Lowering Clearance Teeth

[Fireaxman]

Got disappointed with my local STIHL dealer today. Somebody in his shop has been sharpening my chains for me whenever I hit a nail or rock and I have to take several cutters back to even out the damage.

He doesn't take the clearance teeth down when he sharpens. I have been taking them down by hand with a tapered file after I get the chain back from him. Took another one in to him (hit a piece of gravel that got stuck under the bark when I drug the log out) and asked him to be sure and take the clearance teeth down. He said no, he wouldn't fool with them, takes too long, and he wasn't sure he could take them down without cutting them too short. I even offered him twice his normal charge (normal charge $5) to get the clearance teeth where I want them, and showed him on the gauge how low I wanted them. Nope. Wont do it.

I dont have an electric sharpener. I just use a drimel or a file. How hard is it to lower the clearance teeth with a professional machine? Seems like you should be able to just set an angle and a depth and go through the clearance teeth pretty quickly. Is there a particularly good machine that will do this? I'm thinking I should just get myself a good grinder and quit fooling with this guy.

 

[mtngun]

How hard is it to lower the clearance teeth with a professional machine? Seems like you should be able to just set an angle and a depth and go through the clearance teeth pretty quickly.

Yes, but ...... it only takes me two minutes to touch up the rakers with a file-o-plate and a sharp raker file. (It took me 6 months to learn to use the file-o-plate, though. )

The trick to filing rakers is having a sharp raker file. They don't stay sharp long, buy them by the dozen from Baileys, and when the old file stops cutting well, toss it and grab a new one.

Before I learned better, I tried using an ordinary hardware store file for rakers. It was too big and too dull and too coarse. Didn't cut well and was difficult to control.

Some people do use a grinder on rakers, but it'll take a couple of minutes to set up the adjustments. Procedure goes like this: 1) file one raker manually, use it as guide for rest 2) install special raker wheel on grinder 3) adjust grinder angles for raker 4) adjust cutting depth to barely touch the previously hand filed raker 5) now go to town on the rest of the rakers.

Is there a particularly good machine that will do this? I'm thinking I should just get myself a good grinder and quit fooling with this guy.

If you are going to dedicate one grinding machine to rakers -- which is what a lot of folks do, to minimize the set-up -- then an entry level grinder like the Northern Tool unit will work fine.

I started out with the HF grinder (not recommended, even though it did sharpen chains better than I could hand file them) and graduated to a Jolly Star. The Jolly Star does a great job on the chains, but it does have some weaknesses, as do most of the grinders on the market.

You'll have to decide if a grinder if right for you. A lot of guys on AS swear by hand filing, and claim they can't get satisfactory results on a grinder. Some people just can't get the hang of setting up the grinder. I'm the opposite -- I don't hand file very well, but I do great with a grinder. Whatever works for you.

 

[Fireaxman]

Thanks for the help. Rep headed your way!

 

[super3]

The trick to filing rakers is having a sharp raker file. They don't stay sharp long, buy them by the dozen from Baileys, and when the old file stops cutting well, toss it and grab a new one..

OR........buy a dozen from Save Edge, save the box, when they are all dull, send them back for resharpening for about 1/3 of the cost of new.

 

[TonyX3M]

does anybody use a NICK grinder- tried to use it coupla' of times, but mostly I end up burning the teeth just to get chain sharp- so now its back to old-fashioned file (and im not too good with it) and is 1/8 the right depth for clearance teeth - Im really not good doing anything but dayly mainteance for saws... Also Im haveing trouble adjusting idle on our stihl climbing saw (sawproof pants saved my legs twice) -when its cold- it works fine but after about an 45 min. of use the idle rpm-s seem to go up - I tryed to turn the idle down, but then the saw will stop before that 45 min. time.
Any suggestions?

 

[stevohut]

Got disappointed with my local STIHL dealer today. Somebody in his shop has been sharpening my chains for me whenever I hit a nail or rock and I have to take several cutters back to even out the damage.

He doesn't take the clearance teeth down when he sharpens. I have been taking them down by hand with a tapered file after I get the chain back from him. Took another one in to him (hit a piece of gravel that got stuck under the bark when I drug the log out) and asked him to be sure and take the clearance teeth down. He said no, he wouldn't fool with them, takes too long, and he wasn't sure he could take them down without cutting them too short. I even offered him twice his normal charge (normal charge $5) to get the clearance teeth where I want them, and showed him on the gauge how low I wanted them. Nope. Wont do it.

I dont have an electric sharpener. I just use a drimel or a file. How hard is it to lower the clearance teeth with a professional machine? Seems like you should be able to just set an angle and a depth and go through the clearance teeth pretty quickly. Is there a particularly good machine that will do this? I'm thinking I should just get myself a good grinder and quit fooling with this guy.

ya get a grinder I use my oregon to do my depth guages (rakers) takes 2 min to set up to grindem. I put the 90 degree stone on tilt er at a slight angle set the stops where i want em and giver. Sounds like this guy was in it for the money and not the quality of the job. Tell him to pound dirt