Ongoing lo pro lessons

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Never followed up on my planned experiment of trying to run a 48" GB lo pro bar on my 880. Discovering that my 36" LP bar requires a lot of care maxed out in difficult 30" hardwood so can't see trying any bigger saw/bar combo without going to lo pro skip chain, which I think would dull so fast it wouldn't be worth bothering. I had to resaw an extremely warped dry 3" red oak slab a couple of days ago to level it, which was consistently 30" and about six feet long. Dry south Texas red oak is one of the hardest densest woods I've ever tried to work, and I regularly work woods like mesquite, pecan, and even live oak, which are supposed to be far heavier and harder. I've come to think that it's a whole different beast than typical red oak because of how slow growing it is in this dry hot climate, and an arborist friend agrees that's likely the case. It's not that bad to cut or plane when green, but hell to work when it's dry and heavier than anything but mesquite or live oak.

If the wood wasn't a challenge enough, I had to clamp a badly twisted outer piece of the wood along a nearly slab length crack and fill the crack with resin first to hold it semi-level with the rest of the slab, before milling it. (I would have used bowties or something else but this was planned to be a piece with a narrow translucent resin channel.) I learned long ago none of my cutting edges like hard epoxy. It was slow milling to start with but once I hit the epoxy channel (about 1/2" to 1" wide) it got slower and slower. Was still going okay but once again got a little impatient and didn't keep a light enough touch and snapped the chain. It's my second 36" LP chain I've snapped now on 28-30" hardwood after no issues for a long time on 15-25" hardwoods. Was using my 045 Super 87cc saw this time which might be a bit grunt-y for LP unless I switch to a larger sprocket. Was going to try my 10 pin LP sprocket on it for but needs a chain with two more links than my 7 pin does.

This was about worst possible case of anything I could try to mill with the 36" LP setup w the epoxy thrown in, so can't take too much away from it but confirmed some of my previous experiences maxing out the bar on hardwood cuts. Too many cutter teeth engaged at one time - probably about 21 in this case - with bar maxed out so no room to rock mill back and forth to lessen the number of teeth engaged. Think it's time to get a 42" 3/8 bar for my 045 Super - was happy it started second pull and runs like a house on fire with the new ignition and rings. Now I can finally trust my rebuilds of the 045 and 056 are working, I may finally invest in bars for them to do all my 25-35" wide slab milling with 3/8 chain. Need a new 42" bar for my 880 as the rails are shot, but cheaper to invest in 3/8 42" bar and chain for the Supers. The 880 is still making me money as an occasional rental to a tree service friend with the go to hell .404 bar and chain on it.

 

[Lightning Performance]

Never followed up on my planned experiment of trying to run a 48" GB lo pro bar on my 880. Discovering that my 36" LP bar requires a lot of care maxed out in difficult 30" hardwood so can't see trying any bigger saw/bar combo without going to lo pro skip chain, which I think would dull so fast it wouldn't be worth bothering. I had to resaw an extremely warped dry 3" red oak slab a couple of days ago to level it, which was consistently 30" and about six feet long. Dry south Texas red oak is one of the hardest densest woods I've ever tried to work, and I regularly work woods like mesquite, pecan, and even live oak, which are supposed to be far heavier and harder. I've come to think that it's a whole different beast than typical red oak because of how slow growing it is in this dry hot climate, and an arborist friend agrees that's likely the case. It's not that bad to cut or plane when green, but hell to work when it's dry and heavier than anything but mesquite or live oak.

If the wood wasn't a challenge enough, I had to clamp a badly twisted outer piece of the wood along a nearly slab length crack and fill the crack with resin first to hold it semi-level with the rest of the slab, before milling it. (I would have used bowties or something else but this was planned to be a piece with a narrow translucent resin channel.) I learned long ago none of my cutting edges like hard epoxy. It was slow milling to start with but once I hit the epoxy channel (about 1/2" to 1" wide) it got slower and slower. Was still going okay but once again got a little impatient and didn't keep a light enough touch and snapped the chain. It's my second 36" LP chain I've snapped now on 28-30" hardwood after no issues for a long time on 15-25" hardwoods. Was using my 045 Super 87cc saw this time which might be a bit grunt-y for LP unless I switch to a larger sprocket. Was going to try my 10 pin LP sprocket on it for but needs a chain with two more links than my 7 pin does.

