Thread: Vanguard chain.

I've been running Oregon's Vanguard chain on one saw for a while since that is what came on it. Vanguard is the one with folded depth gauges so that they are about three times as wide as standard. It is really interesting safety chain because it works for boring cuts. The reduced kickback properties show up when you buck small stuff with the bar tip but it still cuts agressively!. I have not noticed this being 'slow' chain - it is a nice agressive chisel tooth like the other 72 series chain. Presumably it IS a little slower than pro chain since it is slightly heavier and has more surface area on the raker. It is a VERY smooth cutting chain. Has anybody done any timed cut testing with this chain against standard pro chisel chains? I hate using guard link chain but right now if the Vanguard were the only chain avilable I wouldn't cry about having to use "safety" chain.

I bought a loop of the stuff a while back when it was newer to the market...like you I was leery of it at first, "but just one chain, what can it hurt?".

I thought it cut slow on a variety of cuts, so I very carefully checked raker clearance and found that it was cutting slow because it was barely cutting at all. Very low raker clearance. I had some literature on it that explained about a filing mark on the raker, but I never figured out exactly what to do with that...a stroke or two on the raker opens the clearance up to .020 and the mark is gone...

Literature also explained about slightly different cutting edge angles, which I tried to duplicate with a 3/16 file, but it was too hard to make uniform so I gave that up.

With the rakers at .020-.025 and round-filed normally, I agree that it seems to work pretty well for a safety chain.