That hook is perfect for round filed. The rakers are too low, but if you got the power to pull it things just might get dangerous.
Lost my training wheels today chain sharpening
- Thread starter JTM
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
OKAY, when two or more say its a horse its time to saddle up! I got to looking at my pic and was thinking, "damn that raker's low." Put the bar in the vice, took some measurements, and found some that were way too low. I want to say thanks for bringing this up!
happysaws
Addicted to ArboristSite
I just file the rakers from the front easy peasy, gives ya more gullet too.
"About this time I learned about top plate angle and the rakers needed to be equal depth."
This was when I was 14 and selling cordwood delivered for $35/cord. My uncle got a cut for pickup truck delivery.
The chains did not have witness marks for top plate reference so I just tried to approximate the angle on a new chain. I was running 3/8 pitch and when I got a saw with 0.325 I noticed the top plate angle was steeper. And yes the cutters should all be the same angle and the angle may be different for different size/type chains.
Until I got a gauge I just eyeballed all the rakers and took them down until the chain threw good chips but did not grab. As far as teeth being the same length, unless the teeth were rocked the shorter ones got a couple less file strokes on the cutters so the longer ones would catch up with them over a couple sharpenings. The only chains I worry a bit about keeping the cutters the exact/close too same length are my ripping chains I mill with.
I still use my chains until the cutters get so short one breaks off, and then I sharpen it once more and save the chain for stumping
File. I think I figured how I screwed up though. That was my first b&c I practiced on using a digital angle finder to set the angle between the cutter and the raker. I'm fairly certain the bar moved in the vice and I lost my zero. Instead of between 6.5 to 7 degrees I had several in a row that were like 10 to 11. I just got done fixing those by filing the cutters back. I thought the rakers were low before when I was using the 2 in 1 sharpener because the chain was pretty grabby but cut well in soft wood. Obviously I made it worse and I really appreciate you folks making observations about the rakers. I'm sure I would have gotten a surprise when I laid that chain on some wood.
If you mess up a chain a little by having the rakers too low save it for soft wood or you can file the cutters down some more to even it out. Several times have got carried away with the rakers until it started chattering. So take it off and grab another chain. It seems like there is always some soft wood that comes up that can use an aggressive chain. For me several reels of chain make sense, but some people only use two or three chains a year. A rule of thumb has been for me is to sharpen 2 times then take one stroke on the rakers during each sharpening session. But the challenge is to try one thing until you discover you went to far then back off. Soon you can dial it in in a matter of moments. Thanks
That's exactly where I hope to get to.
