Sharpen the chains or buy new?

[ozzy42]

I use a battery powered dremel.

Ground saws :about every 2nd to 3rd job,takes about 5minutes per saw.

Climb saw :about once a week. It stays pretty sharp being in the air.

Sharpen,and knock the guides down till apr. half the tooth is gone.

 

[treemandan]

not for nothing but this question is kinda like... Should I put more gas in my saw or just go buy a new one? Of course sharpen the chain. Learn to do it yourself for general maintenance and have it done at the shop if its too bad. Or spend money on a decent grinder. If you cut a lot a good grinder will pay for itself in no time. Even better find a friend with a STIHL grinder and get him to do them for you. caugh caugh... Thanks STEVE.

A new saw comes with a new chain and if you wheel and deal they might even gas it . Its a no-brainer.

 

[treemandan]

I caught a broken 20 chain in the face. It had some hours on it.

 

[fishercat]

hey ,i never said Stihl didn't make good stuff!

not for nothing but this question is kinda like... Should I put more gas in my saw or just go buy a new one? Of course sharpen the chain. Learn to do it yourself for general maintenance and have it done at the shop if its too bad. Or spend money on a decent grinder. If you cut a lot a good grinder will pay for itself in no time. Even better find a friend with a STIHL grinder and get him to do them for you. caugh caugh... Thanks STEVE.

they just don't make good rear handle saws! :hmm3grin2orange:

i can sharpen a chain with a grinder and take very little off.Stil-O-Matic can attest to this.then again,i'm not selling new chain either.the only time i take a lot off is when the corner is rounded off from hitting metal or stone.

hand filing in the field is great and i do it often.you can not keep the teeth the same length forever by hand filing.eventually it will start cutting crooked.grinders get all the teeth back to the same length.i have met few dealers who sharpen chains correctly.they either don't know what they are doing or they want to sell you new chain soon.

 

[gr8scott72]

I've been real lucky. My neighbor has a shop behind his house and he sharpens things. Anything. Chipper knives, chainsaw chains, bandsaw blades, stump grinder teeth. He's in his seventies and he's only ever had 2 jobs his whole life. Takes great pride in his work.

I did about 3 hours of skid steer work for him and now I get all my stuff sharpened for free.

I usually touch up the chainsaw chains every other tank (every 4th or 5th on the thirsty 394xp) and if I hit something I just throw a different one on there and then send the messed up one to my neighbor.

I just got my ripping chain back from him (60" bar, full comp) and it looks great. Can't wait to go to work dulling it back out. lol

 

[madmax]

I agree with Shoerfast, do the search, lots of info to be found here, and its a pretty cool feeling when everything "clicks" and you realize that you can file a chain that will cut faster than new. Good Luck

 

[arbor pro]

80 chains in six hours including rakers? 4.5 mins a chain with no water breaks.........what is your secret?

Not every chain needs the rakers taken down each sharpening - probably every 2nd or 3rd sharpening depending on how much tooth you grind off.

Smaller 14" chains take very little time to sharpen. Of my 80 chains, probably 50 are 14" as that's the size I use on both of my 200Ts and my HT101 ext saw. I can sharpen one of those in just a couple of minutes.

Thing is - when you're grinding 80 chains at a time, you do all of one size chain first, then the next size and so on. Then you switch wheels and do rakers. You get pretty methodical at it.

The bigger chains might take 4-5 minutes - maybe a bit longer if doing rakers too but it all averages out to about 4-5 minutes a chain I suppose.

The key is a comfortable stool with a backrest so you can sit down. There's no way my back would take 6 hours of standing over a sharpener.

 

[bruce6670]

I agree with Shoerfast, do the search, lots of info to be found here, and its a pretty cool feeling when everything "clicks" and you realize that you can file a chain that will cut faster than new. Good Luck

I have heard many people say that they can sharpen a chain by hand and have it be sharper than out of the box,but I have yet to see it.

I have a local guy who is pretty good with the grinder so I let him do it for me.I only use the file if I"m cutting dirty wood and I need to sharpen more often.

Practice with the file so you can do it yourself if necessary but keep a couple extra sharp chains with you just in case you need them.

Good luck.

 

[madmax]

I have heard many people say that they can sharpen a chain by hand and have it be sharper than out of the box,but I have yet to see it.

Practice with the file so you can do it yourself if necessary but keep a couple extra sharp chains with you just in case you need them.

Good luck.

LOL, wish I could be there when you have your as..., I mean chains handed to ya by someone who can use a file.

 

[ForTheArborist]

That still deluxe sharpener for the bench is the way to go. The only price I've seen for one is $629, so not yet. That thing is ideal though. Need one.

 

[newsawtooth]

Just get the Oregon grinder and save yourself a few hundred, they are functional equivalents.

 

[bruce6670]

LOL, wish I could be there when you have your as..., I mean chains handed to ya by someone who can use a file.

I knew that was coming.

I'm not saying it's not possible but most guys can't file a chain as good as an out of the box chain.

