Why the differences in driver width?

[stihlboy]

ms290 takes .325 .63

 

[stihlboy]

The driver is exactly the same - the tang (part with the hole in it) was thinned down only on the lower portion on 050. Out here, most 050 is still "solid", but recently they changed even the 043 to have a hole in it. Confused the carp out of me at first -I was used to just looking on the hook for solid tang picco to grab the 043...

Why, or why not... not sure... but they seem to be moving it all to "hole". I do think it make a difference on longer bars.

i think they did this because, the hole in in the chain delivers lubrication to the tip of the bar, and it lightens the chain providing a little better throttle response. thats just my thoughts

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

We Stock 3/8 picco in .043 for pole pruners and 170/180's.
All the top handle saw we sell run 3/8 .050 picco and that's what comes on 210, and 230's

We stock primarily .325 .063 gauge chain but we always have a 25 foot roll of .050 gauge for our Husky customers

We stock 3/8 .050 for the bigger saws, most everyone runs it in this area. Even Husky guys run it, not sure why but we just don't have any call for .058 or .063.

We don't carry any .404 chain because the only ones running it are guy with 084's milling or cutting stumps and they just order it from Bailey's or other catalogs.

 

[Tzed250]

Actually..
Narrow Kerf- 0,043"
used on power Pruners, it is a very light chain, the chain itself is incredibly narrow and light, great for little saws and pruners.
0.050"
Used on mid range saws, strong, able to take some decent power and abuse.
0.058"
This one I never saw much need for, we dont sell it very much, dont even stock it anymore...
0.063"
Heavy heavy chain, generally 3/8" pitch chain, generally on higher power, higher rpm saws, not likely to fail under high rpm and high loads such as on a 36" bar buried turning the motor 13,500.
They all have a purpose, the lighter chains are usually on the smaller weaker saws that usually wont have the power to rip the thin links apart in a hangup.
The larger saws need the 0.063 gauge because they are just big and powerful.
A midrange saw needs some beefy links, but not 0.063"....thus the reason for 0.050"

Pulled out of thin air...


.

 

[Lakeside53]

I've never even SEEN .325/.050 for sale in these parts!
Must be one of them regional things...

Most of the pos throwaway saws use 050... nationwide. We keep a reel handy for the Home Depot customers.

 

[galde]

The 0.063 gauge presents about 25% more contact surface on the drive sprocket than the 0.050 gauge. This translates to somewhat longer sprocket service life.

 

[SawTroll]

They haven't - it's just not sold by them in many parts of North Amercia.

Right - I just got a couple of 25RSC-66 for the 346xpg.....

 

[fubar2]

Man, talk about a wealth of information. I like John Dolmars idea cause Im so tight I squeek when I walk but that dont sell chains. I just ordered a chain for Stihl .063 and a bar for Husky .058 and it was confuseing as he!!. I still dont see how .002 on a side could add much strength.

 

[MR4WD]

Man, talk about a wealth of information. I like John Dolmars idea cause Im so tight I squeek when I walk but that dont sell chains. I just ordered a chain for Stihl .063 and a bar for Husky .058 and it was confuseing as he!!. I still dont see how .002 on a side could add much strength.

You'd actually be surprised how little difference it adds. Run the .058 bar a good while, keep up with maintainence and pop some .063 in there.

In a recent thread I measured bar rail widths. In a few of my .058's, the rails were farther apart then in my brand new .063 Cannon. Keep up with bar maintainence/truing and run whatever size chain fits.

Helps if you have a micrometer or vernier that'll let you measure the actual widths to know when it's "time", but a length of .063 (or .058 if you run a .050 bar usually) on hand will let you know if the fatter driver will fit.

To me, running a .063 bar wouldn't make as much as sense as running a smaller driver width like .058 since you really wouldn't have an opportunity to upsize later.

A lot of it depends on what's in your area. If you only have .050 or .063 handy, then you can pretty much run what you like, since it's almost too much to expect a bar to handle a driver that's .013 wider.

Of course there's going to be the folks on here who would rather run a bar until it's dead with an undersized driver that can rock back and forth wearing out the bar faster than possibly going up a driver width the next time the chain is shot.

 

[Philbert]

So, using this logic, why are most 3/8 chains found in .050 and most .325 chains found in .063?

Same question I have had for a long time.

I assumed that some of the variation in chain gauges had to do with a lack of standardization, conversions between SAE and metric manufacturing, etc.

Philbert

 

[windthrown]

I have mostly Stihls, and I have mostly 0.050 3/8 B&C, but I do have some 0.063 3/8 B&C. All my .325 B&C is 0.063. My 3/8 low profile (picco) B&C are all 0.050. I have not seen or noticed any difference in cutting, wear or anything else between my 3/8 in 0.063 or 0.050 (bars and chains). They run in/on the same rims. 90% of the 3/8 Stihl chain I see for sale is 0.050. 90% of the .325 Stihl chain I see for sale is 0.063.