Do you clamp your Stihl Light Bars in a bench vise?

[PV Hiker]

After cleaning saws after use I throw chains back on a ES bar mounted to a saw. I then clamp the bar in a bench vice to sharpen the chain.

I have never clamped a light bar in the vise as not sure if I'm going to crush or damage it. I do have a chain filing clamp that goes into the bench vice for doing these saws with light bars.

I thought I would ask as for years I wondered. Can the light bars take the vice clamping force. Maybe wood to spead the force out.
Patrick

 

[jblnut]

I knows it’s not a Stihl bar but I clamp my 32” SugiHara bar in a vise and crank it down until that fat heavy 066 doesn’t droop and sharpen away. I’ve never looked at how the bar looks but I sure will the next time I’m near it. I think I’d have noticed if it was getting damaged. I do put an old t-shirt in the vise first to keep it from marring the bar but it’d still squash it.

 

[Woodslasher]

I'm a wee bit cautious about how tight I clamp it and only cinch it down until the powerhead just stops "drooping" in the vice, but yes, I have done it.

 

[thompsoncustom]

I use magnetic soft jaws on my 6in vice tho i'm not sure it would matter just fell like it's a little easier on the bar.

 

[trains]

yes, use some common sence, soft jaws are even better.

 

[Geo019t]

After cleaning saws after use I throw chains back on a ES bar mounted to a saw. I then clamp the bar in a bench vice to sharpen the chain.

I have never clamped a light bar in the vise as not sure if I'm going to crush or damage it. I do have a chain filing clamp that goes into the bench vice for doing these saws with light bars.

I thought I would ask as for years I wondered. Can the light bars take the vice clamping force. Maybe wood to spead the force out.
Patrick

Generally after "a bit of time" collecting dust, when I take one of my Stihl saws out for another use -- they had been run dry of fuel, and bar/chain oil drained -- I fill both tanks and grip bar in a machine vice which has magnetic soft-rubber jaw covers. It makes it soooo much easier for me to do my usual four slow pulls to hopefully get fuel to carb, as well as enable a burp, then a start, in the next one or two pulls. Again, this makes 1st-use-of-season starts soooo much easier for me! (Thereafter, the vice is not necessary.)
Note I do not do this for sharpening chain -- just starting. Last year I ordered a new bar for an MS 026 PRO, and I received a "Light" one -- not my wish. But, I've used it with no problems -- including the starting of it while held in my vice.
geo

 

[Philbert]

If the powerhead is supported on the bench (blocks of wood, etc.), and the vise only needs to stabilize the bar for filing, you don’t need to apply as much squeezing force, and less likely to crush the ‘hollow’, light weight bars.

I modified some cheap stump vises that I can clamp to a workbench, table, etc., that would work for this. Also work where I have no vise.




More at:

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/tree-machine-filing-clamps.240030/

Philbert

 

[Geo019t]

My go-to vise if one which straps to a log, using two clamps to support chainsaw bar, and has proved to be, for me, awesome! Purveyed by Canada's Lee Valley Tools for about $13.50 USD, had I known of this fifty years ago I would have purchased (at least ) two of them!
No need to seek a stump to hammer the traditional stump vise into -- never for me at a good height; to have it (dang it!) come loose as one flips their saw to sharpen teeth on the other side, and -- germane here -- the tightness of clamps on bar is minimal.
When I want to do a quick touch-up at home, too, I use a (Harbor Freight) sliding welding clamp to secure this vise to any close and handy surface.