welding damaged bars and removing bar sprockets

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trying to learn what the process is on the end of the bars by the sprocket were they seem to wear out. I have watched Richard dougans videos he uses a cut of wheel and I think a tig welder? I am not very noledgable in welding always wanted to learn. happy new year to all
 
trying to learn what the process is on the end of the bars by the sprocket were they seem to wear out. I have watched Richard dougans videos he uses a cut of wheel and I think a tig welder? I am not very noledgable in welding always wanted to learn. happy new year to all

I'm a pretty accomplished welder. The cost of the hard facing filler rod and the equipment you'd need to get into this, it's just not worth it, unless you already have a TIG setup. You're talking well over $1000.00 worth of equipment just for the welder and associated gear, and that would be a very entry level, probably chinese, welder. I probably have $10,000 or more into my welders and associated equipment and that's just for a home garage fab shop setup to do my own repairs and side work. The learning curve for TIG welding is also very steep, unless you have plans of doing a lot of welding to do actual fabrication, you're better off just buying a new bar. You're not really gonna do that type of repair with any other process and have it come out usable. Also, you will need a 50 amp 220 plug in your shop to run any decent welder. If you want to learn more about welding, check out weldingtipsandtricks on youtube. You'd be looking into probably buying and AlphaTig, Primeweld, or Everlast welder if you wanted to get into TIG welding.

The only time I would ever do this, and I already have the equipment, is to save a large, very expensive, high quality, bar like the large mount cannon in the video above. For a $300+ bar it might be worth it, but otherwise it wouldn't be worth the time or materials. I get $100+/hr for TIG welding where I live.
 
Bars are too cheap to warrant paying the kind of money it would cost to have them repaired by welding them. IMO.

I can get a brand new 28" bar for $90....shop rate for most skilled welders is in the $80-100/hour range and my guess would be it's going to be at least a half hour probably more like an hour, and I still have an old bar at the end of it. Am I going to double the life of the bar doing this repair? Unlikely...so it doesn't make monetary sense for me to fix the bar at that point. Buying a new one is the same price or cheaper in the long run.

If it's a hobby, and you have the money to invest, go for it. However, I don't think it will be a big money maker in the end.


If you had a good source for really cheap or free bars that are worn out in this fashion, maybe you could sell them as refurbished for a halfway decent price and make a profit. I don't know what kind of market there is for used/refurb bars though...might be a tough sell there too.
 
bars are cheap, welding has more potential to ruin it then repair it.

as for the tips, sprocket noses are fairly easy to replace, just need a punch for the rivet, a ball pein hammer, and a disc sander a grinder and a decent anvil (a large chunk of steel with 3/8 hole in it will do), poke the old rivet out, being careful to support the bar on the other side of the hole (hence that 3/8" hole), slip on new tip and slip in a new rivet, use the ball end of a ball pein hammer to upset the rivet a little (some med light yappy tap taps) once all rivets are in (3 for stihl 1 for oregon) use the flat side of the hammer to smash the rivet flat ish. be careful not to smash the bar or tip while doing this, jus hit the rivet...

grind off the really high spots, then dress the bar and new tip so it's a smooth square surface for the chain to run on. good as new
 
try to watch some videos online. They can also great tips. But our fellas are experts on this too.
 
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