Maxx Grinder Problem?

[smose73]

I received my new Maxx grinder two weeks ago with a broken connecting rod. Finally received the replacement part yesterday and started to practice grind on old chains.
I first ground the right hand cutters on a junk chain for practice, looks great. I then switched everything over to grind the left hand cutters and not so good. With the included spacer installed for the 1/8 wheel to grind .325 chain, it is taking too much off the left hand cutters. I removed the space and it grinds almost perfect.
I next tried a .375 chain, same problem. With the 3/16 wheel and no spacer, the right hand cutters look great, but it grinds too much off left hand cutters. The spacer is almost identical in thickness to the paper disk stuck to the grinding wheels. Are you suppose to remove this paper? Has anyone else had this problem? I have ground with the base plate (hook angle) at 0deg and 10deg, with no change in results. I am going to try and contact the manufacturer. My Wife is not happy with my purchase of a $300 paper weight, so please any help would be great!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks

 

[314epw]

problems

I assume the head is swung at 60 degrees to the right when doing the right cutters.Then the chain is flipped to the other side and the head is moved 60 degrees left?The hook angle should be at 10 degrees.This would be the 10 degrees toward you as you are facing:bang: the grinder.The hook angle stays there for both left and right cutters.Don't ask me what the rear 10 degree hook angle is for.No one seems to know.A very minor adjustment might be needed to get the cutters the same length.This is a very good machine.
Ed

 

[smose73]

Problems

Yup, I set it up just as you described. 60 deg right for right cutter and 60 deg left for left cutter with 10 deg toward me on base. It takes about .03 too much off the left hand cutter after cutting the right hands perfect. The distance it is off seems to be the same as the thickness of the paper on the side of the grinding wheels. I need to do some thorough measurements tonight when I get home. It should not be that far off. I would understand a small difference, but not that much.

Thanks for the response

 

[314epw]

wheel

Make sure the wheel is shaped properly.

 

[Christman]

Maxx

I have the same problem. They said it was symetrical but i don't think so. If the barely touch the right cutter the wheel won't enen come close to the left cutters. I took a micrometer and measure from the tip of the chain to the back of the chain on a right cutter the did the same thing on a left cutter and the difference was about .008 to.01. Mind you i barely touched the left cutters and flipped the head and chain over to the right where i was taking a decent amount off. DIDN'T reset the wheel to tooth distance kept it the same. Thats how i found out the numbers.

So what i do not is measure the new chain to make sure its on. BARELY touch the left cutters. Move the head and chain. Reset the wheel tooth distance to where i BARELY touch the right cutter. Then measure the teeth and set them to the same length.

I'm glad you said something i thought it was just my grinder.

 

[Grande Dog]

If it's like some of the other Italian grinders It's probably the base scale. I've seen them off a couple few degrees. Try to fudge it a couple of degrees. If it works, elongate the screw holes on the scale and slide it to where the zero is on center.

 

[314epw]

which scale?

Are you talking the hook angle scale,or thecutter angle scale?

 

[smose73]

maxx grinder problem

I would expect a few thousandths difference between cutters, but mine is grinding about .03 more off the left cutters. I talked to Jeff at SNS SAW, he said he has seen the same problem with several grinders. The problem seems to be with the aluminum adapter for the grinding wheel, it is too long. Jeff said to take a junk chain and grind 2 right hand cutters, then flip everything and cut 2 left cutters (the left hand cutters should be shorter at this point). measure both sets of cutters with a micrometer. find the difference between the left cutter and right cutter and divide the number by 2. This number is how much you need to machine off the back of the aluminum adapter. Grinding the extra left and right cutters is for check consistence of tooth size. This should take care of the problem. I am going to have a friend of mine machine a new adapter for me to try.

This problem does not seem to have anything to do with the angle scales on the sharpener.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

The paper disks (Blotters) should stay on the wheel.



They act as a cusion for the wheel and keep the wheel from gring the mounting surface if it ever comes loose, It happens.....

 

[smose73]

problem solved? Maybe...

I checked the postion of the grinding wheel to the base and took lots of different measurements. I found a cast line on top of the base which seems to be a centerline. The grinding wheel lines up almost perfectly centered on top of it and the caliper measurement confirm this. I then checked the positioning finger, by meassuring from the edge of the finger to the center line on the base for both left and right grinding. What I found is that I had two different numbers. I placed a piece of scotch tape on the left side of the base under the adjusting screw as a temporary shim for the positioning finger. I checked the measurements and they are very close now. I ground a junk chain and it seems to be coming out pretty even.
What is an acceptable tolerance for the length of cutters? I work in the aerospce industry and we work with some pretty small tolerances. Is .005 difference acceptable from cutter to cutter or should it be tighter?

Thanks for all the responces...

 

[Engineeringnerd]

I also have a MAXX grinder and sometimes have the same problem. I don't really fight it, i just adjust the screw on the chain stop b-a-r-e-l-y to get a similar grind on the 2nd side, if necessary, and continue. Compared to hand filing or my local hardware store sharpening, I find it very accurate and like that it always grinds into the tooth to avoid burrs.

A bigger problem I experience is when I feed to the next link, pull it back against the chain stop, I find the back of the link will often raise up off the rail introducing a significant grinding error. I always make sure I press the link down before lowering the wheel/clamping the rail.

By the way, to prevent having this thing mounted permanently on my work bench, I mounted it to a piece of 1" thick board with a 2" x 2" cleat that I can mount inside my bench vise. When I want to use it, I just load it in the vise, and can take it down in about 15 seconds when not needed.

 

[talisker]

I love the idea of your vice adaptor. I have been screwing my grinder down to the deck and removing it each time I use it. A WHOLE lot easier to just clamp it in the vice.

 

[alderman]

Using a workmate.

I set my tools up on a piece of plywood and then just clamp them into my Black and Decker workmate when I'm ready to use them. Works great and the height is just about right for me.

 

[Engineeringnerd]

The vise idea works well, but to alderman's point it puts it up a little higher than table level. I kind of like it because I have a tall stool and the work is right in front of me closer to eye level.

Choose your poison, I'm sure they both work well and are really essentially the same idea.

Another Idea I plan on implementing is placing a neodymium magnet (really strong rare earth magnet) just behind the wheel to catch the metal fines as I grind. I'll probably put the magnet inside a plastic bag so that I can easily remove the fines and throw them away. I've noticed after grinding a few chains with the standard set-up I end up with a lot of dust around my work area. If you source one of these magnets be really careful if you get one much larger than 1" cube (especially nN0), they can crush your fingers if you get them between two opposing magnets.

 

[Engineeringnerd]

The vise idea works well, but to alderman's point it puts it up a little higher than table level. I kind of like it because I have a tall stool and the work is right in front of me closer to eye level.

Choose your poison, I'm sure they both work well and are really essentially the same idea.

Another Idea I plan on implementing is placing a neodymium magnet (really strong rare earth magnet) just behind the wheel to catch the metal fines as I grind. I'll probably put the magnet inside a plastic bag so that I can easily remove the fines and throw them away. I've noticed after grinding a few chains with the standard set-up I end up with a lot of dust around my work area. If you source one of these magnets be really careful if you get one much larger than 1" cube (especially n>50), they can crush your fingers if you get them between two opposing magnets.