Chain Grinder Wheel Experiments

[Mike Kunte]

Short answer: 'No'.

If you look at the thickness of the average chip, it barely gets down there. But if you are in a high 'chip flow' situation, it might slow things down a little.

That said, I like to leave the bottom of the gullet flat, knowing that this may be more cosmetic than practical. This is really a separate step from 'sharpening' a cutter. I sometimes do this with a larger diameter file, after sharpening the edges with the recommended file. With the grinder, I back off the tooth positioning dog a half turn or more, lower the grinding wheel head a bit, then 'run the gullets' on each side. On chains where this has never been done, it may take a few passes. Then I set the depth gauges.

I think that some guys get into trouble focusing on how the cutter looks, rather than understanding the business part. Get that top edge, corner, and upper part of the side edge sharp; then go back and make things pretty as a separate step. If you try to do this in one pass (file or grinder) you will not end up with the edges you want.

JMHO

Philbert

Thanks, Philbert!

I'm completely with you on this one! One needs only to look at a chain which cutters are nearing the end of their useful life. Their size is probably 1/3 of the new size, yet many experienced users know that the smaller profile cuts more quickly!

Anyway, thanks for your input. It's cleared up much confusion for me. I also like the "two separate steps" approach. "Sharpening" (or grinding) is a separate process from "cleaning out" the rest of the cutter.

Great learning experience here on AS! Thanks again.

Mike

 

[Mike Kunte]

I wasn't following this thread and just stopped in, am I still a chain geek .
One thing I do differently than you from what I read here is to clean the gullets out first, even on rocked/damaged chains and then I sharpen them "like I file".
This way I set the chain up for the gullets and then I will grind until the gullet is clean and then I will go until the tooth is almost sharp on a rocked/damaged chain, then I simply change the depth so it's as I file and sharpen the teeth. The way you describe you will be setting the grinder up twice on each tooth whereas I set up once then reduce the depth, it's very easy and I'm quite pleased with the results.
There is a little ledge left on my ground chains that my file will sit on which makes hand filing a breeze if I choose to in the field. As you were saying earlier in this thread use the witness marks both on the top and sides as it helps to get the "factory proper angle". As the OP was saying he will customize his own chains as do I because the factory proper angle is a more generic setting that will work the well in the most situations, that being said it doesn't work the best in specific situations and can be changed to optimize performance in most cutting scenarios and the chain will out cut the factory proper angle.
I agree sharpening and cleaning up the gullets is a separate step, but they can be more incorporated into the same procedure quite easily.
Hope this is clear and helps someone.

Chipper1 - Yes, you are still a chain geek! Just like the rest of us still lurking around this thread!

 

[Huskybill]

I use a 4.5mm file for the .325” chain.