Bench chain sharpener

[Rich in MA]

Hi, I'm a posting but have lurked and learned. I'm a WW'er that takes the occasional log friends and nature provide, cuts (Alaskan MK III / Stihl MS 441) and stickers them.

This is my second attempt at posting this. I can't find it so I must have screwed up the first time.


I have a simple Granberg jig that clamps to the bar for sharpening. I have used it when pressed but it takes a while and I find it clumsy. Maybe it's just me. Plus changing / sharpening chains every log (Alaskan MK III) gets tedious even with a couple chains on hand. So I'm thinking of getting a bench sharpener. It's $10-15 to to have a chain sharpened around here so I'd break even on the cost in about a year.


What do you guys use? Any experience / feedback on this one? For ~ $120 it seems like a good tool that will do the job.


http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Industrial-Bench--Wall-Mount-Sharpener/dp/B000I6DNAU/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1322051502&sr=1-3

The Oregon for twice the price looks like it came off the same assembly line. It may have some better features but I can't tell from the pic / write up.

Amazon.com: Oregon 510A Bench Chain Grinder: Home Improvement


Thanks for any info you can offer!!!

 

[BobL]

Learn to touch up with the chain on the saw on the mill and you'll wonder what the fuss was all about. :smile2:

 

[BrokenToys]

I have the first sharpener you listed from Northern (had a gift certificate to spend) and overall the thing does work.
The Oregon one I got a hold on at the expo a few weeks ago and overall now being able to see and touch both of them...I should have gotten the Oregon A510.

I ended up getting it for all my saws; than my friends found out than their friends found out and while it's a nice little side business the overall fabrication of the Northern leaves a little bit to be desired. Notable differences:

The left/right swing knob and ball socket had to be dremeled out due to "schlag" in the casting (?) process. it wouldn't turn right without some grinding. Also ended up replacing the whole bolt since it was apart and wanted a little more thread and a bigger bushing too.
The chain spring tensioner and adjuster knob will fall off. LOTS. Suprised they didn't use a teflon type nut or some other apparatus. I ended up using a little bit of teflon tape in the threads and it helped.
Grinding wheel bolt cover is a very odd fit. again; Dremel to the rescue.

For what it was I can't complain. Saving up for the Oregon though since it has become a little business all onto itself.

 

[Rich in MA]

The hand sharpening jig is the thing that bugs me most so I'll do a chain w/o it and see how that works. If so, then I'll be able to avoid 75% of the machine sharpening runs.

Thanks for he info. The Northern sounds like a cheapened version of the Oregon.

 

[mtngun]

Thanks for he info. The Northern sounds like a cheapened version of the Oregon.

Oregon sharpener is made by Tecomec in Italy, also sold under other names.

Northern is a Chinese copy of 511a.

I use the Tecomec Jolly Star. Has some issues, but on the whole it does a great job.

 

[hamish]

Carleton has a nice Tecomec grinder at a very good price, check out the sponsor edge and engine.

It lacks the vise tilt angle but have yet to notice any real difference in performance.

 

[imagineero]

I have a tecomec jolly (same as 511a) and it's a good grinder. They last for years and years, and you can often recoup most of your initial outlay by selling it should you ever decide you dont need one any more. Budget on getting a good ABN/CBN wheel for your machine (about $200) to get the most out of it. The expensive wheels will sharpen thousands of chains, never need shaping, have less dust and cause less burning of cutters. They are easier and faster to use than the pink wheel.

I run a small tree company with 6 saws. Some of them are sharpened 2-3 times a day. I can hand sharpen a saw fast, and I'm pretty consistent with depth, length and angles. It only takes a minute to go round a 72DL chain, not much longer for a 114DL with semi skip. I usually give them a touch up every tank or every other tank. I can hand sharpen quicker than I can swap a chain, and quicker than I can machine sharpen.

So why the grinder? It's very consistent. It also doesnt need too much focus or energy to use. That makes a difference if you've got a whole stack of chains to do and its been a long day. Hand sharpening is physically tiring if you've got 10 or 15 chains to do, and if you dont really pay attention you wont get what you need. The grinder will true a chain up pretty nice.

So what I do is hand sharpen on the job. I've got half a dozen chains for each saw, so if a saw gets rocked, or blunt and I just dont have time to deal with it I grab another saw or swap the chain out for a fresh one. End of the week I pull out my bucket of blunt chains and take all the chains off the saws and bring them back to being identical.