 

[treeclimber101]

I'm just wondering what other guy get their money's worth for chains. I'm starting to believe the the hand held, manual file isn't really the way to go is it?

Listen if your kidding than your funny , but on the other hand if your serious than WTF are you saying , manual hand files IMO are the best way to maintain your chain and if your gonna pay to sharpen them or replace them when there dull then you will be climbing alot of trees for free, check the pitch line two strokes clockwise on each tooth and get back to work..

 

[TreeClimber57]

Listen if your kidding than your funny , but on the other hand if your serious than WTF are you saying , manual hand files IMO are the best way to maintain your chain and if your gonna pay to sharpen them or replace them when there dull then you will be climbing alot of trees for free, check the pitch line two strokes clockwise on each tooth and get back to work..

Manual filing is the best thing to do for a chain (if done by an experienced person) - but just quick touch up in field is all we do.. then use grinder in shop. We used to file by hand for everything, and it does work and can do an excellent job.. but time is money so I ended up with a grinder. But both are good if done properly. Problem with grinders, although we love em, is they can damage a chain very quickly if you don't know what you are doing.. and most will kill a couple of chains before they get good at it!!

 

[treeclimber101]

Manual filing is the best thing to do for a chain (if done by an experienced person) - but just quick touch up in field is all we do.. then use grinder in shop. We used to file by hand for everything, and it does work and can do an excellent job.. but time is money so I ended up with a grinder. But both are good if done properly. Problem with grinders, although we love em, is they can damage a chain very quickly if you don't know what you are doing.. and most will kill a couple of chains before they get good at it!!

This guy needs to keep it simple if he starts with a grinder, he will probably mess up the link itself and you know what happens when the chain breaks those things come off like they were fired from a gun..

 

[ForTheArborist]

Just get the Oregon grinder and save yourself a few hundred, they are functional equivalents.

These don't look bad for a few hundred bucks, http://www.right-tool.com/orchainsawch.html. I doubt they are any less capable,
and at a competition business's price compared to the Stihl.

This is my plan. I'm going to keep buying too many chains all the time until I've got racks full of them. On my off days, I'll put the grinding wheel in motion, and set myself up for a season of dropping dull chains at the job sites without the rest of it. That's a business plan which is better than an excuse to sit around and quack about nonsense at the job sites....err, I mean instead of taking time out to sharpen chains when I should be using them.


Tree Climber 101, you've never had adults for parents or employers before, have you? I'm just saying that's how it seems because you can't even fathom by any means how I, of all people, could manage to sharpen a chain without resulting in stripping my face off the bone by a popped link. I don't think the folks you are used to encountering in your woods are.... Anyway, I'm off track now wasting my time on other people's subjective assumptions about other people's subjective assumption, and that is worse than your wick wack alone.

 

[wravenant]

Files

I'm just wondering what other guy get their money's worth for chains. I'm starting to believe the the hand held, manual file isn't really the way to go is it?

Hi there. I have ben climbing for many years, and now run my own company in Cape Town, South Africa. I have found that there is no other way than filing by hand, with the grade measure on top, so you can keep your angle right.

Nothing beats it, it takes some practice, but you can use a chain forever, and it is cheap, and the sharpest way.

It takes some time to learn and to get use to. Ask someone to teach you the right method, and then practice, but once you have it, it is quick and easy. It only het hard when you are having 40 inch bars, and so on, to sharpen.

THe other very important thing is, to use calipers to measure the teeth, as all the teeth needs to be the same size, otherwise even if you sharpen it, it qont cut right.

 

[madmax]

I knew that was coming.

I'm not saying it's not possible but most guys can't file a chain as good as an out of the box chain.

Agreed 100%, but most guys could if they would give it an honest try.

 

[TreeClimber57]

This guy needs to keep it simple if he starts with a grinder, he will probably mess up the link itself and you know what happens when the chain breaks those things come off like they were fired from a gun..

I have only ever had one chain break, and it was on a 660, I did not actually see it but nobody was hurt. .

Running almost a dozen Stihls every day, and been doing it for just over 30 years now, if it has worked this far then my guess would be it might continue that way for a while longer. (actually in the mid to late '80's I was supervising a team - we had over 20 running chain saws, and half a dozen running skidders, Nodwell's, etc. Doing that job for almost seven years, and do not recall breaking a single chain - and they were all ground chains) Grinders work well assuming you have some clue on how to use them.

If you have never used a grinder before then I guess you might take off too much, the trick is to take off very tiny amounts with grinder - keep all links the same angle and size - and DO NOT OVERHEAT the chain.. short quick bursts is all you need.

However, it is likely best to start with a file and learn to do it well.. then migrate to a grinder if you have the volume and need to.

 

[TreeClimber57]

These don't look bad for a few hundred bucks, http://www.right-tool.com/orchainsawch.html. I doubt they are any less capable, and at a competition business's price compared to the Stihl. .

Oregon does make good grinders, can not speak for the 510A though. The 511A and 511AX are worth looking at for sure.