What is up with Oregon?

[mrpotatohead]

Bought an Oregon 24" Powermatch bar and 72LGX chain and have fell and bucked the large end of the trunk down to small enough pieces to handle of one tree, and some of the limbs. (All equals about two and a half tanks of fuel worth of use.) The chain is already wearing a groove into the bar and even starting to cut crooked. Oiler is working, reservoir needed to be refilled every fuel up, not abrasive, just some sort of yellow pine. I used another saw to finish bucking the trunk, and cutting the limbs. Haven't bought or used Oregon in quite some time for this very reason.

 

[stihlaficionado]

Never had any problem with my 24" PM bar. I use it with the ported 372, 576 & 365/372. Zero issues the last two years.

crooked cutting = uneven or worn cutting angles. Put a pic up of the bar & chain

You may have rocked the chain in some way

 

[Deleted member 149229]

24" on my 6401 and no problems noted.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Bought an Oregon 24" Powermatch bar and 72LGX chain and have fell and bucked the large end of the trunk down to small enough pieces to handle of one tree, and some of the limbs. (All equals about two and a half tanks of fuel worth of use.) The chain is already wearing a groove into the bar and even starting to cut crooked. Oiler is working, reservoir needed to be refilled every fuel up, not abrasive, just some sort of yellow pine. I used another saw to finish bucking the trunk, and cutting the limbs. Haven't bought or used Oregon in quite some time for this very reason.

Not clear.

I understand pulling to one side when cutting but would you please elaborate a bit, or post a pic of what you're describing as "wearing a groove into the bar."

As previously pointed out pulling to one side in the cut is typically a chain issue.

Take Care

 

[Derf]

The US Oregon steel has been compared to other bars and been called "soft". But I can't see why it would wear out with the first chain/tree job. Are you pushing on the saw at all? Or are you letting the saw self feed through the wood?

 

[mrpotatohead]

I will get some pics. I usually use Cannon bars, without issues. I cut on a regular basis and used this bar for the first time falling a pine tree about 28" in diameter and cutting it up in small enough pieces to be burnt on site. I wound up using my smaller limbing saw to finish the job which is outfitted with a Cannon bar and Carlton 3/8 semi-chisel chain, which included finishing the trunk/stem of the tree, and cutting up some good size limbs, (some were close to 10",) and falling and bucking a smaller maple that was about 12" or so at the base, but had a pretty good size canopy without having to touch the chain on it, which is quite normal.

My experience with Oregon, especially more recent years is that they are soft, but this is ridiculous. The chain is wearing a groove into the bar, more towards the back and tip of the bar. On the bottom, one side of the rails is wore down quite a bit and has sharp edges, while the other side still has some of the factory machine marks. This it what is making it cut crooked. I thought possible oiler issue, but it is definitely working, and the oil passage is clear.

I had to touch up the chain twice to finish the job. The chain's factory edge was a mile off and didn't cut larger stuff worth a flip out of the box in spite of feeling sharp to the touch. According to my file brace, the left side cutters were between 25 and 30 degrees, close to 28. The right side was a true 25 degree, so I had to straighten that out the left side and touched up the right. Checked the rakers and they were a mix of different depths, so fixed that with a .025" gauge and file. Everything cut great from that point, but didn't hold an edge that long. Touched it up with a quick free hand sharpening and it cut good again, and seemed to hold a edge from that point. Then it started cutting crooked in the larger stuff, smaller limbs was good, still throwing big pieces in small and large stuff. So back to the file and rakers, but everything looked good, so a tear down was in order. This is when I noticed the bar's accelerated wear. I have leveled the rails before on bars, but it's usually after much, much use. This thing needs repair after a few tanks of use.

 

[mrpotatohead]

OK guys, here is a small video, and it is now in the hands of Oregon so we will see. They seemed to be pretty concerned on the phone and want to send both the bar and chain to their metallurgy department.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Sure looks like bar missed the heat treating process. I've had a couple Oregon chains with similar complaints, tooth angles off and differing raker heights.

 

[mrpotatohead]

Sure looks like bar missed the heat treating process. I've had a couple Oregon chains with similar complaints, tooth angles off and differing raker heights.

I have had nothing but similar issues out of Oregon products for years now. Seems since about 2008 or 2010 or so, they really have went down hill. I remember back in the 90's and early 2000's I could go buy a prepackaged Oregon chain, slap it on my saw, use it for a tank or saw then re-adjust the tension, then use that thing all day and might have to re-adjust tension before the day was over. Not so now. it seems I am lucky to get a tank of fuel burnt before the thing needs tension adjusted, and have to constantly touch up the teeth with a file to keep it cutting good.

I have been watching your thread "Weird bar problem" too by the way.

 

[rd35]

What kind of chain oil are you using?

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Thanks for the video,

Things are much more clear now.

Going back into my old pre-retirement mode of Engineering and product development, I'm seeing 2 possible explanations though I 'm sure there are more.

One, that bar may have missed the process, where the rails are heat treated or the heat treat process was not done properly. Heat range, process duration, quenching and drawing all are possible culprits.

