Uneven cutters numbers

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jdind

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So while sharpening my new Oregon chain, I noticed that there seemed to be a cutter missing where it was joined together. Reading through the forum, this seems to be fairly normal and most people say not to sweat it.
Two questions:
1) I didn't notice any dishing while limbing, but will it cut straight through bigger wood if it's got 17 cutters on the right and only 16 on the left?
2) Why not have a cutter where it is joined? (The chain has 68 drivelinks.)

Thoughts???

20170421_164115.jpg 20170421_164437.jpg 20170421_164641.jpg
 
As said in the above posts depends on the spinner up of the loop some leave out a cutter some add a cutter & you have 2 facing the same way you would not notice after all a skip chain is missing every other cutter & they cut OK .Run it like you stole it :clap:
 
The only thing I might add is that if you cut enough you will sooner or later encounter a resistence in the wood which will leave your chain with a cutter missing, sometimes multiple cutters missing. I don't care and don't know any serious wood cutter that does.

7
 
Cheers guys. Still curious to understand why it won't cut crooked, though.
When I started hand-sharpening my chains, my left cutters always ended up slightly shorter than the right ones, and it cut crooked as a result.
How come a whole extra tooth doesn't make a difference?
 
Cheers guys. Still curious to understand why it won't cut crooked, though.
When I started hand-sharpening my chains, my left cutters always ended up slightly shorter than the right ones, and it cut crooked as a result.
How come a whole extra tooth doesn't make a difference?
That's an excellent question.
In theory (for easy math) if you had 100 cutters (101 cutters) and had a 100ft ft cut; the cut should be out 1ft / 12" from top to bottom. That's 1.2 in per 10 ft as the extra tooth is roughly doing 1/100 of the work. More realistically, I would have close to 33 cutters or 1/3 with
Which would put the cut out almost 2" on a 5' tree
I used to file the extra cutter off and now I don't. Cuts straight still.

More after work..
Got to go
 
Cheers guys. Still curious to understand why it won't cut crooked, though.
When I started hand-sharpening my chains, my left cutters always ended up slightly shorter than the right ones, and it cut crooked as a result.
How come a whole extra tooth doesn't make a difference?
I would say you had a worn bar.
 
The only thing I might add is that if you cut enough you will sooner or later encounter a resistence in the wood which will leave your chain with a cutter missing, sometimes multiple cutters missing. I don't care and don't know any serious wood cutter that does.

7
Years back I knew an old Faller who was a bit of a joker He regulary ran chains with broken/missing cutters His quip was when it required sharpening was " It don't bite but it'll give you a nasty suck"
 
That's an excellent question.
In theory (for easy math) if you had 100 cutters and and cut hundred ft cut the cut should be out 1ft / 12" from top to bottom. That's 1.2 in per 10 ft a the extra tooth is doing 1/100 of the work. More realistically, I would have close to 33 cutters or 1/3.
Which would but the cut out almost 2" on a 5' tree
I used to file the extra cutter off and now I don't. Cuts straight.

More after work..
Got to go



Math is hard.

I'm going to go get more caffeine and try to read this one again ..... :)
 
This particular problem as before mentioned for most part will not effect an effective cut. An extra cutter one way or another is not going to matter. One day as I was making up some loops I noticed that a very small difference existed from a 97 DL to a 96 DL. So after trying to install a 96 DL chain on my bar I noticed that I needed just a fraction of an inch to make it work. So I ground the slot on the bar just a small amount and found that an even numbered chain would install just fine. As soon as the chain has some time on it and stretches a little it would install without the modification. For some setups I grind the bar just a little and install a even numbered cutter chain on my saws. Thanks
 
I'm going to keep an eye on it on longer cuts and see how it goes.
If I notice it's cutting crooked I might experiment with the length/depth of one of the extra cutters and see how it goes.
 
it's not a big deal at all BUT had that chain been handed to me by a dealer i'd be handing it back and telling them to put a cutter on there. to lose a cutter because of something you can't control is one thing but to not install a cutter that otherwise could have been is just a lazy sack of **** of a person doing the spinning. i buy rolls and break my own so i never have to deal with anyone elses BS throwing together chain. i've received some ****ed up chains from dealers in the past. just be thankful you don't receive one assembled out of scraps by the least experienced guy in there! lol
 
Math is hard.

I'm going to go get more caffeine and try to read this one again ..... :)
...And so is English apparently. I think you are being nice. Sorry to all. That was a pretty rough post. I only had about 15 Corrections as I just edited it.
Concentrating and writing can be hard at best of times for me. It certainty doesn't help when I'm short on time along with someone hanging over me saying "We got to get going". Doing math in my head as I go is generally the easy part for me.

OK..the math was just a trick.
100 cutters would give you 50 per side so therefore. (In theory) it would be a straight cut. Lol J/k

Ok..since I was rushed I probably didn't have enough coffee myself

I can make it a lot more simple.

Let's just pick an odd # representing the amount of cutters on your chain.
We will use 25, 25:1 ratio.
Match the cutter tally to the diameter of the log; each tooth should cut 1".
So if your chain had 25 cutter the side with 13 cutters should in theory cut an inch more.

The worst case may be a very short bars with skip chain. I don't believe one tooth alone has the pull and one tooth ends up 'searching' to even it out. A combination of too loose of a chain and slow cutting speeds is when it will make the difference I believe.
That's when I have trouble; often when I am forced to slow chain speed down due to kick backs from the flare when I cut the back cut to my low side on large diameters cedars mainly. Have you noticed a poor cutting chain may only cut at a slow speed? What people may not give thought to and that is the fact that the chain is pulled giving it an inward force (centrepical force) Many people believe a good raker gauge can make a chain cut even with a significant amount of shorter teeth behind long teeth because they are gauged the same. That's simply not true due to it inward force just mentioned. Again a few teeth are OK but its got its limitation. Someone that grinds will not take all their teeth down because of one or two smashed teeth. The mishap will likley be corrected after a a bunch of grinds and the chain cutters will stay even to the end. They will flip the bar dailey as well use a raker gauge and it will cut straight to the end.
 
West you are correct. The longer the bar the smaller percentage you will have less effect from the uneven cutting teeth. On the other hand with a short bar with a smaller number of teeth the higher percentage of uneven effect it will have. One thing that is good about the uneven chain links is that there is always a marker for starting and stopping when you are sharpening. Thanks
 
Unless the number of drive links is divisible by 4 you will always end up with an odd number of cutters or an extra space between two cutters, there is no way to change that.

That's the thing that annoys me: it's got 68 drivelinks, which IS divisible by 4. I wonder if it's because the joining link is different from the others? (See close-up pic in original post.)

it's not a big deal at all BUT had that chain been handed to me by a dealer i'd be handing it back and telling them to put a cutter on there.
I would, except I bought it on eBay over a year ago, and only got around to using it recently. Bit late to ask for a refund. Maybe that's why it was cheap? (It was almost half the price of a Stihl chain from the dealer.)

Anyhow, cheers all for the replies and explanations.
 
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