This was about worst possible case of anything I could try to mill with the 36" LP setup w the epoxy thrown in, so can't take too much away from it but confirmed some of my previous experiences maxing out the bar on hardwood cuts. Too many cutter teeth engaged at one time - probably about 21 in this case - with bar maxed out so no room to rock mill back and forth to lessen the number of teeth engaged. Think it's time to get a 42" 3/8 bar for my 045 Super - was happy it started second pull and runs like a house on fire with the new ignition and rings. Now I can finally trust my rebuilds of the 045 and 056 are working, I may finally invest in bars for them to do all my 25-35" wide slab milling with 3/8 chain. Need a new 42" bar for my 880 as the rails are shot, but cheaper to invest in 3/8 42" bar and chain for the Supers. The 880 is still making me money as an occasional rental to a tree service friend with the go to hell .404 bar and chain on it.

Fix the bars and get the grooves tight again
You now see my point about tooth engagement and chain stress. Try full skip next run with lp or full skip sets. We have had a week of rain here cramping every to do list in the NE. It just stopped again so I'm going to pressure wash some big red oak and possibly toss some smaller ones, under 26" wide, on the band mill and see how that goes today. I have been buried in other work keeping my csm on the back burner most day now with nothing but rain and more rain coming later this week and weekend, again.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Fix the bars and get the grooves tight again
You now see my point about tooth engagement and chain stress. Try full skip next run with lp or full skip sets. We have had a week of rain here cramping every to do list in the NE. It just stopped again so I'm going to pressure wash some big red oak and possibly toss some smaller ones, under 26" wide, on the band mill and see how that goes today. I have been buried in other work keeping my csm on the back burner most day now with nothing but rain and more rain coming later this week and weekend, again.

Yup, you were dead on about tooth engagement. Is a good standard you can use across different chain types to have an idea of when you're better off going to skip or a larger type of chain. Couldn't believe I hadn't noticed all this time how bad the rails on my 42" .404 Stihl bar were. Tight tolerance rails are everything for milling, been kind of beating that drum awhile as far as rail slop being responsible for a large amount of ridge-y poor milling results, but didn't realize it was my own problem with my .404 setup. I read something about you can squeeze them back again for awhile until they're so worn they're hopeless, might try that squeezing it between some heavy flat bar stock with my shop press to tighten up the. .404 bar again.
I'm spending all my spare coin on woodworking supplies at the moment, but need to get some roll chain to make new LP loops one of these days. When I get around to that I may repair the two broken chains and turn them into LP skip chains.

 

[Lightning Performance]

Yup, you were dead on about tooth engagement. Is a good standard you can use across different chain types to have an idea of when you're better off going to skip or a larger type of chain. Couldn't believe I hadn't noticed all this time how bad the rails on my 42" .404 Stihl bar were. Tight tolerance rails are everything for milling, been kind of beating that drum awhile as far as rail slop being responsible for a large amount of ridge-y poor milling results, but didn't realize it was my own problem with my .404 setup. I read something about you can squeeze them back again for awhile until they're so worn they're hopeless, might try that squeezing it between some heavy flat bar stock with my shop press to tighten up the. .404 bar again.
I'm spending all my spare coin on woodworking supplies at the moment, but need to get some roll chain to make new LP loops one of these days. When I get around to that I may repair the two broken chains and turn them into LP skip chains.

Just put an 0.045 shim in the rail and press or hammer it down from both sides or the one worn the most. Getting it straight down the middle is all that matters. A simple screwdriver can open up any tight spots you might encounter. After that I just dress the bar with my bar dresser file or the belt sander.

 

[J D]

Just put an 0.045 shim in the rail and press or hammer it down from both sides or the one worn the most. Getting it straight down the middle is all that matters. A simple screwdriver can open up any tight spots you might encounter. After that I just dress the bar with my bar dresser file or the belt sander.

Dress the bar before you close the rails or it will likely chip/crack/splinter where there are any significant burs.
Best way to close them up is with an adjustable roller tool, they're not too pricey & can be made fairly easily if you're that way inclined

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Dress the bar before you close the rails or it will likely chip/crack/splinter where there are any significant burs.
Best way to close them up is with an adjustable roller tool, they're not too pricey & can be made fairly easily if you're that way inclined

I always dress my bars, I keep up with that pretty well. Just for some reason never occurred to me that all that lip flaring meant the rail was opening up and I needed to close it back up again at some point. Not one of those things people talk about a lot in bar maintenance, mostly just dressing. Always learning. Found the roller tool online, there are some cheap enough it wouldn't be worth making one.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Dress the bar before you close the rails or it will likely chip/crack/splinter where there are any significant burs.
Best way to close them up is with an adjustable roller tool, they're not too pricey & can be made fairly easily if you're that way inclined

Got the roller tool in for bar rail tightening. At first when I was just messing around it didn't seem to tighten it much and I know it's supposed to be a lot of work, but once I got serious it wasn't that hard and I ended up overdoing it and had to open it back up some again. Got one from Aliexpress in China that I thought might be a little flimsy but turned out to be really solid beefy stainless as good as anything else I saw online for only about $29 all told w shipping.