""Professional"" Chain sharpening???

[spencerhenry]

about 10 years ago i first discovered a chain that would not cut straight. i didnt know what caused it. i bough a bench grinder a few years back to "fix" this problem. that it does. but the best use i have for the grinder is to fix chains that have gotten into rocks. during skidding, especially around homes and driveways, the logs pick up gravel and mud. and around here in the ROCKY MOUNTAINS, there are rocks every where. put a fresh 6 or 8 inches of snow on a rocky slope, and try to cut stumps as low as possible. sometimes i get lazy and a chain will only last a few trees. i take it off and put on another grinder sharpened chain. granted a hand done chain cuts better, but some days i go through 6 or 8 chains. once sharpened on the grinder, all the teeth are the same length, same angle, and the rakers are all the same. run it for half a tank and THEN hit it with a file, now it cuts. grinders arent that expensive, but can sure clean up a rock chain in a hurry.

 

[ScooterDrew1983]

Well, at school we are tought just to get them sharpened, not to really worry about anything as long as they are sharp, but I will ask, if I think about it.

 

[Mange]

I have on tinkerd a bit with this chain stuff, and learned a lot.
If each tooth is as charp as the other, and all cutters are set to cut the same ammount of wood, does it really matter if one side is a little shorter.

 

[tawilson]

All I do is take a quick look around the chain, start with one of the shorter or damaged cutters, then while sharpening I give the longer cutters an extra stroke or two. I tried the caliper route and as Glen said it seemed a waste of time.

 

[SawTroll]

Unless you're racing, where every thousandth of a second adds up, or milling, where you want as smooth a surface as practical/possible, taking great pains to ensure cutter-length uniformity is a waste of time which you'll never recover.  Get the Husky ramped depth-gauge guide and set each cutter to itself and don't worry about differences in length.

Glen

I think that Glens is right, as he usually is. The E-lux roller guides work great in combination with some common sense.

I don't want to use a lot of time (or money) fixing a problem before it really is a problem - like the chain cutting crooked, or notisably rough.

 

[Crofter]

depends on what you call a little bit longer on one side. If there is some random variation in lengths it will probably average out and not cut to one side. If one whole side of the chains cutters are longer obviously longer than the other side, you will develop running to one side problems. It is not so much because they are longer, but that the extra length = extra width on that side because of the angle out of the side of the cutter. That amounts to set. I dont agree that this does not matter.

 

[Mange]

What is the use of a chain sold new, with shorter teeth on one side?
I have seen this chain a few times, but can not figur out a reason for it.

 

[SawTroll]

I have on tinkerd a bit with this chain stuff, and learned a lot.
If each tooth is as sharp as the other, and all cutters are set to cut the same amount of wood, does it really matter if one side is a little shorter.

If the cutters on one side is generally shorter than on the other, yes it will matter, as the saw will cut crooked. If you go on cutting anyway, the bar rails will eventually be worn unevenly, too.

 

[Crofter]

Mange, I did get a new Oregon chain that had cutters with differnt angles on one side than the other. cant remember about length, but it appeared to be a quality control issue. I may not have noticed it except I was playing with setting up a new filing guide and it at first appeared that the guide was off from one side to the other. Nope! it was the chain. I dont think it was planned

 

[NevadaWalrus]

We charge $11 to sharpen a 20" already off the saw. That sounds high compared to what I hear from around the country but then our shop rate in 60/hr, or one buck a minute.

What I don't know is the condition the average user brings his chain to a shop is in but locally most are pretty bad. Between the pure amateur operator who brings in a chain used long after being dulled with teeth rounded off way back from the tip to the hand filer wanting it evened out who has teeth that look lke they came from 5 different chains, time is the factor. Most simply can not be cleaned, sharpened and dress the rakers and come close to making time. That 20" chain can easily take 15 to 20 minutes to truly get correct when we are only charging for 11 minutes of time.

I do try to get them as right as I can but lets face it guys, if you bring in a chain that needs re-conditioning, not just sharpening, and you're known to complain if I charge extra for your screw up, you ain't getting it back 100% right. If you don't care, I ain't either. Users have to take responsibility for their chains condition. You hand filers who can't keep your hand jobs close to begin with and then expect me to spend a lot of extra time evening it out ought to just stop your bozo hand jobs.

Sorry 'bout the rant but that's the way I see it.

