3/8 Chain filing problem

[Dean Mundy]

Has anyone encountered a problem with filing cheap chains from china? About a week a go my 28inch Holtzforma bar and chain turned up, went great all day on the factory sharpen, but at the end of the day when i went to give the chain a tickle up i noticed some teeth filed normally but some were ultra hard and i couldnt grind any meat off, my file just slid on the tooth and it made a totally different sound, any way, i progressed to sharpen all teeth with even amounts of strokes, but some teeth filed better than others. End result is horrible cuts with the bar drifting off fairly quickly. Im thinking on just chucking it out but would love to get it sharp like the factory did. My bar rails are even with no wear, and teeth sizes are fairly identicle as its only had one sharpen with even amount of stokes, so the bizzare drifting has me baffled. The chain cut big rata and pine all day on the factory sharpen. If someone could give some insight that would be so greatly appreciated

 

[KiwiBro]

Yes. It's quite typical of Chinese origin chains to have significant inconsistencies. Get a good one and it makes you feel quite smug about the savings made. Until you get a few schitzo loops.

Using a grinder does help at least ensure everything is set consistently but it in no way ensures cutters wear reasonably consistently. For extra credit, mark the cutters that seem very soft and the ones that seem very hard. Then check the wear patterns of them for differences over time.

I've given up on Chinese chain and despite the cost have settled on Stihl chain, with just a few non-stihl chains left in the quiver to work through.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Has anyone encountered a problem with filing cheap chains from china? About a week a go my 28inch Holtzforma bar and chain turned up, went great all day on the factory sharpen, but at the end of the day when i went to give the chain a tickle up i noticed some teeth filed normally but some were ultra hard and i couldnt grind any meat off, my file just slid on the tooth and it made a totally different sound, any way, i progressed to sharpen all teeth with even amounts of strokes, but some teeth filed better than others. End result is horrible cuts with the bar drifting off fairly quickly. Im thinking on just chucking it out but would love to get it sharp like the factory did. My bar rails are even with no wear, and teeth sizes are fairly identicle as its only had one sharpen with even amount of stokes, so the bizzare drifting has me baffled. The chain cut big rata and pine all day on the factory sharpen. If someone could give some insight that would be so greatly appreciated

Look very closely at the "hard" teeth with a magnifier. Is the top cutting edge, the chrome top, curled over and down so that your file is hitting this first?
If you hit some thing while cutting this may happen with any chain. If I get this situation, a small chain sharpening stone on a Dremel type unit is used to get
through the bent over chrome. After that a good file will work on the tooth body and cut up and under the hard chrome top, sharpening the tooth.
I only use Stihl and Oregon chains.

 

[CR888]

Sometimes a 'cooked' cutter becomes near impossible to sharpen with a file. But if you grind it back a little being carefull not to heat it up too much you can often resume hand filing again. That's been my experience.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I ran into a chain used by a logger who said there were several cutters he could not file sharpen. It was expensive Stihl 3/8" pitch full chisel chain, and I said I would examine it. A cutter was sheared completely off, likely by an embedded nail or rock. The next ten cutters on the chain were packed tight, underneath the top plate with chunks of iron metal, likely steel. So, his sharpening file could not be inserted there at all.

I replaced the missing cutter first. Then I carefully ground out the packed metal under the others with the disk on my Oregon 511A. Finally, I sharpened all the cutters the same size and dropped the rakers down a tad. This logger tends to file sharpen (and thus shrink) all his left cutters more than the right ones, so his cuts tend to drift after awhile. Anyway, it's rather amazing what you run into with used chains.

 

[sb47]

If you cut all day without having to sharpen, then you already got your moneys worth out of it. Sounds like some of the teeth got hot and crystallized on you.
I never get more then 2/3 tanks of gas ran without having to sharpen.

 

[Dean Mundy]

Hey thanks for the reply, was probably not all day but pretty solid for a few hours, maybe 5 or 6 tanks . Chain wasnt getting too hot either, i was running it on my ms660 and that pumps oil like a trooper. Weird thing is most of the hard teeth are on one side. Bar and chain was only 23usd so i will probably throw the chain out, was basically free.

 

[sb47]

Hey thanks for the reply, was probably not all day but pretty solid for a few hours, maybe 5 or 6 tanks . Chain wasnt getting too hot either, i was running it on my ms660 and that pumps oil like a trooper. Weird thing is most of the hard teeth are on one side. Bar and chain was only 23usd so i will probably throw the chain out, was basically free.

Chain life does depend on a lot of factors. Heat being number one, wood type, moisture content, if you cross cutting vs with the grain, knots, objects and debris embedded in the wood, nails, hooks, rope, wire, bullets, light fixtures, car parts. You name it, you'll eventually find it with your saw.

 

[rarefish383]

Hey thanks for the reply, was probably not all day but pretty solid for a few hours, maybe 5 or 6 tanks . Chain wasnt getting too hot either, i was running it on my ms660 and that pumps oil like a trooper. Weird thing is most of the hard teeth are on one side. Bar and chain was only 23usd so i will probably throw the chain out, was basically free.

I was going to say that you hit something with it, like others above said. Now when you said it's mostly on one side that really sounds like you rocked it or nailed it. A badly dulled tooth is often very hard to sharpen till you get past the damage and then the file will start to cut the steel properly again, Joe.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Yes. It's quite typical of Chinese origin chains to have significant inconsistencies. Get a good one and it makes you feel quite smug about the savings made. Until you get a few schitzo loops.

Using a grinder does help at least ensure everything is set consistently but it in no way ensures cutters wear reasonably consistently. For extra credit, mark the cutters that seem very soft and the ones that seem very hard. Then check the wear patterns of them for differences over time.

