Thread: Electric chainsaw sharpeners

I was tutored by an old Tasmanian ex pro woodcutter for the 2 years I had at McCulloch.
He had an odd saying.
"Never let your chain get blunt & you will never have to sharpen it"
What he meant is a file stroke whenever you feel the performance drop off will save quite a bit of filing to make up for the damage cutting with a dull blade will do.
He was spot on..
If you put the chains on the bench sharpener about half way through their life, & do the rakers you could take them back till they begin to break off - with a second raker filing.

For those of you that don't like filing, imagine the work that's gone into a chain like this





The chain is taken apart right down to it's individual components, the cutter thinned, (some use a surface grinder and remove the hard chrome too, you can get a keener edge) the cutters are re-shaped, (rear clipped/bevelled, top plate thinned for a narrower kerf, raker thinned and narrowed, etc) filed and reassembled, the rivets ground down and finished filed with either a double bevelled or 6 corner triangle file (called square filing)

It's a full on race chain designed for speed events, usually only three cuts on a log.
It's modified like this for much less drag and much, much better chip clearance compared to a normal off the roll working chain and no, it's not mine, but I do have a few double bevelled files to have a crack at making some quicker chain.....if I ever find some timber soft enough to warrant it

Originally Posted by rick130

For those of you that don't like filing, imagine the work that's gone into a chain like this





The chain is taken apart right down to it's individual components, the cutter thinned, (some use a surface grinder and remove the hard chrome too, you can get a keener edge) the cutters are re-shaped, (rear clipped/bevelled, top plate thinned for a narrower kerf, raker thinned and narrowed, etc) filed and reassembled, the rivets ground down and finished filed with either a double bevelled or 6 corner triangle file (called square filing)

It's a full on race chain designed for speed events, usually only three cuts on a log.
It's modified like this for much less drag and much, much better chip clearance compared to a normal off the roll working chain and no, it's not mine, but I do have a few double bevelled files to have a crack at making some quicker chain.....if I ever find some timber soft enough to warrant it

And it's transparent!

The cheap chinese sharpener turned up during the week.
I made a stand to mount it on.





Did the first chain,a spare for the Dolmar,including taking the rakers down.Seemed to do a very good job.
Took the chain off the Dolmar wich needed a good sharpen.Took the rakers down first as the sharpener was set up for it.I did the first side of the cutters and the tensioner that holds the teeth stripped the thread.NOT HAPPY.
I did sharpen the other side of the chain but dont think it will cut true as the cutter could move slightly whilst sharpening.
Left the thing in discust.Just been down to fix it.It seems there was a piece of extremely hard debris in the alloy tightening handle.So hard it even stripped the thread of a stainless bolt in the same way.Wasnt able to remove it,so I improvised by welding a bolt and using a thick washer.All fixed and the repair is all hidden

Will see how the chains cut next weekend after I get my D2 back!!!!
Andrew

Good news ... bad news ...

... a question or two if I may Andy ?

Why did you lower the depth guages BEFORE you sharpened the cutters ?? ... depth guages should be .030" below the leading edge of the cutter .... that can't be set until after you've sharpened the cutter first

Does the grinder have a fore/aft adjustment on the chain vise ... from the picture, it appears not ... so you can't get a proper 10deg filing angle to the cutter that most 3/8" chisel/semi chisel chains require ... ?

Kev..

You are correct Kev,no 10 percent adjustment!!! Expected that buying the "oregon proffesional style"
NOT HAPPY!!!!
Look close at the chemi pen words.
www.cheapchinesecrap.com
Andrew

I wonder what happened to my chain pics

strange......

they show up on tapatalk. or did last night...