 

[chainsawworld]

lol. talk about buggered up chains. i was doing tree work in one of the local cities and noticed a very new looking craftsman sitting on top of a garbage can. my partner did not want anything to do with raiding garbage cans because the company name was written on the sides of all the trucks. i walked up to the door of the resident and asked about the saw. he told me go ahead and take it. it is dull and i need a new one. the saw fired up and ran great(for a craftsman) but the chain was shot. some people just don't know.
the other day i was talking to a manager from a tool rental place. we got talking about chainsaws and he showed me the condition of some of the chains that got returned. WOW! he told me some people have actually come back wanting their money back because the saw stopped cutting. most of those chains i would not try to sharpen even with my grinder. as we were talking a customer walked in complaining about the saw chain. i asked him what he was cutting and he said the roots on his hedges. i laughed and commented about cutting the ground he he replied with "it's only dirt".
i have a saw just for people like that......

 

[NevadaWalrus]

Cool CSW. Does the spade go in and out like a jack hammer?

 

[lesorubcheek]

Wish I had a job that paid $1 per minute! Guess this is why I sharpen my own chains and repair my saws. I've always admired people that believe in doing a job themselves. Its a shame that todays society is always promoting the concept of "take it to the man" instead of promoting self sufficiency.

Dan

 

[eyeinstine]

Wish I had a job that paid $1 per minute! Guess this is why I sharpen my own chains and repair my saws. I've always admired people that believe in doing a job themselves. Its a shame that todays society is always promoting the concept of "take it to the man" instead of promoting self sufficiency.

Dan

Dan,

dont forgot the costs of doing business! of that 1.00$ a minute, 70 cents goes to taxes, insurance, employees, taxes, insurance, rent, equipment, taxes, insurance, and misc items too numerous to list! I dout they walk away with more than 30 cents of that dollar!


Ron

 

[rhaynes]

EVERYTHING TONY M SAID IS THE TRUTH! i STICK MY SAW IN THE DIRT TAKE THE FILE OUT OF MY TRUCK AND SHARPIN IT THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 30 YEARS . 028AV

 

[lesorubcheek]

Hi Ron,

Can't disagree with the cost of doing business in the used to be good 'ole USA. Also realize that all businesses must pass on their operational costs to consumers. Point is that unless I can make $60 in an hour, I'd better spend my time doing the work myself than to pay someone else. Consumer is paying the full amount irregardless of how the money is being distributed by the business. Wise business practice is to maximize income, minimize expenditure. Unless I can somehow earn $60 or more per hour, and coupled with the fact that I'll do as good or better job in the same amount of time, I'll maximize earnings by doing the work myself. If they can do it in half the time, then unless I can earn $30 in an hour, I'm still am better off doing the work myself. If a business has such high overhead that it can't provide services for a cost that's reasonable for both the customer and the business, then in an ideal capitalistic society either they lower the charges to the customer, or they go out of business. Problem I see is that people are drilled with the notion that doing something yourself is not an option, that only a "professional" can do a job properly. This allows businesses to artificially raise cost to consumers. If everybody would be willing to pay $25 for a cheeseburger (which they're obviously not I hope), then cheeseburger are going to cost at least $25. If everyone is willing to pay $60 per hour for labor on a repair, then, well you get the idea. Point is if more people refused to pay this much things may be a bit better for all consumers.

Dan

 

[Crofter]

If you already have the specialty tools and the knowledge, go for it. The average person cannot be his own auto mechanic, plumber, tv repairman, veterinarian etc. The cost of providing a service is much more than the wage of the worker.

 

[bwalker]

I have never seen a shop sharpened chain that was worth a darn other then one place many hours away. Im not saying there are shops out there that do a good job, But I havent seen many. Most times the shops cant even keep the top plate angle the same on the right and left cutters.

 

[glens]

There's an excellent Stihl shop in Monroe Wisconsin which doesn't even have a Stihl sign out front.&nbsp; I was waiting for a few minutes while the guy was upstairs fetching me a good used pro clutch cover and there was another guy pecking away at a chain right around the corner.&nbsp; I asked him if they were making any money on that, and he replied "<i>I</i> am".

 

[Ax-man]

I have never seen a shop sharpened chain that was worth a darn other then one place many hours away. Im not saying there are shops out there that do a good job, But I havent seen many. Most times the shops cant even keep the top plate angle the same on the right and left cutters.

_________________________________________________________________

Very true, seems that shops or places that do it on the side like hardware stores only know one thing when it comes to sharpening chains and that is just to hit the the top plate and that is all that is necessary. I don't know how many times guys in a saw shop have said this, even the manuel that came with my stand up grinder basically says the same thing, hit the top plate and the chain is sharp, ya right.

Ever try to straighten out one of those butchered up chains, lotta fun.

Anyone ever hear of the practice of grinding more cutter off than is needed, just to sell more chain to the unknowing, we used to have a shop here that did this. The guy that worked in the shop was not that savvy on chains, his boss told him to do it that way so he could sell more chain which was where the profits were, more money in his pocket.

Larry