18 inch oregan dont fit 18 bar.

[tony marks]

fellas ,i picked up an oregon 73lg-68 chain...
translation 3/8 ,,18 inch,,.58 gauge,, chain. its a tad to long ..just could not get the bar to exstend quite enough. and then its gonna stretch a bit
is there any other brand that i might try ..
or do i have to either get them all made ,or take a link out of this chain ,all the time,,to replace.
the chain that came on it had to be reconditioned,, ,as it ran on a shot sprocket,too long... i did apparently,, a pretty good job ,[cuts really well],but only have about half cutter left ,after straitening out the cutters.this saw ,pioneer farmsaw,,has been a pleasant surprise ,much like my partner 500.
i tried switching to a .325 -9 tooth sprocket ,i had,, but the16 inch,, 67 driver stihl[028] chains just wouldnt fit around the big sprocket. any suggestions appreciated.tm

 

[johnb]

Hey Tony you can just knock out a link and get a new repair link at a good dealer. If your at all handy you can put it together with some good steel punches. I use a dremel tool to grind off the old head till flush then remove what I don't need and repair the chain. I had a similar problem on some 3/8 chain yesterday in about twenty minutes I was fixed and back on the road. My Stihl dealer only deals in loops now because he claims that he can buy it cheaper than spools. I think he is wrong but I'm not a dealer Yet!! Good luck The Hoosier





Sharpen your chain it's a jungle out there!

 

[tony marks]

thanks john ,,thats what fish said a while back. guess i oughta get my feet wet ,,and nows the time. kinda hate foolin with a new chain [that i can get money refunded ,tho. ]it would really solve a lotto problems if id learn how to do what u said.. we ll see.
anybody got an idea other than this. thanks again john.

 

[tony marks]

hmm ,i look into that tommorow ,thanks rocky. wonder how 18 inch ,,3/8 can be 66 and 68 ,for 18 inch chain. dont doubt it ,,just dont quite understand it.. oh well we ll see tommorrow at nothern.

 

[Stumper]

Bar length is just an approximation-after all the usable length changes as you adjust to compensate for chain stretching. Saw layouts are different as well-some have more saw body in front of the crankshaft. The bottom line is that chain length is different for what are nominally the same length bars. A 20" D009 bar (Oregon to fit large Huskies) and A 20" Stihl r Rollomatic take 72 driver chains.Oregon 20" 095 series bars for Dolmar (and smaller Huskies) And 176 series for Echo take a 70 driver chain. Some label these different patterns as 19" but Oregon coding says they are 20". As Brian has mentioned, small Stihls have "shorter" bars/fewer drivers than everybody else.

 

[tony marks]

yep ,, just as i drifted off last nite ,this dawned on me. duh.
i knew what the answer would be when i checked back today. in short different set ups,bar width etc, gonna require
more links to get the same distance length ,cutting bar.. i shoulda knowed that. translation... i should have known that. u can take the man outa the country [mill hill version],, but u cant take the country outa the boy..