Modified Dolmar/Makita spikes

Matt/MCW and I have been talking about this or a while, we both reckoned that the lower spike was too short/wrong angle in certain situations, particularly felling larger trees as well as blocking/cross-cutting larger logs.

So I finally extracted a digit and did something about it.
We'll soon see when I sink it into some timber if I got the angle of the dangle right

It appears the OE spikes are hardened steel too.
I've tried to locate a hardness tester to work out what/how far it's heat treated, but it doesn't look like there's one within 100km which is a shame.
I used normalised 4130 sheet (chrome-moly, I had some in the scrap bin) the same gauge for the new lower spike and it was much easier to cut than the material Dolmar use so ideally I'd heat treat these before too much use.

This was all done in a bit of a rush, a hole to match the OE one and a slap of paint will do wonders for the looks, Ideally I'd get some water jet cut or laser cut out of a single sheet, but I want to try them or see if they need adjusting and also get a set off to Matt to see if they pass.

it's funny, you can barely see that weld bead with the naked eye, but the wonky weld sticks out like dogs bollocks in a photo.

Looks good! Nice job have some rep.

Great job on those Rick.

The 395 and the aftermarket ones I have on the 371 and 385 are like this and work well.

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That looks great Rick...


I would say that mod will be most effective.


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That spike mod looks great Rick. I have been thinking the same thing - the lower spike seems a bit to 'round' for some felling cuts. I might have some new ones laser cut someday when I get around to it.

Thanks fella's.

I kept putting it off for months as the only decent plate I had I measured at around .050" and I didn't realise that the piece I'd been using to practice weld some time back with a new torch was an 0.080" strip. :dunno:

While it took the most time to actually cut and shape the new spikes, the worst part was cutting the OE spikes, they are bloody hard, most of my saw blades just skidded straight over the top but I wanted an accurate cut and the drop saw has too wide a kerf.

Rudolf, If these work as hoped I'll get some cut out of some plate too.

Getting a shop to laser cut some 2mm plate has to be better than using a hacksaw, some files and a little bench grinder

They look the goods mate. I'm away this weekend but I'm going to try and mate those big pointy mongrel spikes I bought for my 390 onto the standard 7900 spikes over the coming weeks. The HD 390XP spikes I modded for one of my 7900's work really well and your setup should too.
Only suggestion I'd make would be to also add a similar spike to the top half. Good stuff

MCW said:

[snip]
Only suggestion I'd make would be to also add a similar spike to the top half. Good stuff

Click to expand...

You've found that helps ?

I think the real problem with the bottom one is it's shallower than the middle one so you can't pivot the saw in the cut.

I only thought after doing this I should have tried grinding the middle spike back a bit, but it's done now.

tdi-rick said:

You've found that helps ?

I think the real problem with the bottom one is it's shallower than the middle one so you can't pivot the saw in the cut.

I only thought after doing this I should have tried grinding the middle spike back a bit, but it's done now.

Click to expand...

It would only help occasionally with some very strange Gymnast like cuts.

Actually I just don't do non symmetrical...