Found this infra red temperature scanning gizmo at work and decided to see what it might tell me about chain and bar temps while milling.
I started by measuring the temperature of the chain exiting the cut kerf - like this - it has a little red laser dot to tell you where it's measuring. it has to be no more than about 6" away from the chain to measure the temp of the chain.
The typical chain temp reached in very hard Aussie wood is 160F. By pushing the mill harder till it was almost bogging down I was able to hit 170 - 175F.
Next the bar like this. It was around 140-150F pretty much across the whole bar.
Then the chain on the other side of the bar.
Now, here is the curious bit. The temp of the chain entering the kerf was only 90F? So in the fraction of a second that it took for the chain to go around the sprocket and pick up a skerrick of oil it went from 160F down to 90F?
I also measured the temperature immediately after stopping the chain.
The chain on the cutting side dropped rapidly - below 100F on the cutting side in about 10 seconds - this suggests the 160F is a skin temperature.
The chain on the non cutting side also dropped but not as rapidly.
Both sides of the chain reached within 10F of ambient temp (65F) in a couple of minutes after stopping. The bar took about 10 minutes to reach close to ambient.
The outboard aux oiler made no noticeable difference in chain or bar temperature but I did not turn it off for very long.
Anyone have any explanation for this?
I started by measuring the temperature of the chain exiting the cut kerf - like this - it has a little red laser dot to tell you where it's measuring. it has to be no more than about 6" away from the chain to measure the temp of the chain.
The typical chain temp reached in very hard Aussie wood is 160F. By pushing the mill harder till it was almost bogging down I was able to hit 170 - 175F.
Next the bar like this. It was around 140-150F pretty much across the whole bar.
Then the chain on the other side of the bar.
Now, here is the curious bit. The temp of the chain entering the kerf was only 90F? So in the fraction of a second that it took for the chain to go around the sprocket and pick up a skerrick of oil it went from 160F down to 90F?
I also measured the temperature immediately after stopping the chain.
The chain on the cutting side dropped rapidly - below 100F on the cutting side in about 10 seconds - this suggests the 160F is a skin temperature.
The chain on the non cutting side also dropped but not as rapidly.
Both sides of the chain reached within 10F of ambient temp (65F) in a couple of minutes after stopping. The bar took about 10 minutes to reach close to ambient.
The outboard aux oiler made no noticeable difference in chain or bar temperature but I did not turn it off for very long.
Anyone have any explanation for this?