As they say in the classics: "That escalated quickly!".
Oh yes. My nerves got a little bit stressed sometimes, but looking at it with some distance it was quite an interesting process, at least for me
do you have presets loaded in your program for regular Stihl 3/8ths inch chain?
It’s the normal, standard RS chain in 3/8 size.
I think yes. One of my two self-measured presets refers to Stihl 3/8 RM chain. RM means Rapid Micro, it´s a chain with semi-chisel cutters; RS means Rapid super, it´s a chain with chisel (full chisel) cutters. Both chains should be exactly the same, they should only differ in the cutters´shape, so the RS is more aggressive than the RM but also more prone to wearing. The measurements shouldn´t be affected, so a raker depth gauge (bought or selfmade) should lead to the same results for both chains. You need different raker depth gauges for different pitches (1/4, .325, 3/8, .404) and different profiles ('normal ' profile and low profile).
It's a nice program, BTW.
Thanks
I will try to make a gauge and provide us with some feedback
That would be nice
In my humble opinion, the best way to take these measurements accurately, is with the use of an optical comparator. [...]
If you could speak to a small engineering works (I'm sure there are many in Germany), and have them put a section of your sawchain in the comparator, you would be able to get the accurate measurements you are looking for!
Yeah. This device seems to be made exactly for such purposes.
I personally don´t know a company owning and using such a device, but certainly there should be some here around.
I tried this method in a simpler way as well.
My normal approach was to use rulers, pencil and digital calipers, doing multiple measurements to eliminate some of the error and watching out for maintaining a rather rectangular setup.
The other approach was comparable to the optical comparator, but without automated measurements. I took a digital camera, made same photos of the cutters and made the measurments manually with a computer software. With this method you also have to maintain a rectangular setup. But you don´t have to fiddle around with the calipers, instead you can use a mouse and drag some lines and points.
Within my hobbyist´s accuracy both methods delivered more or less the same results, so it´s a matter of taste how to make such measurements.
My idea of this thread was to build up upon BobL´s work, do some prework with my software and two chain measurements and give it at this point to the forum here to make a community project out of it (which clearly failed up to this point in time). I personally won´t do something 'professional' in this regard, so no professional measurements and no idea of personal profit (in terms of money), a freeware software tool and no intention of selling raker depth gauges.
The project simply got stuck due to the missing direct contribution of the community, it stayed at the point of discussion and theory. The topic itself and my person were accused being 'too academic', the way out of this would be active practical contribution.
At this point you can use the information of the starting post in this thread to make your own raker depth gauge for Stihl 3/8 chain and Carlton 3/8 low profile chain (maybe for more chains, that´s the question...)
Of course it would be nice to have access to a device like an optical comparator and know some chainsaw pros owning all different kind of chains and measure them professionally in a short time with high accuracy.
But the hobby approach should work as well. And community means that the workload is spreaded over multiple heads.
A complete measurement of one chain should take less than half an hour. And who doesn´t own (digital) calipers, rulers, pencils, ..., that´s all standard tools
I´m speaking of collecting some data to make some conclusions. Maybe most of the chains (assuming same pitch and profile) share the same measurements, so we can rule out the parameter 'manufacturer'? Maybe not, I simply don´t know due to the lack of data.
Maybe we can skip 1/4 chain for the moment. But widespread and in use should be .325, 3/8 and .404 chains.
So to have some useful data, most important would be:
some .325 chains
some 3/8 normal profile and low profile chains to compare with my two data sets
some .404 chains.
So hopefully 2 chains of two different manufacturers for each case, meaning 8 different chains.
I hoped that some people here in the community could do these measurements, maybe 4 people measuring 2 chains.
Then with some conclusions and assumptions the software would be 'complete'.
This software with more presets combined with a clean new tutorial would be the next steps in this work.
In my impression there´s not much interest here in offering and using such a solution.
I´m pretty shure that even when having a full data set, a complete software and a new thread most of the users would not make such a simple tool themselves. Many users still use the 'normal' non-progressive raker depth gauges, or simply no raker depth gauge. Others who prefer the progressive ones want to buy and use them but will never make their own one.
DIY seems less widespread than I personally thought.
If someone delivers me new measurement data, I will implement it into the software of course.
So Mike, make your raker depth gauge, and give us some feedback, maybe this threads gets some reanimation