I've given up on Chinese chain and despite the cost have settled on Stihl chain, with just a few non-stihl chains left in the quiver to work through.

Funny because we gave up on Stihl chain and have gone with Chinese (Archer) chain. The last 5-6 loops of Stihl chain was so **** it was laughable. Was WAY too grabby out of the box, but then maybe 1/2 a tank in, it won't cut worth a darn. Sharpen it, and it's good for maybe 1/2 a tank of gas before it's making powder again.
Typically I can run 3-4 tanks before I need to sharpen. At worse maybe a light hand filing to hone it a bit between a few tanks.
No issue like this with the same saw on the same wood with Oregon or Archer chain.

I thought it was just me or my saw, but it's been the same on 2 other saws with 2 other users as well.

Not sure what the deal is, I've never had trouble with Stihl chain before. It's gotten pretty cheap though, an 84 driver loop was around $35. Used to be that price for a 68 driver loop.

 

[KiwiBro]

Did you bring it to Stihl's attention? Did they ask to see the chains? If Stihl chain lets me down like that I'll be looking for another brand too. I sat down one day and roughly worked out how long a chain lasts, which ones never gave any trouble, didn't need links removed or if they did only in the last 1/4 of the chain's life, which ones were a nightmare, which ones were freaks to file (not that i hand file much if at all these days - that was another round of arithmetic that lead to grinding instead) and so on. Bottom line, the Stihl chains and Canadian made Carlton were the best value of all I had been using. Oregon was too soft and stretched too much. The few different Chinese brands were inconsistent with considerable stretch.

But this was pre-Archer and EVOII days.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

No, just tossed them, wasn't worth the fight. At best I'd get another ****** chain out of complaining haha

 

[boltonranger]

If you cut all day without having to sharpen, then you already got your moneys worth out of it. Sounds like some of the teeth got hot and crystallized on you.
I never get more then 2/3 tanks of gas ran without having to sharpen.

Could you explain the crystallized comment?

 

[sb47]

Could you explain the crystallized comment?

Heat can ether take the temper out or put it in. If it gets hot and cools slowly it takes the temper out. If it cools very fast it can put more temper back into the steel, making it harder.

 

[lefturnfreek]

Funny because we gave up on Stihl chain and have gone with Chinese (Archer) chain. The last 5-6 loops of Stihl chain was so **** it was laughable. Was WAY too grabby out of the box, but then maybe 1/2 a tank in, it won't cut worth a darn. Sharpen it, and it's good for maybe 1/2 a tank of gas before it's making powder again.
Typically I can run 3-4 tanks before I need to sharpen. At worse maybe a light hand filing to hone it a bit between a few tanks.
No issue like this with the same saw on the same wood with Oregon or Archer chain.

I thought it was just me or my saw, but it's been the same on 2 other saws with 2 other users as well.

Not sure what the deal is, I've never had trouble with Stihl chain before. It's gotten pretty cheap though, an 84 driver loop was around $35. Used to be that price for a 68 driver loop.

Are you sure it wasn't CKO stuff?? That junk is showing up every where ....

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Are you sure it wasn't CKO stuff?? That junk is showing up every where ....

From Stihl dealer in Stihl packs, dunno.

 

[Wood Doctor]

When I ground out the metallic stuff that was stuck under the cutters, it was stuck tight to the cutters, almost like a welding. There was no way the logger could have used a file to sharpen this chain. I tried first to knock it out with a brad awl, and it was no go. The only way to get rid of it was with the disk grinder, and sparks flew as I removed it. I have never seen this before and I am sure this is why the logger gave this chain loop to me to repair.

 

[Dean Mundy]

I ran into a chain used by a logger who said there were several cutters he could not file sharpen. It was expensive Stihl 3/8" pitch full chisel chain, and I said I would examine it. A cutter was sheared completely off, likely by an embedded nail or rock. The next ten cutters on the chain were packed tight, underneath the top plate with chunks of iron metal, likely steel. So, his sharpening file could not be inserted there at all.

I replaced the missing cutter first. Then I carefully ground out the packed metal under the others with the disk on my Oregon 511A. Finally, I sharpened all the cutters the same size and dropped the rakers down a tad. This logger tends to file sharpen (and thus shrink) all his left cutters more than the right ones, so his cuts tend to drift after awhile. Anyway, it's rather amazing what you run into with used chains.

Hey thanks for your reply, some really valuable info there. God bless

 

[Dean Mundy]

Did you bring it to Stihl's attention? Did they ask to see the chains? If Stihl chain lets me down like that I'll be looking for another brand too. I sat down one day and roughly worked out how long a chain lasts, which ones never gave any trouble, didn't need links removed or if they did only in the last 1/4 of the chain's life, which ones were a nightmare, which ones were freaks to file (not that i hand file much if at all these days - that was another round of arithmetic that lead to grinding instead) and so on. Bottom line, the Stihl chains and Canadian made Carlton were the best value of all I had been using. Oregon was too soft and stretched too much. The few different Chinese brands were inconsistent with considerable stretch.

But this was pre-Archer and EVOII days.

Cheers Kiwibro, nice to see another kiwi on here.

 

[Dean Mundy]

Look very closely at the "hard" teeth with a magnifier. Is the top cutting edge, the chrome top, curled over and down so that your file is hitting this first?
If you hit some thing while cutting this may happen with any chain. If I get this situation, a small chain sharpening stone on a Dremel type unit is used to get
through the bent over chrome. After that a good file will work on the tooth body and cut up and under the hard chrome top, sharpening the tooth.
I only use Stihl and Oregon chains.

Thanks for your reply, so many helpful people on this site. God bless