the file too, from inside out towards the cutter edge. But when filing the right-side cutters I had a hard time maintaining correct pressure back against the cutter, and it always resulted in a shallower gullet. It's just easier to maintain pressure pushing inwards with the palm of my hand on the left-side cutters than it is to "pull" the pressure towards the back of my hand (dunno if I did a good job explaining that...). Not to mention the tendency of the file to want to jump out of the gullet resulting in the back of my hand being raked across the sharp teeth. I always wear gloves now when free-filing!


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