Shaun

 

[smokinj]

I got a 511a use off ebay years ago for 180.00 still runs strong.

 

[Rich in MA]

imagineero, good info, thanks!

smokinj, good suggestion, i'll check ebay and craigslist.

 

[imagineero]

I should also add that machine sharpening is probably safer than hand sharpening after recently cutting my finger open pretty good hand sharpening.

Another often overlooked factor is the price. In aus, a 12 pack of files is about $30. Depending on your chains you might get anywhere between 5~50 sharpenings out of a file. Some guys maybe even more. Myself, I get about a week out of a file, sharpening an average of 4 or 5 chains a day. I could keep using the files longer, but once they lose their initial edge they are slow to use. Since a file only costs $2.50, and my time is worth about $90/hour on the job, I throw a file out as soon as it takes more than one or two strokes to get an edge back. If I get a weird chain with really hard cutters, I might wreck a brand new file in one sharpening.

Added up over the space of a year that equates to somewhere around $120/year on files for somewhere around 1200 sharpenings. In all honesty I probably go through more files than that for that amount of sharpenings because some get rusty, some get lost, some get blunt sooner etc... $120 for 1000 sharpenings is probably closer to the truth. You will do better than that with a cyclone wheel.

Shaun

 

[Rich in MA]

Shaun - That is a LOT of chainsaw work. You must be a pro logger or such. You'll do more in a week with a saw then I will in a year.

I see you're from Australia. My wife and I spent 2 weeks there 20 years ago and had a great time. Sydney, Ross River Homestead (east of Alice a few beers ), Ayers Rock and then Mossman. My son is named Ross as he got his "start" there .

 

[gemniii]

Well I've posted a lot before on this, but I think they all have their place. Admittedly my free hand sharpening seems to have gotten better, but I still like the jig, especially if I'm tired.

I generally plan on free hand sharpen/touch up on the saw about three times, then jig sharpen on the saw (4th use of chain), repeat for 3 jig sharpenings (total 12 uses) and then look closely and maybe use my "modified" NT grinder. If I have to swap chains (rocked one or no time to sharpen) it might go to the NT grinder earlier.

I found in my free hand sharpening I sometimes "favor" one hand and the pressure on the cutters was such that there was a slight difference in length. The jig corrects that.

Be sure to monitor raker height.

The official Granberg jig I have took me several uses to learn to use well, and it seemed to be a cheap metal knockoff, but it works.

 

[imagineero]

Shaun - That is a LOT of chainsaw work. You must be a pro logger or such. You'll do more in a week with a saw then I will in a year.

It's not quite so much work as it sounds, and it isnt all done by me. I run a small tree business and we do mostly residential removals. The saws that need sharpening the most are the ones run by the ground guys... They just arent that careful about using them, so the chains do end up kissing the dirt more often. On a big removal we might have 2 or 3 guys running saws at the same time, and 4 or 5 dragging and chipping. You need to have enough backup saws/chains to be able to get the job done.

Even if you're only an occasional user I think its still worth investing in good sharpening gear. If you dont hand sharpen often, you probably wont get to be very good at it. You can make some money back sharpening chains for others, and even if you never get to do a few thousand chains on your machine, you'll still get a lot of the money back if you bought a good bit of gear. Cheaper equipment doesnt hold its value and is less of a pleasure to use.

Shaun

 

[Big L]

Hello Rich ... picked up this Dremel attachment recently 1453 Chain Saw Sharpening Attachment / Model: 1453 and I find it to work quite well, relatively cheep too!

LW

 

[Rich in MA]

I hand sharpened 2 rip chains yesterday just using angles drawn on wood next to the bar. I was surprised at how well the chain cut. That's the good news.

The chain I used last weekend I found was cut to 30 degrees. HUH? Then I remembered, I took it to a local service instead of driving the 25 minutes to the place I like and bought my saw from. The local place is called Andover Small Engine (Andover MA). I've now had my last run in with them. They said they could do rip chains then just left their machine set for 30 and took off a whole mess of metal. I didn't notice it till now. The clue should have been when I dropped it off they guy didn't know what a rip chain was, got someone else to talk to me and they said "sure". Yeah, right.

I will never set foot in that store again except to tell the owner this is the second and last time he's made a mistake that cost me money. I'll try and get a replacement chain out of him but don't expect much.

Today a buddy will come over to help me move the logs so I can complete the work. Will setup a drying platform and sticker them today too.