Introducing the Chainmeister

[EcoGuy]

Can the Chainmeister bring happiness to my world??? YUP!

Well, of course there are other things that bring joy to me other than my new Chainmeister. My lovely wife and kids. Happy dogs. A beautiful day. Some peace in the world.... you get the picture.
One thing that does not bring me joy, is sharpening chains, and when I down to zero ready to run loops, I am not on the happy camper list. I mounted the bar clamps on a scrap of 2x12 left over from a project, and pilot drilled the base so I can run screws through it to secure it to any surface, other than the kitchen table. Remember the lovely wife bit? A C-clamp locks it in places where screws are inappropriate.

I found the Chainmeister to be a rock solid performer. It was easy to swap chains out, and the tensioning design held them completely stable, and gave me a great cutting set of chains in short order. As a bonus, I took the rig up to the shore of my pond, and listened to the frog symphony as to worked through my chains. Then I took a dip in the chilly water as a bonus.

I completely recommend the Chainmeister to those wanting to make a not-so-fun task a lot faster and easier.

 

[2dogs]

This is your first post? This whole thread has a bad feel for me. Like going to an auction andthinking the guys bidding high are shills. I am probably wrong about this, but I'm not sayin, I'm jus sayin.

 

[roberte]

This is your first post? This whole thread has a bad feel for me. Like going to an auction andthinking the guys bidding high are shills. I am probably wrong about this, but I'm not sayin, I'm jus sayin.

I second that statement. Maybe I'm just too cynical for my own good.
My original take on this stands.

 

[nelson727]

I think I resemble that comment!!!!

X Rigging Rings instead of blocks most of the time, RopeArmour in every big shots throw weight inventory-for people who compare time/money, oh and have I told you why I think every tree co. should consider having a Bandit 65 as a man movable chipper? These are some of the other things I am a shill about.

If anyone else has something that will save me time, make me money, or put some of the spice back in my love life with tree work, please let me know.

2dogs I noticed you have a lot of posts, looked on your profile (about you) and noticed you do contract falling for CalFire. I fantasized about doing that for a minute when I was driving by a fire toward my then logging job in Covelo, CA. I would think that if I were doing that I would use up almost every bit of my chains on the saw just filing a few strokes at a time. Do you do any other form of sharpening than, as you go, on the powerhead?

When I saw there had been some posts on this thread I was excited for the opportunity to learn another trick about Chainmeister use or some such. If anyone has any pointers please post them. EcoGuy I’m going to pass on your trick for mixing sharpening with a relaxing dip in the pond. I’m two stones throw from the Pacific Ocean but, it’s 55 degrees. Welcome to AS.

 

[nelson727]

EcoGuy I just used screws to initially try the vises out. Below are the inserts I was thinking of installing in the top of my workbench which would have given me machine threads to screw into.

View attachment 295970

I decided against this on the distinct possibility that my bench would be piled high and I wouldn't be able to get to them. Instead I went with a board, as you did, and these as they are cheeper and I could easily flip the board over and pound them in. Also I like the board for its versatility.
View attachment 295971

The benifit to machine threads in my mind is to be able to quickly screw in or out a finger tight bolt for adjustments.

 

[Gologit]

2dogs I noticed you have a lot of posts, looked on your profile (about you) and noticed you do contract falling for CalFire. I fantasized about doing that for a minute when I was driving by a fire toward my then logging job in Covelo, CA. I would think that if I were doing that I would use up almost every bit of my chains on the saw just filing a few strokes at a time. Do you do any other form of sharpening than, as you go, on the powerhead?

.

Another Covelo survivor! Who did you work for up there?

 

[imagineero]

Maybe this thing does have a place....

