- Thread starter mgarym
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mike os
just a little insane.....
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either expensive or a waste of time.... unless you have half a dozen chains at a time to do not worth the £££ IME.... bar clamp in a vice & 5 mins with a file, 10 if you are taking down the chip limiters & its a bit of a mess.....
I have worked with several treee surgery/felling co's who dont have one ......
I have worked with several treee surgery/felling co's who dont have one ......
I use one for sharpening customer’s chains.
Can be a bit of a faf to set up at times.
I often see chains unevenly sharpened, if someone is right handed they put more pressure on the right hand teeth than the left, and vice versa if they are left handed and then the saw won’t cut straight. The grinder is good at correcting this.
I try to use the grinder in short burst on each cutting edge to avoid bluing the metal, as this can make it really hard to sharpen with a file after.
Most of my customers are farmers and occasional users who ether are not able to sharpen a saw or have damaged the cutting edge in soil or rocks and are unable to get a cutting edge again. My view is it is a good tool to have to bring an old or damaged chain back to life, but regular sharpening with a file is the best thing.
There are some quite good videos on YouTube on how to use one.
Can be a bit of a faf to set up at times.
I often see chains unevenly sharpened, if someone is right handed they put more pressure on the right hand teeth than the left, and vice versa if they are left handed and then the saw won’t cut straight. The grinder is good at correcting this.
I try to use the grinder in short burst on each cutting edge to avoid bluing the metal, as this can make it really hard to sharpen with a file after.
Most of my customers are farmers and occasional users who ether are not able to sharpen a saw or have damaged the cutting edge in soil or rocks and are unable to get a cutting edge again. My view is it is a good tool to have to bring an old or damaged chain back to life, but regular sharpening with a file is the best thing.
There are some quite good videos on YouTube on how to use one.
brightspark
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chainsaw spares
theres a guy on ebay with a shop selling spares for al;l the popular makes of chainsaws and garden gear
sharpening files as well .heres the the post number of the files , 120600908807 anyone here know how to post the link to the shop i dont know how 2 
theres a guy on ebay with a shop selling spares for al;l the popular makes of chainsaws and garden gear
sharpening files as well .heres the the post number of the files , 120600908807 anyone here know how to post the link to the shop i dont know how 2 
Shox Dr
Chief Engineer to Carlos Fandango
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theres a guy on ebay with a shop selling spares for al;l the popular makes of chainsaws and garden gear
Linky to flea bay shop
Omniata
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Just get a file, guide and take your time...
When I did my CS30 it took me ages to get it right, now I have a 18" chain done in 5 to 10mins if that. Getting faster all the time
A file costs £5 to £10, vs the machine which costs loads by comparison and by the time you've set it up you could have had the chain sharpened...
As said, unless your planning on sharpening loads, it's not worth it IMHO...
When I did my CS30 it took me ages to get it right, now I have a 18" chain done in 5 to 10mins if that. Getting faster all the time
A file costs £5 to £10, vs the machine which costs loads by comparison and by the time you've set it up you could have had the chain sharpened...
As said, unless your planning on sharpening loads, it's not worth it IMHO...
brightspark
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have a look on the ebay link the files are for next to nowtJust get a file, guide and take your time...
When I did my CS30 it took me ages to get it right, now I have a 18" chain done in 5 to 10mins if that. Getting faster all the time
A file costs £5 to £10, vs the machine which costs loads by comparison and by the time you've set it up you could have had the chain sharpened...
As said, unless your planning on sharpening loads, it's not worth it IMHO...
me bruvs used em and there ok
Omniata
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have a look on the ebay link the files are for next to nowt
Fair enough, I'll take your word for it
I'm one of those though, I'm a Stihl owner that only uses Stihl parts and tools...
Well, only except the 2-stoke oil whereby it's Husky
Omniata
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I've bought chains and other bits from them too, they're good at sourcing non-listed parts as well
Sharpening the chains by hand is easy when you have had a bit of 'trial and error' practice.
I bought a bar vice that knocks into any big lump of wood so can sharpen where im cutting. A decent set of Stihl files and gauge, and only use stihl chains.
A machine is pointless for just one saw, and every chainsaw owner should be able to sharpen a chain efficiently otherwise they will just make themselves look silly one day.
I bought a bar vice that knocks into any big lump of wood so can sharpen where im cutting. A decent set of Stihl files and gauge, and only use stihl chains.
A machine is pointless for just one saw, and every chainsaw owner should be able to sharpen a chain efficiently otherwise they will just make themselves look silly one day.
Pulsarbebb
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Make sure that the rakers are not sticking up above the teeth as ur teeth can be sharp but not catching the wood, theres a special tool u can buy that fits over the teeth and leaves the raker exposed so u can use a flat file to grind it down
OUCH! That's hot!
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I used to be a tree surgeon, best job ever and will be my abiding memory on my death bed. One outfit I used to work for had a big tin of chains all ready sharpened; if you blunted a chain you just fitted a new one and carried on. It was a real hard working team though, talk about blazing chainsaws! If we had a quiet day we would get the old Oregon chain sharpening machine out and have a sharpening session. Got pretty good with it, never any negative issues. We also had the chain splitter and rivet peening tool and bought our chain on the roll. Having said that, if it is just you, you would be better off with a file. the machines are for professionals and not worth the expense for an individual.
There has been talk on this thread about only using genuine chain, with respect I think that you will have no problems with Oregon stuff, we never did.
Edit: The only issue you might come up against is with big saws with long bars, if you sharpen by hand you might find the long saws making a curving cut and jamming, this is caused by one side of the chain being sharper than the other as is easy to do with hand sharpening, due to left hand versus right hand differential. A machine eliminates this problem which is most noticeable on the big saws.
There has been talk on this thread about only using genuine chain, with respect I think that you will have no problems with Oregon stuff, we never did.
Edit: The only issue you might come up against is with big saws with long bars, if you sharpen by hand you might find the long saws making a curving cut and jamming, this is caused by one side of the chain being sharper than the other as is easy to do with hand sharpening, due to left hand versus right hand differential. A machine eliminates this problem which is most noticeable on the big saws.
