# Chain Tension



## TraditionalTool (Jul 11, 2009)

What type of tension do you folks use on your carving saws?

I just got Steve Backus' video on carving a bear, and his chain is hanging about 1/2" - 1" off the bottom of the bar.

Is this how most of you folks have your saws setup? I'm not sure I have ever tried the chain that loose, when mine starts to slack even slightly I start to see sparks, so stop and add a little tension to take the slack out.

In follow up to the above question, if that is how you use your chain on your carving bar, do you focus only to use the very top of the bar when your cutting, so that the chain being used is inside the bar?

Regards,
TT


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## lumberjackchef (Jul 12, 2009)

I can only speak from my own experience and I have found that i do have a much better time with my detail carving saw when the chain is a little loose. I keep it about half as tight as i do on the saw that i do all of the negative removal of the sculpture with. I use a 10" dime tip cannon -1/4" chain on my little echo for detail only. I have found I can perform 75-80% of a carving with my larger husky 346XP fitted with the small husky /poulan type oregon sprocket tip bar equipped with the low pro type 3/8 chain. You do have to be very careful to avoid kickback. But as many carvings as I have done now, I have learned to go alot faster than I used to be able to go using the bigger saw for more and more. Then I grab the little dime tip carver and finish out the rest of the carving, and yes when using my dime tip I only use a small portion of the bar and most of the time just the tip and top rail with downward strokes. Very rarely when using my detail saw do I make an actual cut to remove a large piece of wood. I have never tried a quarter tip bar but I assume they would work about the same as the oregon type that I use now. I just use them because they are cheap and readily available where i live. I just keep the chain at a normal tension when using the Husky. Just my two cents. I think that mostly you just have to experiment and see what works best for you. Whether its loose vs. tight chain, fast carving or slow,3/8 vs 1/4 inch chain, when it comes to carving you just have to become accustomed to the tool that you choose and the species/type of wood that you are carving. Each has its purpose and time to be employed. Have you posted any pics of your carvings yet? I'd love to check them out. Happy Carving!


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## TraditionalTool (Jul 13, 2009)

lumberjackchef said:


> I can only speak from my own experience and I have found that i do have a much better time with my detail carving saw when the chain is a little loose. I keep it about half as tight as i do on the saw that i do all of the negative removal of the sculpture with.


lumberjackchef,

I will try to loosen up the chain a bit, but the chain on Steve Backus' saw was just hanging off the bottom of the bar, I have never seen a chain that loose before, in operation.


lumberjackchef said:


> Then I grab the little dime tip carver and finish out the rest of the carving, and yes when using my dime tip I only use a small portion of the bar and most of the time just the tip and top rail with downward strokes. Very rarely when using my detail saw do I make an actual cut to remove a large piece of wood. I have never tried a quarter tip bar but I assume they would work about the same as the oregon type that I use now. I just use them because they are cheap and readily available where i live.


I have the Cannon Carving bar, but it was mostly because that is what Jamie Doeren had and recommended. I'm still waiting a full loop of full house chain, I think I will end up using that chain on my carving bar, but need a full loop to test. I just got a hold of Jamie again, he was out of town, so look forward to getting a loop of it.


lumberjackchef said:


> I just keep the chain at a normal tension when using the Husky. Just my two cents. I think that mostly you just have to experiment and see what works best for you. Whether its loose vs. tight chain, fast carving or slow,3/8 vs 1/4 inch chain, when it comes to carving you just have to become accustomed to the tool that you choose and the species/type of wood that you are carving. Each has its purpose and time to be employed. Have you posted any pics of your carvings yet? I'd love to check them out. Happy Carving!


I haven't done much carving at all, have only done one mushroom about a week or two ago, and yes, I did post pics of it...look in the threads on this forum and you'll see it down a half to a dozen threads...I'll post more as I attempt more.

I didn't get to try the bear yesterday, but it's on the list of things to do...I don't have too much in the way of wood right now, but have a couple small chunks I can try to carve.

Cheers,
TT


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## lumberjackchef (Jul 13, 2009)

TraditionalTool said:


> lumberjackchef,
> 
> I will try to loosen up the chain a bit, but the chain on Steve Backus' saw was just hanging off the bottom of the bar, I have never seen a chain that loose before, in operation.
> 
> ...



Nor have I, I cant imagine that it would be good for the equipment or very safe for the operator. I always check to make sure that mine is not hanging below the bottom of the rail. As I said before I run it loose but not like that.


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## carvinmark (Jul 14, 2009)

I run mine loose and some times as much as 1/2". I try for about 1/4" gap. I know it sounds scary but I've only had one chain come off and that was from being about 1" gap. The carving bars need the slack, if you run them as tight as a normal bar the chain will stop the saw.


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## TraditionalTool (Jul 16, 2009)

*A picture of Steve Backus' chain*

I tried to get a pic a couple days ago, but as I was doing a screen capture, the server blew up...<yikes!>

Got a new server going, but still working to get my blog back.

Here's a pic of Steve's Echo 3450.







Cheers,
TT


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