If you only have one or two bar sizes, and tend to swapout rather than sharpen in the field, and prefer hand sharpened over machine sharpened, then it's probably a good labor saver. I have a 511a with the dynasaw CBN wheel, but I still favor hand sharpening. My time in the field is just too valuable to spend it sharpening chains - I need to keep my crew working. So I bring a dozen saws, and a spare chain for each. I figure if I blunt 2 dozen chains in a day I'm just going to call it a day. I sharpen every saw by hand at the end of each day, in a vice on a sharpening bench with my angles marked out on it. I do my rakers with a DAF ala BobL. I don't have more than 2 saws with the same bar, so that gadget sounds like a lot of work for me. I sharpen all my chains on the saw, and each saw gets a quick blow off/clean out and a check to make sure the chain is rotating smoothly. If it isn't it gets stripped and the bar groove/clutch area cleaned. Any time a saw gets a new chain the bar gets flipped and trued, and the saw gets a more detailed cleaning.

Shaun

 

[Philbert]

Below are the inserts I was thinking of installing in the top of my workbench which would have given me machine threads to screw into. . . .I decided against this on the distinct possibility that my bench would be piled high and I wouldn't be able to get to them. Instead I went with a board, as you did, and these as they are cheeper and I could easily flip the board over and pound them in. Also I like the board for its versatility.

In general, I like using boards for things like this as well. Chain grinder, bench grinder, spinner and breaker, non-chainsaw related tools, etc. Bolt them to a board with 'T'-nuts (as above), then either clamp the board to a work surface, or clamp in a vise with a cleat. Let's me move and mount them in a variety of locations, indoors or outdoors, depending on the task, instead of dedicating a specific area of a work bench to just one task. Might be different in a dedicated saw shop.

If you don't like clamps, you can also bore holes through the board and bench, then secure them with long bolts and wing nuts - fast, and don't get in the way as much as clamps can. Don't have to worry about threaded insert holes getting buggered up either.

Philbert

 

[nelson727]

Gologit, I worked for Cambell Mathews Skyline Logging for a season. Setting chokers, go to new kid, and once we were set up ran the landing. Loved the work - couldn’t abide the competition to be the most animalistic.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Just remembered my first memorable experience about sharpening. The working owner Cecil Mathews’ brother was our rigging slinger. He carried a lot of weight for his skill and knowledge as well as his family ties. We were at the head of a new skyline road and I was buried in logs that needed to have knots bumped and be branded so the loader operator could deck them. He grabs up one of the 5 cube Macs that we were using and goes to make a cut with it - oh, it would have been re-bucking a broken log. Next thing I know he has a 36 inch bar buried straight down in the ground with just the powerhead showing and he is cussing a blue streak.

Turns out with two minutes of instruction and all of a few days of sharpening practice the new kid wasn’t producing satisfactory results yet. The truth of the matter, my chains don’t look that pretty today. I feel I have accomplished my goal if my saw cuts like a house a fire.

 

[EcoGuy]

This is my current project, the one for which I bought the ChainMeister.
I am not an arborist. I am a lifelong chainsaw user, however.
View attachment 296815
There is a newly-created pond around the far side of this slash pile. All of this tree mix was bulldozed into a pile so there is grit and crud throughout. Many may think I'm a bit crazy, but I want to extract as much firewood out of here as I possibly can. It is all there for the taking, I just need to get in there and patiently cut it out.

At the beginning of day one we had a helpful friend and extra chains. At the end of day one I had 8 dull chains and zero sharp chains with no chains at all for tomorrow. I was not going to sharpen chains outside in my shop all night long. Wisely, I called the next day off. To get through this project I just needed a better strategy, a plan.

Those 8 new loops cost me is over $100. The local hardware wanted a week to sharpen them and six bucks apiece. Doing the math to salvage out this pile, it was looking prohibitively expensive. Certainly arborists would never run their chain management like this, so went looking in your halls for an answer.
View attachment 296815
Here is our new pond, I am very proud of it, but it came with this giant pile of brush on the far side. Trust me, everyone has said, just light the whole thing on fire. I am EcoGuy. I use firewood. Why would I torch the on-site resource? I just need to solve this chain thing.

