Raker height with grinder

[Wood Doctor]

Do you mean flat horizontal, or flat angled like an FOP ?

Personally, I am fine with the FOP-style flat angle.

However, every time I post a close up pic of my chain, experts weigh in to remind me that I should contour the rakers. If I can contour the grinding wheel to produce a contoured raker, that'll shut up the critics so I can focus on more important things like experimenting with different grinding angles and raker angles.

I was referring to concave on the grinding wheel perimeter, thus trying to preserve the original raker curve. Right now, I just flat grind the top at a 60-degree slant straight across and bring the clearance down as the cutter shrinks in size. The grinding wheel surface is dressed flat, not concave.

This has worked very well for me and I have no customer complaints, so I guess you and I are on the same page.

However, since I am using one sharpener as a dedicated "raker dropper", I suppose it would be rather easy to dress the grinding wheel a little concave.

 

[Pulp Friction]

I'm thinking of putting a Harbor Freight dial-indicator (if they sell them), on the pedestal base that my grinder is bolted to. A magnetic base woiuld be particularly convenient to place the indicator over top of the newly sharpened cutter, zero it out, and then measure the drop down to the raker. I grind the rakers at 10* to match the spec and witness mark but want to take advantage of the grinder vise holding the chain repeatably during measurements. I think the grind-depth knob has 20 threads per inch on it's bolt, so it should be easy to estimate the grinding depth by simply knowing that a full turn is .050", .025" for half turn, .012" for 1/4-turn, etc. Does anyone have an indicator permanently mounted on their grinder for this purpose? I would think a wide "foot" on the end of the indicator's rod would be more practical though. I initially bought a harbor freight grinder on sale for half price ($24) just for rakers but just can't bring myself to use that P.O.S.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I'm thinking of putting a Harbor Freight dial-indicator (if they sell them), on the pedestal base that my grinder is bolted to. A magnetic base woiuld be particularly convenient to place the indicator over top of the newly sharpened cutter, zero it out, and then measure the drop down to the raker. I grind the rakers at 10* to match the spec and witness mark but want to take advantage of the grinder vise holding the chain repeatably during measurements. I think the grind-depth knob has 20 threads per inch on it's bolt, so it should be easy to estimate the grinding depth by simply knowing that a full turn is .050", .025" for half turn, .012" for 1/4-turn, etc. Does anyone have an indicator permanently mounted on their grinder for this purpose? I would think a wide "foot" on the end of the indicator's rod would be more practical though. I initially bought a harbor freight grinder on sale for half price ($24) just for rakers but just can't bring myself to use that P.O.S.

To my knowledge, there is no such animal for the HF toy. You would have to make the part yourself. It does have a stop to control the drop down, but that's about it.

I just added it up. You could by about 20 HF grinders for the price of one Oregon 511a bench grinder, but then, you already knew that. opcorn:

 

[CedarRock]

What kind of grinder do you have ? I didn't recognize it in your pics.[/QUOTE]

That looks like my Maxx Grinder. Its not very consistent but has many ways to adjust. I've recently used 55/25 on a Oregon chisel skip chain and lowered rakers using Carlton File-O-Plate for a pattern. Cuts real aggressive but I'm only cutting Fir and Pine.