Economy chain grinders

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django

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Anyone have experience with the lower priced chain grinders like tecomec "jolly" or "nick" etc... I am cutting a lot of semi-cured hardwoods and am getting tired of filing, and having them ground all the time by a shop is cost prohibitive after a certain point, and I feel the need for a new toy.
Appreciate any info,
Steve
 
I have a Nick that I use if there's major filing to do. No hook angle adjustment & can't do your rakers with it. Otherwise, you can't beat a hand filed chain! - Eric
 
I have the budget Oregon that says "made in Italy" and it looks exactly like the budget tecomec, but cheaper. It is $149 at Northern.

By the time you sharpen 30 times at $5 a pop, you would have paid for the grinder. Also, filing by hand takes at least 20-30 minutes each (time is money). The power grinder takes less than 5 minutes each. Also, you can dress the rakers with it as long as you set the depth of the first raker with a flat file and adjust the grinder accordingly.

Works great.

Kindest Regards,

Mark

Lost Water Farm

http://www.LostWater.com
 
I can do a 24" chain in probably 2 or 3 minutes with a file.
Time I get it off the saw to grind and back on I have spent too much time.
 
For most people that I know, grinders are fine until you learn how to hand file. When I was first starting treework, I was tempted to buy a chain grinder. But I was lucky enough to work with a guy who was very good at hand filing. So I copied his technique and practiced filing by hand instead of using my lil 12 volt 'dremel' type or paying someone to sharpen my chain for me. Now I wouldn't consider using anything but a hand file. I can fix a totally rocked out 28" chain in 20 minutes, typical touchups for my smaller saws take me 2-3 minutes max. The secret is to touch up the chain as soon as it starts to sag. Stretch comes from heat, heat comes from friction and friction comes from a DULL CHAIN. If it's sagging, it's DULL. Catch it early when it only takes 2-3 strokes per tooth. Much easier than running a dull chain until it's all stretched out and too hot to touch.
 
ive kinda, come around to treeclimbers view.just a few strokes every day to hone it and shes always ready to use.
that way u never trying to finish with a dull saw..
im not as good as i will be ,but its starting to come to me.
 
Hand Filing? Three Strokes per tooth?

I guess I saw a whole hell of a lot of hard stuff. I have been cutting for years and I have never been able to file a 20" chain in under 15 minutes, and certainly nowhere nears as precise and sharp as the grinder could do.

After about 30 minutes, I usually need to swap chains, I rarely get more than 1 hour out of one. And I keep my saw out of the dirt pretty good. I do cut mostly locust, and that eats chains.

If I had to stop and file in the field every 15 minutes in order to keep a good edge, that is many productive minutes lost. I prefer to swap chains and grind them all in the garage, because that can be done in the dark and sawing cannot be done in the dark.

Just my $.02 again.

Kindest Regards,

Mark Dominesey
 
Wood does not dull chains very easily. Dirt dulls chains. If your chain is hanging before you need to refuel, you are hitting dirt (or you didn't have it sharpened very well to begin with).

LostWater, your post sounds like it was written by someone with little to no experience cutting or filing. But you say you've been doing it for years, so I must be wrong.

I will usually tickle the chain every other tank of fuel. It gives me something to do while I have a quick smoke. Then I put the cigarette down, refuel the saw, and finish my cigarette while walking back to the tree. Not much time 'wasted'. But that is for an 18" bar. Longer chains like the 28" on the 046 take a whole cigarette.
 
Boys, it just depends so much on what you are cutting. I've got guys coming in here that are cutting up railroad ties, utility poles, logging tops that have been bulldozed up thru the dirt; you name it. We also have guys cutting seasoned locust, hedge, hickory, etc.

Lostwater, your experience is probably more realistically toward the norm for a cross section of cutters. There are are a lot of specialists on the forum that don't experience as much of a cross section. In the shop, we see all kinds.

It is not abnormal to see a guy come in with a handfull of chain loops to be ground that so dull it would be a serious task to get them right without a machine.
 
cutting locust

Can't say I had the same problem cutting locust. Cut 1,100 10' posts to fence the farm and did not have to replace the chain, did have to sharpen it a time or two. It may be there is sand in those locust you are cutting. Something else you should check is the spur or drum for wear, a worn sprocket will strech and damage a new chain in a hurry. If you have not replaced the spur in a while I would look for it to be worn and replace it. I hand sharpen my chains.
 
