Electric chainsaw sharpener..

**errolc** · 5th November 2009, 08:01 PM

I've gotta say the best investment I ever made...excluding my toy saw, was my chinese copy Oregon chain grinder by far...They're darn hard to beat for the money...I've spend hours regrinding chain from my 12" carving bar chain to my 70" milling bar (thats about 90 cutters with regular chain and 60 odd skiptooth)...and I tell you "they" aren't chains you want to sharpen every day by file. I run 6 chains for each bar size and swap them out as soon as they dull to save wear on the chain, saw & bar...and in the river recovered NZ native that can be in as little as a few minutes cutting but well worth the saving on the gear.

I found the std Oregon type "plastic" grinder undercut angle quite fine as set and haven't had noticably better cutting with more or less undercut with a professional grinders for the woods that I cut.

The totara in the pic was clear for the 20 meter length and slabs 4 meters long took 2 tanks of gas and a fresh chain each cut/slab... the outside of the log was adzed clean...still took a few days.

One point of advice though...the crummy grinder wheel they come with aren't worth anything...buy a quality disk from a reputable tool shop...clean the chain in petrol and wash with degreaser for each regrind...or the wheel with gunge up and just burn the chain cutters...and regularly redress/clean the wheel to keep it cutting clean and they do the job just puuurfect...they're easy to use and setup and do literally hours & hours of work...I also use brake disk cleaner in the aerosol can to wash any gunge from the grinder wheel as needed from time to time.

For in the field regrinding I've used the cheap grinder with an inverter from the cigarete socket...but I'm usually ready for home by the time Ive run out of chains

?

**errolc** · 5th November 2009, 09:15 PM

Hi ya Travis,

Ginders do have their place agreed...and for jo blow who struggles to come to grips with file sharpening the cheapy grinders are a god send and do the business.

As for 8" hard wood...I don't find myself cutting sticks that small, not really worth the time...and I agree there are some darn hard woods in Aus, as there are here...but theres no way you'll sharpen the chain on that bar anywhere near as fast as I can swap it out for a new one in the field when theres better things to do with the daylight.

I thought this sort of squabbling was for the AS...and there it should stay too...a lot of good posts here though.

**BobL** · 5th November 2009, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by errolc

e...but theres no way you'll sharpen the chain on that bar anywhere near as fast as I can swap it out for a new one in the field when theres better things to do with the daylight.

I agree on a standalone saw swapping out is faster and save daylight.

But on a CS mill (and this is a milling forum after all, and not a gardening or fire wood or felling forum) the practicalities of chain swapping depends on the chain type, and the diameter and hardness of the wood.

A 36" diameter hardwood log produces about 16, 2" slabs. In slabbing this log I would probably touch up about 11-12 times, if I swapped out instead I would need 11-12 chains? Instead of swapping out after a bit of practice I found I can touch up a 42" skip chain faster than I can swap it out and I don't even need to take my saw out of my mill to change the chain. I can even touch up a 42" full comp chain almost as quickly as swapping out.

On a 48" diam log, if I use my 60" bar, I would need about 16 chains (that's ~200 ft of chain [~$1000!] ) -and even after all I would then need to find the time to grind 16 chains ? Even if I was milling softer wood I would need 5- 6 chains

Swapping out under these conditions just doesn't make any sense.

I get away with just 4, 42" chains and 3, 60" chains. The only time I swap chains is if I hit something or at the end of the day when I flip the bar.

**DJ’s Timber** · 5th November 2009, 10:28 PM

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