Chain loosening

[Bludenz]

Cleaned bar sprocket etc today and dressed the bar. Cleaned out bar rails as well.

Put bar on, took chain out of oil and put it on, supported the tip of the bar and tensioned the chain, put on clutch cover and finished tensioning with the tip of the bar being supported. I think that this was my problem. A few test cuts and the chain was still as I set it. Previously by this time it would have been hanging down.

Will test it in the tree on Monday so hopefully it doesn't play up. Thanks again.

 

[barfer]

Cleaned bar sprocket etc today and dressed the bar. Cleaned out bar rails as well.

Put bar on, took chain out of oil and put it on, supported the tip of the bar and tensioned the chain, put on clutch cover and finished tensioning with the tip of the bar being supported. I think that this was my problem. A few test cuts and the chain was still as I set it. Previously by this time it would have been hanging down.

Will test it in the tree on Monday so hopefully it doesn't play up. Thanks again.

Woot! Yay !

 

[J D]

There is enough wear on your spur sprocket that if the chain isn’t centrally located in the wear grooves when you first tension it the chain will become loose after it rotates a few times & finds it's way into the wear marks. You may also find if you have any inconsistency in your drive links & the clutch drum has movement in & out the chain may ride in & out of those wear grooves (getting tighter & looser as it does).
The advice to clean & dress the bar is valid but as others have mentioned, the bar tip has wear around the nose sprocket that shouldn't be there & indicates an issue.
If it's working well enough now (& you're not using it a lot or concerned greatly about it's reliability) I would run it until that chain is spent & then replace the clutch drum with a rim drive type, replace the bar, & buy 3 new chains to rotate through it. When all 3 chains are done it'll probably be time to replace the rim drive & buy a few more chains.
There are likely to be Oregon kits with a bar & some chains suitable for your saw that are reasonable quality & will save you some money. Other brands are likely available too so it pays to shop around a bit

 

[Bludenz]

There is enough wear on your spur sprocket that if the chain isn’t centrally located in the wear grooves when you first tension it the chain will become loose after it rotates a few times & finds it's way into the wear marks. You may also find if you have any inconsistency in your drive links & the clutch drum has movement in & out the chain may ride in & out of those wear grooves (getting tighter & looser as it does).
The advice to clean & dress the bar is valid but as others have mentioned, the bar tip has wear around the nose sprocket that shouldn't be there & indicates an issue.
If it's working well enough now (& you're not using it a lot or concerned greatly about it's reliability) I would run it until that chain is spent & then replace the clutch drum with a rim drive type, replace the bar, & buy 3 new chains to rotate through it. When all 3 chains are done it'll probably be time to replace the rim drive & buy a few more chains.
There are likely to be Oregon kits with a bar & some chains suitable for your saw that are reasonable quality & will save you some money. Other brands are likely available too so it pays to shop around a bit

Thanks for your detailed reply. I mainly need this saw to trim up 1 tree, and then I should be fine.

Will be buying a big saw to fell trees soon, so then this saw will be basically out of action, until it is needed the next year to trim trees again. I personally can't justify the cost of 3 chains that will be rarely used, although for my big saw I will have a couple.

I'll see how it handles in the tree and then I'll see if I need anything.

 

[JimR]

The bar pulled up is the key when tightening up the chain. There is no need to grease the front socket. Your bar oil will lube that for you. Keeping the edges off of your bar will make cutting easier. Trueing up the two working surfaces of your bar will make the chain run smoother and last longer.

 

[pioneerguy600]

The bar oil will lube the sprocket tip. Grease is entirely unnecessary. This seems to be debated by some, yet pros in the field discovered this a long, long, long time ago. The first time I saw someone grease their tip (it was a brand new stihl solid bar), I had no idea what was going on. That fellow stopped doing that before the end of that project. He realized his tip was running too hot.

That's why Stihl stopped putting grease ports in their tips. Not necessary whatsoever.

A snow ski edge sharpening file holder works well as a bar dresser file guide. I flat filed mine for years before I went "duh", I have a perfect tool for this already.

I also have had the same experience with not greasing the tips but just letting the bar oil lube them. When I started out in the woods all the saws were running solid tip bars and only had 30wt oil for lube. Most guys that have stayed with running chainsaws still only use new 30 wt in their saws,they scoff at buying bar oil and ever since the bars came out with sprocket tips I don`t know of anyone that actually runs their saws for commercial uses that grease the tips. Since I run mostly Stihl bars these days I don`t even consider greasing them. I did however use bar oil by the case for a few years but stopped that 3-4 years back and run diesel engine oil now, a cheap product sold by Walmart it does everything I want from it and no sticky mess all over the saw and bar.