chain grinding wheels

[outdoorsman0490]

I generally always sharpen my chains with hand files; however, dealing with city trees, often the saw encounters metal hidden in the trees and the tooth gets so buggered up I sharpen with my grinder. Currenlty I use a moleab wheel and use the kool grind on the wheel, I try to take it easy on the teeth, so as to not heat the tooth up so much that it hardens; but it still happens from time to time.

What do you guys run on your grinders, do you have better luck with another brand of wheel, that doesn't harden the teeth on the chain?

Thanks

 

[B_Turner]

For fast and cool grinding I like the blue ceramic wheels. My Silvey grinders both take 8 inch wheels, don't know if they sell them for smaller grinders.

With my 510, I hated the resin 3/16 wheel it came with.

 

[Pelorus]

I usually let rocked chains accumulate till the mood strikes when I can turn into a sharpening robot zombie with the pink (molemab) wheel the grinder came with. I take the bare minimum off, and finish with a hand file. I gotta be in the right frame of mind for grinding, so it doesn't happen very often.

 

[squad143]

I use the pink wheels mine came with. If I push it, they'll heat up and "blue" the cutters. Take it easy and grind in quick little dabs and they don't seem to heat up that much. The smaller the tooth, the less metal and the quicker it will heat up, so take a small grind at a time.

I usually wait until I have a whole bunch to do as well. Pretty monotonous. I've been known to doze off while grinding from time to time. Thank God for the "stops".

 

[Pelorus]

Makes more economic sense to just throw out a mangled chain that is already half worn out. But it always seems to be a new, or fairly new chain that gets into an abusive steel or rock relationship.

 

[outdoorsman0490]

that is what I have been using, the pink moleab one, and I use the wax to kool the grind; and I also take little dabs at a time, then when I go to hand file afterward, sometimes some of the cutters got hardened, most don't.

If you need to take off 1/4 of the tooth, do you do so all at one and dab at it; or would you take off 1/8, do the whole side of the chain, then take another 1/8? Maybe that is what I should be trying.

I too find it very monotonous and don't look forward to doing it either; one of the reasons I hate finding foreign objects in the tree.

Also, I do agree, most often if the chain is half gone already, and you peen the cutters over pretty well, I usually just toss them.

 

[Treetom]

I prefer a file ground chain but if you hit a rock or a nail a grinder is the way to go. I used the pink wheels and the grey wheels for twenty-plus years. If you grind reaaal slowly they don't heat up. A few years back I picked up a few of the Cyclone grinding wheels. A bit pricey but a good investment if you want to get things done. They keep cool and grind fast and clean. Bailey's - Dinasaw 5-3/4" ABN Cyclone Grinding Wheels

 

[squad143]

If you need to take off 1/4 of the tooth, do you do so all at one and dab at it; or would you take off 1/8, do the whole side of the chain, then take another 1/8? Maybe that is what I should be trying..

Just dab two to three times and move on to the next cutter. Keep working one side of the chain until you've reached your desired depth. Then repeat on the other side.

I'll usually wait until I have 20-30 chains to to and do them in groups, depending on how big the cutter is. Do all the left cutters of a particular group to a certain size, then do all the right cutters.

 

[ATH]

...If you need to take off 1/4 of the tooth, do you do so all at one and dab at it; or would you take off 1/8, do the whole side of the chain, then take another 1/8? Maybe that is what I should be trying.
...

in my opinion, if there is one tooth that bad, I'll just file that one separately and file the rest of the chain normally. I know the "book" says to find the deepest cut then file all teeth to that depth...but if that would mean taking 1/4 off of each one I just don't think that is a good idea and one tooth being deeper than the rest shouldn't make much of a difference.

having said that, I do think you are better off to do that in at least 2-3 passes to avoid heating the metal.

 

[ForTheArborist]

I just bought a new Oregon grinder with the hydraulic clamp for the hordes of chains on my wall.

I keep reading about how hardening the teeth by overheating is a bad thing. At first thought I'd think that by hardening the tooth the tooth stays sharp longer. Why am I wrong or right?

 

[Menchhofer]

Throw away the pink wheels. Use diamond or boron wheels and you will never go back to the originals. They hold their shape, last a long time, and yes they are pricey. But they are well worth it.