Bar Broke

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mechanizm

shimi super-pit
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
187
Reaction score
34
Location
florida
yesterday i was cutting some cedar from a neighbor's yard and the tip of my bar broke and wedged the chain. had to stop and come back home to replace the bar. is this common? happened to me on a Craftsman 36/16. going back out today with an oregon bar / chain...
 
Just wondering what caused that...

Did it get pinched up,or just snapped off during a cut....I never had that to happen...
 
all of sudden the chain wedged at the tip of the bar splitting the bar open slightly. i put the bar in my vice and reduced the separating before i took these pics. before i "fixed" it you could definitely see that the metal sides of the blade were sponged out. the gear in the tip however is frozen. that gear may have failed causing the problem.
 
You blew the tip id get a new bar . also you need too debure you bar rails in the future and sharpenyour chain.
 
yeah, i gathered that. what causes the tip to blow? does it just get weak over time?

i had another bar laying around that i modified slightly and it worked well to deal with the remainder of the cedar tree but i have yet another question. in the pic you can see the chain oiler pickup line for my craftstman (husky) 36/16 saw. it doesn't lay on the base of the oil reservoir like others but it looks like it goes into the center of the cap where there is a recess that seems to be for that purpose. i don't like it because if the saw gets a little low on oil, it might now get enough to the chain. any thoughts?
 
yesterday i was cutting some cedar from a neighbor's yard and the tip of my bar broke and wedged the chain. had to stop and come back home to replace the bar. is this common? happened to me on a Craftsman 36/16. going back out today with an oregon bar / chain...

First of all, you need to know that alot of aftermarket bars are made of low quality materials that are prone to doing that. But that wasn't your case. You can tell from the pic that your bar was in Dyer need of help long before it separated. A bar is not supposed to be beveled. They build ridges, which I'm sure you can feel that have to be removed. If you don't remove them and Square the rails and tip your chain will eventually cut it's way into the tip. The severe bevels act as a funnel(guide) and the more tension your chain has the faster it will cut into the bar and or tip. I'm curious if you greased the tip if applicable. But your bar was shot anyway. Spend the money and get a quality replacement.
 
yeah...that bar was done last month....

Are you using the right chain? Have never seen one that bad ever.
 
yeah, i gathered that. what causes the tip to blow? does it just get weak over time?

i had another bar laying around that i modified slightly and it worked well to deal with the remainder of the cedar tree but i have yet another question. in the pic you can see the chain oiler pickup line for my craftstman (husky) 36/16 saw. it doesn't lay on the base of the oil reservoir like others but it looks like it goes into the center of the cap where there is a recess that seems to be for that purpose. i don't like it because if the saw gets a little low on oil, it might now get enough to the chain. any thoughts?

Heat, pressure and time with the added bonus that those bars depending on the brand and the "type" are often manufactured poorly with low quality materials. Unless you have a lot of time using that bar(100s+ hours) the typical cause for that type of damage is going to be a dull chain being pushed hard through the wood. Lots of tip cutting with heavy pressure and a dull chain will also splay rails and cause that type of damage.

A lack of or insufficient amount bar oil will also cause that type of damage but should have been readily apparent as the chain would bind on the bar while trying to use it.

Editing to add that the really cheap bars are measured in the low 10s of hours of use if the operator is skilled. However, most times the tip just fails or the rails splay without that much other wear damage being done to it.
 
Last edited:
thanks for the info. i put a newer oregon bar on it and all seems well.

that oil breather line allows air into the reservoir so that oil can move out? i ran a wire down the oil hole at the bar and it came out that breather. that's why i thought it was the oil pickup.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top