I can square grind with my round grinder

[Philbert]

Also, check out this thread:

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/511a-grinder-improvements-tweaks.197073/

Maybe search for and check out some square ground chain threads, to understand what you are trying to achieve.

Philbert

 

[sbc350]

I agree with philbert do some round to get a feel what the grinder does.

I never tried oregon square but I do have a loop of stihl square in skip but never ran it side by side against factory 33rs stihl. Have tried stihl hexa and it cut ok but until I get the square figured out every time I want to convert hexa to square because of the narrower top plate it could be a great performer

 

[J.Noss]

OK, some general tips on using an Oregon / Tecomec grinder, versus a HF type (copied and pasted, since this comes up so often).

I encourage you to get comfortable sharpening your round ground chains first, with the new grinder, before jumping in on the square ground, on top of that:

“ Keep in mind that grinders don’t sharpen the chains: you sharpen the chains.

For guys new to grinding (or a new grinder) I recommend taking an old or ‘scrap’ chain, and experimenting with it, before you work on your ‘good’ chains:

- ‘play’ with every adjustment on the grinder separately, and see what each does to the cutter profile;

- intentionally try to overheat, or ‘burn’ a cutter, then work backwards to see how to avoid that (lots of small taps, no sustained contact );

- place a sharp chain that you like in the grinder, with the power ‘Off’, and try to ‘copy’ those angles and settings with the grinder adjustment (and write those settings down);

- profile the rim of the grinding wheel, with the dressing brick, then lightly dress the wheel once per chain loop, to continuously expose fresh, sharp, abrasive;

- practice, and don’t worry about speed - that will come with experience.”

After you are comfortable with your new grinder, address the new jig and chain type.

Philbert

Thank you!
I think a HF grinder is a good learning experience because of the fact it flexes so much and the chain stop and adjustments are so sloppy that I literally get down and watch each individual tooth and try to copy my movements and bend of the grinder from tooth to tooth, and inspect each tooth and have leaned alot doing that. (it took me awhile to even feel like using the grinder as it was such a poor tool for the purpose) but I got pretty good with it to where I can get a chain to cut better than it did when new and will usually touch up each chain that I used that day each night.
I figure that the Tecomec will be a similar learning experience that I can master pretty well especially with the added prior experience of working with the HF grinder.
I've heard about dressing the wheels often, but for 2year and many dozens of sharpenings (at least) I've never once touched the little skinny wheel on the HF grinder and just put oily dirty chains on it and it still works well, maybe that's because of the material of the wheel (or the fact I switch from 325 to 3/8 chain and that switching kinda dresses the wheel for me?) But I'm prepared to do the wheel dressing for round-ground if it seems to be necessary.
I have a lot of free time and all spring/fall just cut and stack wood so I sort of indulge and obsess over saws and have spent a good bit of time learning about these topics (thanks Arboristsite) and I now think I'm ready to dive deeper into chainsaw tooth shape and grinding/sharpening.