Thanks for the input so far guys. It takes me 10-15 to sharpen an 18" chain, because I clamp the tool to the bar, set it up, etc... I do this to "assure" consistent cutter length/angle etc... I don't do this in the woods, I run through my chains and sharpen at home. I do not claim to be an expert filer by any means but I do have considerable experience sharpening cutting tools for metalworking, so perhaps I'm being too particular. If you freehand file all the time, how do you know your cutters are the same length? How close do they need to be?Your "angles" are sure to be radii of some sort, does it matter?
JimL, 2-3 min.?? for a 24" chain?? Heck it can take that long for me to find the shortest/ most damaged cutter. If it's uniformly dull, and not too dull I can touch one up fairly quick, but it seems to me that after freehanding one several times your gonna have some pretty inconsistant cutter lengths. Just how fussy is this sharpening anyway ??
Thanks,
Steve
 
Dulling Chains

Treeclimber, you must be in the trees alot and not in the ground that much where one may encounter wood that has sat in or on the ground after clearing with machinery. You must also cut much softer stuff than locust and hickory and cherry and apple.

I have been cutting for 10 years, 6 of that clearing my own land and selling firewood, etc. At least 7 of those years I spent filing the chains and if they were too bad, just taking them to the power shop to be ground. One gets to a point of equalization where their time and their expense comes to the point where a purchase like a grinder, or a better saw, can be capitalized and make more money later on. Each person's point of that understanding is different than others'

I am certain that the consistency of the bark and the hardness of the wood contributes to how long the edge on a chain lasts.

Please tell me that the butts of those cigarettes that you are killing yourself with do not end up on the forest floor when you are done.

Thanks for the comments,

Kindest Regards,

Mark
 
Good Lord LostWater!
Please tell me that the butts of those cigarettes that you are killing yourself with do not end up on the forest floor when you are done.
I`m not a big fan of cigarettes either but it seems to me that if a guy threw as many as 20 thoroughly extinguished butts on the ground during a day in the woods, 99.99% of them would never again see the light of day. That statement is almost on par with the greenies demanding that bar oil be biodegradable. Your hyper-eco sensitivity wouldn`t have anything to do with Brian basically saying that you must not know how to file or keep your chain out of the dirt would it? Maybe his delivery wasn`t what you like, but I believe that his message was well intentioned. I`ve got grinders out the wazoo but I prefer a hand filed chain, which you can get much sharper than a ground chain with less total down time once you figure it out. I keep the grinders, all set up in different ways, for the "rock mechanics" or myself with the trail saw. If you really like the grinder that`s fine too, just say you like grinders. Rationalizing it by saying that "time is money" and "I guess I saw a whole hell of a lot of hard stuff" don`t make valid arguments for one way over another. It`s not the hard stuff that is giving you grief, it`s the abrasive stuff. Figure out ways to not cut through mud encrusted wood, bark mostly, and even a fraction of a second of chain contact with the ground is too much. I think Tony was alluding to the fact that many people never figure out proper sharpening but it isn`t brain surgery. It just takes a desire to understand what you need to accomplish with the tooth, and then patient practice. If time is money, then so is all the chain you burn off every time you grind, and all the down time removing and replacing chains. I don`t mean to offend you Mark, just want you to realize that there is possibly another good way of doing things.

django, 2-3 minutes for a 24" chain isn`t too unusual in my opinion. Of course it will take longer if you don`t or havent done the same volume of chains, but I think the trick to quickness is the same trick that helps you keep uniformity in the teeth. File often enough that you don`t need any more than 2 or 3 licks with the file. When you need to hog off a bunch of material is where I think you can get into trouble. I know that common convention states that you must find the shortest tooth and make all the others equal to it, but for practical purposes, I disagree. Of course I try to be as uniform as possible, by taking the same number of strokes with the same pressure, from each tooth, but if I have a short tooth, unless it has a big ole burr on it, I disregard it. Eventually all the others will be as short. Using the same # of strokes per tooth will give you reasonably close, actually very close, tooth lengths on a side. The biggest problem most people have is getting different angles on the right side vs the left, that`s just something you have to be aware of and continuously monitor and compensate for until it becomes second nature to do both sides the same. If you are determined to learn freehand filing, it doesn`t take more than a few hours of actual practice. Believe me, I`ve tried every gadget and technique under the sun looking for a better mousetrap and I finally settled on freehand. You will find in time that visibly unequal cutters from side to side can cut well if you have the depth gauges set right. Cutting wood fiber is not as much a science as machining metals and other materials can be, and of course the grain structure and alignment in wood is nowhere near as uniform or predictable as a chunk of metal, which I think negates the need for extreme precission in chainsaw chain unless you are racing. Just my take on things, Russ
 

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