Bar repair/dealer rant

[JonCraig]

Half rant, half questions. Neighbor and I are cutting a wind blown oak, neighbor borrows my saw and bends my 25" Rollmatic ES. Not worth getting angry over.

I run by the Stihl dealer closest to work this morning & ask them how much to straighten the bar. They say it can't be done. I guess I look confused. I say that worst case they might have to straighten the bar & replace the nose. They say they've never heard of replacing the nose. I thank them kindly for their time & leave quickly.

1) Am I out of line by thinking this should be an easy job?

2) I'm a fairly handy guy... Should I just hit this thing with a BFH? Or take it to the other Stihl dealer? (I do have a much better relationship with this place, but it's out of the way.)

Needless to say, I won't be getting ANY work done at the first place...

Pics of the bar:

 

[Stihlhead460]

Put that sucker in a bench vise and straighten it yourself

 

[Modifiedmark]

What he said, its just the nose.

If I have a bad one to straighten I usually work it out in the press

 

[Stihlhead460]

Worse case ontario just have a new nose installed... looks like just the nose is bent.

 

[fordf150]

not many shops straighten bars. We dont mess with them and i dont know of a single place that does within an hour drive of me but looking at that bar you may get away with just replacing the nose.

this is where i stand on it for paying a shop to do the work.....


new tip-$32
labor to install said tip-$5
minimum labor time if the bar is bent(just guessing since we dont straighten bars) 15 minutes @$65 an hour=$16

total to repair your bar=$53

or a new 24" ES bar is $60 last i checked

 

[Thommo]

That looks like an easy one to straighten. When i drove a harvester i would just jam the bar between two cleats of one of the tracks and stand on the bar until it was straight. If they were bad i had to use the press back at the workshop.

 

[JonCraig]

this is where i stand on it for paying a shop to do the work.....

total to repair your bar=$53

or a new 24" ES bar is $60 last i checked

And this I totally get. The issue I have with this shop wasn't that they said, "we don't do that" or "to be honest, the labor will cost you as much as a new bar." They said, "It can't be done."

Just not the service I want to get.

 

[srcarr52]

It looks kicked right at the tip, easy fix. Put it in a vise and bend it back, I've bent back worse in the woods by sticking it in a partial cut.

 

[fordf150]

And this I totally get. The issue I have with this shop wasn't that they said, "we don't do that" or "to be honest, the labor will cost you as much as a new bar." They said, "It can't be done. "

Just not the service I want to get.

It can be done but doesn't seem to be a common operation in the Midwest these days and for shorter bars it doesn't seem cost effective to me. With the cost of stihl tips I don't even like just replacing a tip on the average length bars


In the shops defense...... It may have just been easier to say "it can't be done" than to explain the economics of it..... Gotta remember in a shop atmosphere, time is money, at a certain point you get tired of answering the same questions over and over, it also gets tiring giving out advice just so your customer can do it themselves or go somewhere else to order parts..... Either one of those is costing the shop money. Like it or not those are a couple reasons they may have answered the way they did, of course there is also the possibility that they just don't know

 

[Big_Wood]

i straighten alot of bars. when i'm in camp it can be a couple a week. an old stump and an axe has never failed me. the light bars require way lighter hits for anyone trying to straighten them. probably many of those bent as blowing on them the right way will bend them lol also alot of the PSP's run light bars and if dropped in the garage they will bend lol

 

[HarleyT]

Most dealers are thinking of and trying to make a living, and investing even the time discussing trying to straighten a bar would be silly. Same goes for lawn mower blades, trimmer shafts, etc....

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Most dealers are thinking of and trying to make a living, and investing even the time discussing trying to straighten a bar would be silly. Same goes for lawn mower blades, trimmer shafts, etc....

I see what you mean, but the flip side is that investing the time to have a conversation with the OP may result in the OP being more likely to do business with them. Like he said, he left quickly when he felt like they BSed him. If they'd talked straight to him, such as suggesting he straighten it himself he might have grabbed some bar oil or a loop of chain while he was in there. Just thinking out loud.

 

[JonCraig]

True. And I am out of bar oil.

 

[Ax-man]

I have straightened some bars but it is kind of an exercise in futility because they are never really the same after that. It can be done but it is just better to buy a new one and move on . Replacing a tip no way would I do this because I know I would never be able to do as good a job as the factory can do which is probably why the dealer didn't want to get into trying to fix this bent bar as the customer wouldn't be happy

 

[HarleyT]

True. And I am out of bar oil.

You'll get bar oil at Tractor Supply or WalMart, and we all know it!!!!

 

[blsnelling]

Stick that thing in a vise. That should straighten right out.

If the tip needs replaced, that's simple to do as well.

 

[JonCraig]

You'll get bar oil at Tractor Supply or WalMart, and we all know it!!!!

This is true.

 

[JimMorrison]

I don't like Walmart and don't buy **** there. Unless they are way out of line, I always buy at the local guy that has a service shop.

 

[Big_Wood]

I have straightened some bars but it is kind of an exercise in futility because they are never really the same after that. It can be done but it is just better to buy a new one and move on . Replacing a tip no way would I do this because I know I would never be able to do as good a job as the factory can do which is probably why the dealer didn't want to get into trying to fix this bent bar as the customer wouldn't be happy

Guess what? Your straightening them wrong lol. The only bars I straighten at 32-42". Way longer then some of the mini's guys here run and straighten. You can imagine how folded a 36" can get in a big cut gone wrong where things roll down hill and take the saw with it. lol it's a little different then a 20" in in a piece of firewood lol. some bars but very few won't be able to be straightened due to a twist. I can straighten twists but when they are at the bar tail It takes the perfect hit with an axe to true then up. I've straightened stihl lights that were nearly bent in a 90 that were surprisingly like new after. Again, love tap with the stihl light. Trying to hit it like you would a solid bar will result in it getting worse bending the opposite way. Some guys bend a bar and hike all the way up to the pad to get their spare but then they have no spare. I can straighten most bars in significantly less time then it takes to walk up the hill for my spare with nothing more then a stump and my axe.

 

[Pioneer]

Try it yourself. You can't use the bar as it is, and you might as well buy a new one for the price of replacing the nose.