New bar - few questions

[joecool85]

All fixed.

I got fed up with it and decided I'd just tighten it like normal with little/no slack in the chain and a regular unmeasured good deal of force on the bar nuts, then run it. It was fine and after 2-3 seconds of high throttle it was good to go. I shut it down and the chain spins fine. There must have been paint build up in the rail just enough so that when the bar nuts went down it compressed it a little and made it hard for the chain to turn. I do notice a tiny bit more drag than my regular bars (which have sprocket tips), but it's pretty much negligable. I'll bring it back with me tomorrow when I visit the parents and see if I can't find something to cut down.

 

[PES+]

Yes....you must run solid nose bars with the chain pretty loose....and .050 make it a bit dicey

Is it a .050 or a .058 gauge?

 

[joecool85]

Yes....you must run solid nose bars with the chain pretty loose....and .050 make it a bit dicey

Is it a .050 or a .058 gauge?

0.050 gauge. I have it on almost as tight as I run my sprocket tip bars right now. We'll see how hot it gets tomorrow when I run it through some wood.

 

[PES+]

It will heat up as you run it

It will tighten more the hotter it gets.....set it slack cold

 

[SawTroll]

It will tighten more the hotter it gets.....set it slack cold

Yes!

 

[joecool85]

It will tighten more the hotter it gets.....set it slack cold

Good call, I guess with sprocket tip it's less of an issue. How slack should it be? Maybe 1/8"-1/4" of slack on the bottom of the bar without pulling?

**edit**
Wait...I seem to remember reading that you should loosen your chain when done cutting because as the chain cools it contracts and gets tighter, so wouldn't it get looser as it heats up?

 

[PES+]

1/4 inch or a little more.....it depends on the length of the chain......1/4 should be OK on a 12

I'll bring some bars for that saw when I come over that are sprocket tips.....I could have done you a better deal than fleabay on the combo with a sprocket nose.

 

[joecool85]

1/4 inch or a little more.....it depends on the length of the chain......1/4 should be OK on a 12

I'll bring some bars for that saw when I come over that are sprocket tips.....I could have done you a better deal than fleabay on the combo with a sprocket nose.

Cool, I bought this bar as a bit of an impulse, but I still think it's cool. We need to figure out a trade still for that moped.

Also:

The chain is getting hot and stretching, causing it to jump off the bar.

This came from http://www.small-engines.com/chainsaw.html

So wouldn't I want it tighter when cold so that when it stretches as it heats up it won't jump off?

 

[PES+]

Run it and prove it to yourself......

 

[joecool85]

Run it and prove it to yourself......

I guess I'll have to, that's the best way to find out anyway. Luckily it's not the end of the world if it jumps...or if it gets a little tight. I always check every so often anyway.

 

[PES+]

:greenchainsaw:

 

[ray benson]

Remember to lift the bar tip up when you adjust and tighten the bar nuts, and tighten the front one first.

Tighten rear first.

 

[joecool85]

Tighten rear first.

I'm not so sure it makes a huge difference. The biggest thing is holding the tip up while tightening the nut.

Out of curiosity, according to the book (or whatever those pics came from) that you showed us, what do they tell you for a sprocket tip bar?

 

[djmercer1]

the other thing ive seen cause similar behavior is that the tail of the bar is too narrow. when this is the case, the rivets of the chain contact the side paltes on the cover and case of the saw. i had this problem with my 051 and had to make a shim plate to get the clearance.

dave

 

[SawTroll]

Tighten rear first.

Ooooops.......:censored:

 

[joecool85]

All is well with the world! I ran the saw today and made about 12 cuts with it, it went great. Now the chain can be tensioned normally and still rotated about the bar with the pretty similar drag as a sprocket nose (some more, but not much). It's nice and easy to turn the chain by hand now. Considering it has safety chain on it, this thing really rips.

 

[stihl sawing]

Happy to see it worked out for you.

 

[joecool85]

Yeah, I forgot to mention, I was real worried about it being too short to cut anything, but it worked perfect. Turns out that most of the stuff I cut is 8-10" across. Also, there were a couple logs I cut up with branches behind them, but because the bar was so short, the tip was 2-3" away from the branches, making it pretty much impossible for the tip to hit anything behind what I was cutting.

I won't really be able to use this as my only saw, but even with the 14" bar it wasn't really going to cut it as my only saw. I'm hoping to get my dad's 42cc Poulan 2375 and throw a 16" bar on it, between that and my current saw I should be able to get all of my current cutting needs covered. Then when I start burning firewood (whenever I buy a house - hopefully this summer), I'll need a saw in the 45-60cc range running a 18" or 20" bar to cut the bigger stuff. I'd like to get a Makita 6401 used from home depot but there aren't any shops around here that carry them, so support would stink. So it'll probably end up being a Husqvarna 350, 353 or Stihl MS260, MS290.

 

[scottr]

Joe, I think that a good saw shop in your area would be able to fix any problem on a Craftsman or Makita saw. I gotta ask were you trying to run your chain too tight or were you not lifting the bar before you tightened the bar nuts?

 

[joecool85]

Joe, I think that a good saw shop in your area would be able to fix any problem on a Craftsman or Makita saw. I gotta ask were you trying to run your chain too tight or were you not lifting the bar before you tightened the bar nuts?

I'm not worried about any service for my craftsman saw, it's old enough so it has no warranty on it, and I do my own work on it. I guess I could do my own work on the Makita if I got it...and apparently they can be had pretty cheap from home depot.

As for the issue with the chain not rotating, I was doing everything fine apparently. I put it on again like normal (a little slack, held up the tip of bar, tightened the nuts nice and tight), the chain hardly moved by hand, then I ran the saw for 5-10 seconds of high throttle and now it works perfect. There must have been some paint or something in the bar keeping it from rotating.