Dressing chain grinding wheel

[woojr]

As a newbie to square filing and sharpening. I was looking at Madsens info and saw their advice to grind this sort of cutter. After seeing the angles, I realize there's still more I could learn before my first attempt. I have an old Efco shapener with full range of settings. Its from the 70's but its got power and is in full functionality. I have several size wheels. The pink ones and I used cool grind... Have dressing stone...
Anyone know what size (thickness) wheel for 3/8 Stihl square ground cutters? Also how the wheel is dressed? I can see there's some trial and error here. And, if there are any Efco users (I'm not familiar with Oregon) doing this chain, any tips you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all and God bless, woojr

 

[Lakeside53]

I don't beleive you can square-grind with a conventional grinder and stones.. That's why we round grind all square chains when they come back for sharpening.

 

[Old Gold]

Efco sharpener

As a newbie to square filing and sharpening. I was looking at Madsens info and saw their advice to grind this sort of cutter. After seeing the angles, I realize there's still more I could learn before my first attempt. I have an old Efco shapener with full range of settings. Its from the 70's but its got power and is in full functionality. I have several size wheels. The pink ones and I used cool grind... Have dressing stone...
Anyone know what size (thickness) wheel for 3/8 Stihl square ground cutters? Also how the wheel is dressed? I can see there's some trial and error here. And, if there are any Efco users (I'm not familiar with Oregon) doing this chain, any tips you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all and God bless, woojr

Woojr,
Is your Efco sharpener a grinder? If so, is it a round or square chisel grinder? I use an Oregon 511A for round chain, and a Silvey RII for square chisel. There is a quite a difference in grinding technique between round and square chains. Sounds like your Efco might be a round grinder? Let us know...

 

[woojr]

I'm not certain I understand what the difference between the grinders is...
Here's what it'll do. the chain holder is a bar like holder that has a cam lock to snug chain in place or adjust to different drivelink thicknesses. This holder is mounted on a tilting, swiveling bed that allows for any angle and quite abit of tilt. The powerhead is also adjustable similar to a chop saw for trim. It can pretty much do any combination of angles. There are stops of course to keep chain links at the same location and limit the travel of the powerhead into the tooth. Its a well made product and I'm sure it can be set up accurately repeat grinds on the sq. grind chain.
When I say dress the wheel, I am referring to shaping the edge that does the actual removing of material. I used to have different sizes with slightly different profiles to accomodate different cutters. I can visualize most of the set up except the outside side plate is rather short and leaves a large piece in the gullet as I look at the Madsens diagrams. I picture a rather thin wheel.
I have some files ordered and when I get them, I think some of the mystery will be solved. By then I am setting a goal to figure out how to get a picture on this site. I guess this site has made me so lazy I didn't even look up Efco to see if they are still in business and have any info... Well, back to work, it's a beautiful spring day and I gotta do something outside. Thanks to all, woojr

 

[TimberPig]

As far as I know, Efco rebadged Tecomec grinders, the same as Oregon and others do. I don't believe that they ever produced a grinder capable of square grinding chain correctly. You most likely have a round grinder there. If you want to play around with it, by all means, but I don't think you're going to get the results of a proper square grinder. Most square grinders are either Silveys, or less commonly Simington's. They are significantly more expensive and less common than round grinders. If you really want to square grind chain correctly, a proper square grinder is the way to go.