ATOP Filed Chain

[sedanman]

Well, thanks to Mike Acres we had a sample of ATOP goofy filed chain to play with. Many who looked at it had doubts about its performance. All who cut with it were impressed. No-one I talked to thought the chain was 'grabby' as some had predicted. The general opinion was that it is faster than factory spec round filed chain. This may be the ticket for anyone wanting faster woods chain without the difficulty of square chisel chain.

 

[tony marks]

somebody who does pics . show us one.. i never quite understood what it was.. that was done. i never said i wus smart. ..just steady ,,at least til i had my second small glass of wine.. docs orders now.
im not sure he meant fer me to use this pint jar fer a glass ,,but it works alrite fer me. i gotta speak toim bout these morning headaches tho..

 

[Qatanlison]

Tony, check out the thread "mmw346XP" I posted pics there of both cutters and the filing jig...

Q

 

[glens]

Tony, every cutting surface is formed by the flat face of the file.  The edge of the file does not produce a working surface.

I held the file next to my Stihl raker file and it appears they are made on the very same machine, except teeth had not been formed on the round edges on mine.

The chain worked admirably for me in the "Red Poplar" we were cutting.  I think I'll stick with my round filed chain for now, though, since I cut stuff a little more on the Hickory side of the scale quite often, and I'm skeptical about the performance of this tooth profile in such an environment.

Glen

 

[Qatanlison]

I've done some more testing with the ATOP system and getting more and more out of it; Yesterday I set out to create some kick-back situations - and didn't succeed; The cutter is too sharp to deliver even the slightest move to resemble a kick-back.

The pictures is of two different chains; The upper is what a ATOP files chain should look like - the bottom one is of my own design, making the chain a bit faster, and a bit more wobbly when starting the cut.

Q

 

[rbtree]

Nice pics, Q.

Sure interesting cutter profiles...

It looks as though the depth gauges should be kept pretty high to ensure smooth, non grabby action?

 

[Qatanlison]

Thanks rb, I try to make the pics as clear and crisp as possible.

I keep them rakers at the recommended hight around .025 .030 but I dare say filing them a bit more wouldn't present as much grabbieness as it would on a round-filed chain -

Soon I'll compare it to full chisel .325, both round filed and square filed - should be interesting...

Q