Anyone use the same chain on all your saws?

[nick21]

I have 4 chainsaws and i am thinking about putting the same chain on all of them. I just use them for general clean up. I am thinking this will make sharpening much easier. Right now they all see to take different files etc and you need a magnifying glass to see what is what. One is an 18, 2 16 and one 12

 

[buzz sawyer]

I was going to do that but realized it would take too much time to move the chain when I wanted to use a different saw.
I did that for a friend - same bar and chain used on his Husky 268 and Dolmar 7900. Makes sense to me.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Personally, I appreciate the different attributes of different chains. When cutting firewood, I definitely want 3/8 chain because it cuts fast and stays sharp for a reasonably long time. For limbing and thinning though, I prefer .325 because it's smoother and less likely to grab small lightweight sticks and throw them around. When run on a 50cc saw instead of 3/8 it's also got more torque in the cut because of the smaller sprocket diameter. I will say though that figuring out what setups you need, and getting down to the fewest bar chain combos possible is handy. Also, if you pay attention to what the different sizes of chain look like, you can determine the file size at a glance.

 

[Philbert]

I have looked into this and have 2 major cautions. First is the cost: unless you need to replace all of your bars, chains, and sprockets anyway, you will be spending lots of money to do this.

Second, similar to @Ryan'smilling s post, I learned to appreciate different bars and chains. Each saw has a ‘sweet spot’ combination of sprocket, bar, and chain. It’s nice to have separate limbing, bucking, and felling saws. And I have learned to associate each chain with each saw without too much thinking.

Just like having different tires in different vehicles IMO.

Philbert

 

[Philbert]

As far as sharpening, drive a nail into a wall and mark where your 3 different length loops hang to sort them out.

Once sharpened, keep them in marked zip-lock bags until used.

Philbert

 

[sb47]

I did that with my 4 saws. I like being able to use the same thing on all my saws. Makes buying chains easier to. I run 20'' 3/8 on all my saws. I like it.

 

[sundance]

Seems the missing questions are: What are the saws / what chain are they currently running? Also, what chain would you propose to run on all?
Bar length doesn't define much.

 

[sean donato]

This is more how it ended up, then I purposely made it this way, I have one saw with .325 pitch and everything else is 3/8 pitch. I just fell into this as I bought saws. It's nice. Can swap the bars around to whatever saw I need.

 

[Philbert]

Bar length doesn't define much.

Depends on the cc of the saw: what it is able to pull, and can really affect balance.

Can swap the bars around to whatever saw I need.

Assuming that they all use the same mount.

I bought some of those nice bar adaptors that @Homelite410 was making, then decided I would probably lose one in the field. I keep them for 'just-in-case' use, but rather have the matching tail pattern.

Philbert

 

[sean donato]

Depends on the cc of the saw: what it is able to pull, and can really affect balance.


Assuming that they all use the same mount.

I bought some of those nice bar adaptors that @Homelite410 was making, then decided I would probably lose one in the field. I keep them for 'just-in-case' use, but rather have the matching tail pattern.

Philbert

All my saws save the 346xp and the 192tc run the large husqy mount. Keeps it simple.... although the 562xp would have its hands full with the 36

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I did that with my 4 saws. I like being able to use the same thing on all my saws. Makes buying chains easier to. I run 20'' 3/8 on all my saws. I like it.

Wait, you have 4 saws, all running 20" bars???

What saws are you running????

 

[sb47]

Wait, you have 4 saws, all running 20" bars???

What saws are you running????

MS 261c-290-362-390 all running 20' 3/8 yellow chain

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I was waiting for something crazy like: MS261, 460, 880, and a Dolmar 7900.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I have two chains which I thought was pretty good. 404 for the 100 CC plus saws with 30'' bars. 3/8'' semi with 24'' bars for the limbing saws The Husky 460 and 372XP are happy with the same chain. I make up about 5 or 6 spares for every saw when I am breaking chains and then I am done for several months. Thanks

 

[nick21]

thank you for all the replies - I May stick with 2 chains instead of 1. My stihl ms 280 has a .325 and my echos cs 305, cs 310 and cs 330T all have Oregon 3/8. now that I have looked everything up I will mark the 4.8 for the stihl and 4.0 for the others