The second, is the bar was fabricated with an incorrect steel alloy. If the carbon content in the alloy is not to spec, proper heat treat is impossible. I do not know where Oregon gets their steel. I do know from experience if it's from certain countries, China being one of the biggest offenders, the material certs accompanying the order are not worth the paper they are printed on. It was SOP for us to have an independent lab test samples of the parts or raw material from the developing countries for verification prior to use in manufacture. Without going into detail, all to often we found "liberties" had been taken. Not just steel, but castings and polymer parts as well. ASTM, ISO, SAE, ANSI, MIL and other material specs are universal and not secret.

The fact Oregon showed such concern and wanted the bar back for analysis may indicate this is not an isolated incident but may be an issue with a manufacturing lot, or several lots, of production. In fairness to Oregon, this last statement is conjecture on my part, but having been through a couple product recalls in my time, assessing and understanding failure modes and is key to getting a feel for the potential as to how big a problem may be.

In my own experience, I have found Power Match bars to be not the best, but certainly more than adequate quality for their intended use.

Please keep us updated if you hear anything further.

Take Care

 

[GeorgiaVol]

I worked in a foundry in the test lab for a year, and we had an incident where the night shift tech was looking at **** all night and pencil whipping the test reports. By the time we found out, about a week's worth of iron had gone out during the night shift Basicly untested. We had to repull samples and found one that was bad. Luckily it didn't make it to the customer. Point is, bad product has many ways it can make it out of the factory. Obviously the tech was fired.

 

[mrpotatohead]

What kind of chain oil are you using?

Husqvarna on this particular instance. But heck, I use almost anything most any other time with no negative results on my sub 18" saws. Above 20" I do begin to get a little finicky about my chain oil even though I never had any negative outcomes from not using name brand bar and chain oil or even something not called bar and chain oil. But this was pure Husqvarna stuff I got on sale a while back at Lowe's or something.

Your avatar pic is of great significance BTW!

 

[mrpotatohead]

Thanks for the video,

Things are much more clear now.

Going back into my old pre-retirement mode of Engineering and product development, I'm seeing 2 possible explanations though I 'm sure there are more.

One, that bar may have missed the process, where the rails are heat treated or the heat treat process was not done properly. Heat range, process duration, quenching and drawing all are possible culprits.

The second, is the bar was fabricated with an incorrect steel alloy. If the carbon content in the alloy is not to spec, proper heat treat is impossible. I do not know where Oregon gets their steel. I do know from experience if it's from certain countries, China being one of the biggest offenders, the material certs accompanying the order are not worth the paper they are printed on. It was SOP for us to have an independent lab test samples of the parts or raw material from the developing countries for verification prior to use in manufacture. Without going into detail, all to often we found "liberties" had been taken. Not just steel, but castings and polymer parts as well. ASTM, ISO, SAE, ANSI, MIL and other material specs are universal and not secret.

The fact Oregon showed such concern and wanted the bar back for analysis may indicate this is not an isolated incident but may be an issue with a manufacturing lot, or several lots, of production. In fairness to Oregon, this last statement is conjecture on my part, but having been through a couple product recalls in my time, assessing and understanding failure modes and is key to getting a feel for the potential as to how big a problem may be.

In my own experience, I have found Power Match bars to be not the best, but certainly more than adequate quality for their intended use.

Please keep us updated if you hear anything further.

Take Care

I appreciate your input and share you views on cases of defect, and will update as I find something out. I am wandering why they were eager to get the bar back so quickly, in so much that they sent FedEx to pick it up on Thursday, and after tracking it, it is already in Illinois. Being as I made a video, it could be a simple as a fear of negative publicity, or is there something as you say going on they know about and are trying to gather all the affected parts?

 

[Deleted member 149229]

I appreciate your input and share you views on cases of defect, and will update as I find something out. I am wandering why they were eager to get the bar back so quickly, in so much that they sent FedEx to pick it up on Thursday, and after tracking it, it is already in Illinois. Being as I made a video, it could be a simple as a fear of negative publicity, or is there something as you say going on they know about and are trying to gather all the affected parts?

Both. Bad PR and/or a recall both cost big money.

 

[rmh3481]

Sorry your not happy. That looks like a Homelite bar to me. The Homelite bar has those feet on the mount holes. The mount may have something to do with the wear you are seeing in the back. Ive seen wear on the tips but not in the back. You might want to drill or notch those oiler holes, making them larger. If its heat treated correctly, you wont be able to drill them easily.

 

[sunfish]

Oregon bars are not as good as premium bars, but not bad for the money. Looks like you got a bad one, or just weird conditions or?

Now Oregon chain is very good stuff and is all I use now. The last two new chains I got cut amazing well out of the box. I usually sharpen new chain before use, but not lately.

 

[Marshy]

Get what you pay for now days.

 

[fossil]

I bought couple of Forester copies of that bar and ran a file over one of them to see how hard the rails were compared to the power match bars I have. The Forester rails were considerably harder. Not close to the old Windsor bars though.

 

[mrpotatohead]

My neighbor, who's a full time professional uses forester bars. He says they are the best bar for the money. I just filed my powermatch bar, and it was the softest bar I have ever filed. It will not last. I have a number of PM's from people with the same experience with P-match bars, but they say dissing Oregon around here is asking for trouble, and they are right.