.404 on Husky 385

[Qatanlison]

Anyone out there who has tried .404 chain on the Husky 385?
Does it pull noticably heavier than the 3/8?

Why .404?
'Cos you can...

Also, any experiance of which round ground chain to use for the fastest cutting?
E.g. Oregon 73LG filed to 35 degrees and with a depth-gauge at .050+ etc. Or how about a harvester chain? I suspect Gypologger has a thing or two to share on this subject?

/Ola

 

[jokers]

For fastest cutting I am assuming that you mean sustained fastest cutting while working, not a race chain. I like 73LG but leave the rakers at .025 to .030 depending on whether the wood is hard or soft. Topplate angle hand filed to about 30° and sideplate to 60° which gives the tooth some hook.

The depth gauge filing tool from Husky works great.

Russ

 

[Qatanlison]

Jokers,

Yes I meant working chain, do you have any specs. on racing chains? Could be interesting to know..

I tend to file the rakers down 'til I get that "bumpy" feeling on my Husky 262XP. I'm bucking a 48" oak right now with a 24" bar, full comp, and it eats wood...

Thanks for your tips,

 

[jokers]

Hi Qatanlison
There are many others here who know much more about racing chain than I do. I feel that I should defer to them.

Russ

 

[SilverBlue]

Why use a 404 chain anyways?
How many actually use one?
I never needed anything else than 3/8

 

[NeTree]

Only thing I use .404 on is the 394

 

[don]

404 vs 3/8

There was a big debate on this last year.

It finished with several people actually timing each type of chain in controlled conditions. Same size, type of wood, same saw etc.

The 3/8 cut faster than the 404. Search the past posts for the details.

404 works better on long bars and not short ones.

Also, they debate on Full skip, full compliment , semi skip etc....

I think it was full chisel 3/8 RSK 50 gage. But again check the previous posts.

Most people are going to smaller pitch chain to have less chips and more wood to use for whatever purpose.

 

[Qatanlison]

Thanks, everyone, for the input and info!

/Ola

 

[Stumper]

In a pure speed race amongst 3/8 working chain I 'll give the nod to Stihl's full chisel. It is slightly harder and also slightly faster-due, I believe, to a sharper corner angle where top and side plates come together. It is also expensive chain. I don't think the difference is great enough to make me buy it over the Carlton that I'm running. Overly large depth gauge settings are bad news IMHO. It FEELS aggressive-it is- but you get greater wear on both bar and chain without a speed gain.

 

[Qatanlison]

Stumper,

You're of course absolutely right about the more wear and stressing of the rails and so on. Also, I figured that the overall performance when filing the rakers that much would not give you an upperhand compared to the "default" tooth, but the old timers in sweden insists this is the case. I haven't worked the woods as a proffesional but beeing truly interested in the work, relying on facts - not experience - tend to make me question long lived "myths" on how to sharpen the chain.
I gues it really IS hard to make an old dog sit.

Thanks for your thoughts and information.

/Ola

 

[geofore]

spur/damage

Taking the rakers down to feel the "bump", your going to wear your sprocket out faster beating up on it with the bump bump bumps. It's not just the bar and chain that feel it, the bearings your crank is riding on feel it too. Do you really need faster? 73LG or RSK is good for what you say you want to do. How many cutters do you want to sharpen and are worried about chip build up in the cut would lead to a question on full comp or skip. 404 vs 3/8 is more of how wide do you want the kerf. If you want agressive 72AP is square it can be round filed if you don't know how to square file but is more aggressive square filed and keeps an edge longer square filed. If you have the time and money try them all and then make up your mind, I hope you have a lot of oak trees, you'll need them to try out all the chains and raker hieghts. If you want faster get the saw power ported and go with a longer bar. or not

 

[Tony Snyder]

Considering the trade-offs, I don't believe you will do better than 3/8ths on that saw. I view that saw as a "speed" saw rather than a "torque" saw and therefore would want the 3/8ths to keep the rpms up. (That statement ought to get the semantics types on here ready to quarrel)

I have mostly had experience with Carlton LM style chain in 3/8ths, I realize others may be as good or better.

I know of only one logger around here that square files and thinks it is worth it.

Oaks of variuos species is the predominant hardwood around here.

 

[Chainsaw_Maniac]

My vote is for Stihl RS (but there's little differnce between this and Oregon 73LG). Rakers should be filed to 0.030 for hardwood. I have never really experimented much with chains meant for softwood because I'll always wind up using that same chain for harwood later anyway and 95% of my cutting is hardwood.

I don't think that you should go for that "bumpy" feeling. It may cut a bit faster, but your saw will wear out faster.

As for 3/8 vs 404........go with 3/8 for sure. The only reason you'd want to go with 404 (from what I've heard) is that the chain wont break while you're cutting. And I've never heard of anyone having problems with normal 3/8 chain breaking too often.

 

[Qatanlison]

As everyone seems to agree 3/8 is the way to go, how do I get it on a 30" bar and up? 28" is the longest bar with 3/8 in both Husky and Oregon and there are no other brands in Sweden.
If the replacement tips are the same size on those longer bars, I suppose I could just swap a .404-.058 tip with a 3/8-.058.
No?

/Ola

 

[Stumper]

YES!

 

[Qatanlison]

I just realized that 3/8 in .063" is another option...

 

[Stumper]

Yes, but I would only choose the.063 if that were easier to obtain. O50 is the U.S standard and works fine while weighing less. 058 used to be the common size in Europe I'm told. 063 was Stihl's idea presumably just to be different so people would buy Stihl replacement chain.

 

[jsikkema1]

Hej Qatanlison,

I hope all is well in Sverige...

In the US most of the high speed newer saws that can turn 13.500 RPM no load we run 3/8 on (IE 385 Husky). These saws produce max HP at approximately 9,500 RPM +/- or there abouts.

I prefer 3/8 full chisel round ground full skip on 32" bars and longer. These bars are readily available here in the states in .050, .058 and .063. The .063 is actually preferred since the chain has less tendancy to stretch.

As for the .404 chain... its going away here and has typically been used on slower revving torquier saws- were the saw produces its max HP at around 8,000 RPM or so

I can see who sells GB bars in Sweden and let you know if you are interested- they make the largest range of bars than anyone (some would say that I'm partial to them LOL)- just let me know

I have been in Sweden 3 times- mostly in Stockholm and Eskilstuna working with Volvo BM (now called Volvo Construction Equipment or something like that... ) one trip took me up to Skelletea up on the Baltic for a week... went up to Riksgransen up through Jokkmokk and then Kiruna and stayed at a ski lodge at Riksgransen- in May they had about 8' of snow left on the ground- around 4 hrs drive north of the polar circle (Polcirkeln).
Took the Silvervagen up and then back through Norway and cut back over to get back to Skelleftea.

Hej Da

<img src=http://www.tflinks.com/flags/fsve.gif>

Jeff

 

[jsikkema1]

here is one for you...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20538&item=2355986504

 

[Stumper]

J. I'm Trying to figure out the streching thing. Aren't the tiestraps the same thickness on all gauges?