hotsaw gearing

[GOBRDGO]

This eleven tooth sprocket (diameter) really ruins how the chain feeds into the bar. The question is your opinion on gearing up race saws. Is it necessary? Will a sharp chain win without the extra rpm supposedly introduced by the big cog? Anybody racing with stock gearing? How do you guesstimate gearing? Does anyone, or is it all try and error? I may be in custom bar territory with this setup. Does this look like it'll throw the chain? Before you beat me up, Remember this is a hobby for me, I'm not a woodcutter by any means and lack practical saw specific knowledge.

 

[NWCS]

sent you a PM on that Jared, dont spread my dirty little secrets around now :angel:

 

[Chopwood]

cut the bar to wrap around the sprocket. Do it so the tail of the bar is slightly smaller than sprocket diameter. Shorten the chain, elongate the slot (haha), have fun. G- tell us what dedcow's secrets are.

 

[jokers]

G- tell us what dedcow's secrets are.

Yes, do tell. I`ll send you some tater salad.

Chopwood offered some good solutions although you need to be forewarned that the bar is very hard.

On a limited use saw like what you are building, the spring steel bar plates can be modified to cover the tail of the bar and guide the chain in. Otherwise I`d say that you`re in chain throw territory.

BTW, with the clutch in that condition, you shouldn`t have to worry about anything.

Russ

 

[GOBRDGO]

Spring steel bar plates? Are those the wafer thin shim like deals that sandwich the bar on some saws? Dedcow told me about a rare tool called a bar stretcher. I hate to shorten the bar too much. The bar is 27 useable inches now. It'll take three inches to do the trick. Is only 24" of useable bar ok? I can use a plasma cutter to beat the hardness of the bar. It'll keep the heat local too. Thanks alot for the input.

 

[Al Smith]

11 tooth?Kinda pushen that old Mac to the limit,poor clutch.Find yourself an old style Mac bar,a wide one,with a wider heel.If you toss that chain,it will take several cats to sew you up.That sarcasm aside,that is a dangerous situation you have there.

 

[McC]

I have a 10 on my MC92 hotsaw. The last time I made a cut with it, it through the chain as soon as the bar came out of the wood. It was a brand new chain, and it may have stretched after several cuts. I'm using a nice rollotronic with a big tail, but the chain does ride out of the rail just a little. It never came off last year with the 9 sprocket. We cut 10" cants. and 12-13" round logs. The macs have no problem pulling the 10 in that wood.
Scott

 

[GOBRDGO]

I have only been to one show, the wood was 21" plus. I am going to experiment with some smaller cogs before I butcher this bar. Maybe I jumped the gun. I wonder how much smaller a 10 tooth would look?

 

[Al Smith]

What I was talking about is a fat old plump bar like this old 250.It's got enough metal on it to reshape a wide heel ,to keep the chain on.This one is an nos Oregon armor tip.They are still out there but you have to look for them[E-bay,of course]