Plunge cuts with a dime tip

[Weeeee]

New guy here and very new to carving. I have only carved a few things so far, some mushrooms and pumpkins. I did these with a regular bar on a Husky 345 and Sthil MS170.

I recently bought a Woodland Pro 12" dime tip carving bar from baileys on sale with the conversion parts for my MS170. I played around with it a bit to get used to it and then decided I wanted to make some log lanterns I saw pictures of. I had to do a plunge cut to hollow out the log. Wow does that tip of the bar get hot fast! I tried to do it with the regular bar but it would kick too much. I have the dime tip bar chain pretty slack to help with cooling but would stop after it would start to smoke too much and let it cool down. Any tips on either how to keep it cool or another way to hollow the log out?

The log was about 9" diameter, and I had it strapped down to a saw horse to keep it from moving.

 

[twoclones]

This will greatly improve plunging with a dime tip bar.
https://www.arboristsite.com/commun...tters-for-plunge-cutting.256529/#post-4796434

 

[Weeeee]

Thanks, I will give that a try! I don't have a bench belt sander but I can mount my handheld belt sander somewhere and that should work.

 

[twoclones]

Grind it off with anything you can. I've used belt sander, dremel, and angle grinder.

 

[Weeeee]

I used an angle grinder and it improved the ability to do plunge cuts. Thanks!

 

[Bridog]

I have some chains like that too. Also smoother in general. I bought mine years ago from a guy already done. It was only pennies more per link at that time.