I went to Google, typed in something like ' chain sharpening device ' and I came to Treestuff.com I read a few reviews on the ChainMeister, and this chain mounter stretcher just made sense to me right off the bat, so I ordered one. I was already into this over a hundred bucks in chains alone, I needed to salvage them, as well as every dull chain for the rest of my life.
View attachment 296816View attachment 296817
I mounted the clamp stands on a scrap piece of 2x12,. I figured that I could screw it into rounded surfaces, like a big, stable log, or onto my beat-up workbench, which is flat. So I put mounting drill outs near the center as well as the edge. Plus the 2x12 has plenty of beef, and width, for c-clamping where I don’t want to run a screw. Zero cost, plus versatile – I love it.

The ChainMeister helped me sharpen the 8 dull chains, prior to the rescheduled workday #2 without having to have a chainsaw attached. No bar oil stink, no gas fumes, no bulky powerhead, no tools needed to use the ChainMeister. Quick on, quick off. Does what it's supposed to.

Sharpening with the ChainMeister let me tension for filing quickly, and change through the series of dull chains. The ChainMeister worked very well and appears robust enough to meet one of my tool purchasing requirements: that it holds up for a long time.

 

[nelson727]

My hat is off to you EcoGuy. I pick up trash with grabbers as I walk the beach with my wife (it makes her happy) but I would fall into the torch the pile camp when it comes to your project. Something that might be of use to know is that there is a chain with ‘sprayed on carbide’. I bought a loop of it to help a friend cut pilings that had been pulled out of silt. That job fell through and we never tried the chain. It sharpens with a normal file. If your chain dulling pile is ever starting to get the best of you I would be willing to put it on a saw and make some cuts on dirty wood to tell you how it holds up. Your pond and property look beautiful by the way!

Have you noticed any tricks to using the CM?

 

[pavement99]

Thank you all for your time, both the contributions and the responses.

This product is so new to us that we are looking for the best way to display the ChainMeister to the saw-using community. The intent of this thread was to have the ChainMeister show itself off through the experience of the earliest users.

What we would like to do next is introduce a member of the ChainMeister team.

Tree Machine is a full-time arborist, He didn't invent the device, but from the updates we've gotten over the last three years, he is fully involved. He's taken ChainMeister prototypes to the TCIA EXPO in both Pittsburgh, Hartford and Columbus and has been the social front of this device and the liazon between Treestuff and those persons manufacturing the devices.

Tree Machine thought it valuable that new, first-time buyers give the reports. Treestuff thanks those contributors for donating their time, images and feedback. Now onto the next part of the presentation...

 

[roberte]

opcorn:

 

[mdavlee]

I'm going to say you'll get a lot more interest in the chainsaw forum. A lot do it as a hobby and that would be a nice addition for many of them. Heck I'll demo one if you want to send it

 

[HuskStihl]

If you get Bob, Randy (any of the "big three"), Glen, Shaun, Bitz, Rope, Pac, Jeff etc, etc,etc, or Philbert to say this is $108 well spent, then it is. Until then, this is an infomercial. Mdavlee is right, however, there aren't many who hang out here, and most that do are somewhat set in their ways.
Nothing against you or your product, which appears well designed and built.

 

[roberte]

You know were I would use it.
If I was semi retired and had guys bringing me chains to hand file.

 

[StihlKiwi]

But wait, theres more.. Call in the next 30 minutes and we'll throw in a pack of files, a half eaten sandwich and a greasy rag that may or may not have been a t-shirt!



This thread reads like a TV infomercial don't ya think

 

[Gologit]

But wait, theres more.. Call in the next 30 minutes and we'll throw in a pack of files, a half eaten sandwich and a greasy rag that may or may not have been a t-shirt!



This thread reads like a TV infomercial don't ya think

Maybe...but since a paying sponsor and his product are being featured that's not a bad thing.

You get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

 

[HuskStihl]

You know were I would use it.
If I was semi retired and had guys bringing me chains to hand file.

I thought you were retired:msp_biggrin:

Maybe...but since a paying sponsor and his product are being featured that's not a bad thing.

Oops, checking the skies for musical hammers

 

[Hinerman]

I guess I don't get it. You have to have spare bars for every size chain, mount vise to a spare board, mount board to a stable platform, move and remount the vise for different size bars. I guess if you are going to sharpen 20+ chains of each size it might work for you (and many of you might do that). Obviously some people like it. If I am missing something I apologize.