Cooked Chain

[goof008]

I have a question about the usability of a chain once you overheat it. Can I just sharpen it and use it again, or is it toast once it gets over heated? I had a lot of free wood available to me from a guy who clear cut a lot, but it was available to everyone, so I had to cut as much as quickly as possible. When my oiler went out on my saw, I started to manually do it, but I did end up cooking it to the point of a varnish like covering on the cutters.

 

[SawTroll]

I would toss it - it probably won't keep an edge, and may also break on you.....

Hopefully, you haven't ruined the bar as well - overheating may result in accellerated wear.

 

[goof008]

I kinda figured as much....just wanted to ask someone that knows more about it than me! I think I'll keep them (there were 2) in my case to remind me the importance of oil on the chain/bar.

 

[1953greg]

goof

try a new file. if that dosent work then bench grinder is next.

ive seen them smooking but never had one that was cooked beyond hope

 

[Poley4]

You would be hard pressed to get a chain hot enough to take the temper out of it, the cutters would have get hot enough to turn blue to do that. I would be more concerned with the bar.

 

[Lakeside53]

Sharpen it, and use, it.. I cook mine all the time milling..

 

[goof008]

ok....I think I'll take them in and have them sharpened at the dealer just to get it as good as I can. Thanks for the help.

 

[DGG]

How did it get so overheated?

 

[goof008]

my oiler stopped pumping oil, so I was doing it manually. I would load the b/c with oil before starting to cut, then I would use a pump oil can to keep adding oil to it. On a few occasions I just wanted to get thru the cut before stopping to add more oil to it. I have a new oil pump waiting to put on now, but time was of the essence as I had access to a large pile of clear cut leftovers (oaks, cherry, hickory and ash), but it was free to who ever showed up to get it, so I wanted to get as much as I could before it was gone, so I pushed the saw harder than I probably should have seeing as how it wasn't oiling right. Everything worked out ok, I bought a new Makita DCS6401 to keep getting wood out of the pile. I figured the price of the saw was offset by the quality/quantity of wood I was getting with it!!

 

[DGG]

That makes perfect sense. Gotta fix that oiler though. I have an older 55 Rancher that I carry as a backup to my 359 (just in case). So far I haven't had to need it but it's cheap insurance and would be good in a situation like yours. Sounds like you now have a pile of great wood to split, or are you making boards?

 

[geofore]

backup saws are important!

Now you know why we all have extra saws hanging around? "But hon' I just need one more saw" I say to the wife and she replies, "I'll shoot you if you buy one more." So, I bought two back up saws.

 

[Tzed250]

Go get some Off oven cleaver, spray the chain, let it sit, rinse it off, sharpen it, then oil it, should be good as new...Try it!!!

 

[goof008]

I have a "back up" but it's just a little 35cc saw so it is more of a limbing saw and something to get the main saw out if I happen to bind it in the cut....but I'm getting better at avoiding that. It was actually faster to manually oil the Stihl than to use the little Echo. But, the proble is kinda solved....I have my new saw and the oil pump for the Stihl, so I can have to good larger saws and the lil one. You know, before I got on AS, I only had one! My wife thanks you.