Bar maintenance tools

[Huskybill]

I started planning to build my own bar maintenance tools

Bar grooving,
They offer cutoff discs in 4 1/2” and 7 1/2” x 1/16”(.063”) x 7/8” spindle. It’s mounting a 4 1/2” grinder on a plate, or using a arbor that the disc mounts on in my drill press. I mainly need the .063” discs to make my d009 husky bars fit my 404” chain.

Grinding the bar rails,
Next a 1”x30” belt sander for squaring the bar rails. Maybe a combination belt/ disc sander would work too. I been using a file to bevel the bar rail edges out side and inside.

Closing the grooves,
The Oregon groove closing tool seems to be the way to go.

Did I miss anything?

 

[Canyon Angler]

Can you groove a bar with a zip disk on an arbor in a drill press? My drill press wouldn't go fast enough and likely would have too much runout if it did.

I think I would sooner try to fabricate a jig to use with an angle grinder (and watch cut rate to keep steel from getting too hot) – or hire a machinist to cut grooves with milling machine. It's not like you'd need to cut grooves very often, I wouldn't think.

For squaring bar rails, I would probably try to use a file. Seems like a belt sander could make the tops of the rails rounded, where a file would make them flat.

When cutting metal to size, I generally try to "creep up" on the final dimensions with hand tools, rather than using power tools and going too far. You can always cut more OFF, but you can't cut MORON!

 

[catbuster]

Drill press plus abrasive disk is a no go. It’s definitely not fast enough and fitting the arbor into the Jacobs chuck would, and I say with with a high degree, though not 100, of certainty, give you enough runout to shatter pretty well all of them used. Not to mention the Jacobs chuck and drill press are not designed for side loading.

A milling machine with appropriate slitting saws is a different story.

 

[Gypo Logger]

I’ve been on here what,20 years now and another 20 years in the bush on top of that and I have mentioned it here many times, but no one seems to twig to it.
The only bar tools I need are a bar groove cleaner and an orbital palm sander. I use the orbital sander after every day’s use to remove any real or imagined burr. My bars can last decades with this method.
If the 1.3 m bar groove wears enough I move up to 1.5 m chain.
The hand held bar rail closer does a poor job as it merely pinches the rails even if you use a bar rail spreader. The result usually amounts to even more rapid bar rail wear.
An orbital sander does a beautiful job and your bars will last several hundred cords and untold board feet.

 

[CR888]

Well said Gypo.

 

[Gypo Logger]

Further to my rant, it’s best not to wait till your bar needs work. It’s all about preventative maintenance.

There are other contributing factors in premature bar wear , such as sprocket wear, cutting style, oil delivery, drive link count and abrasive conditions.

We all love fast effortless cutting, so with a bit of savy and a whole lot of passion we can keep our saws singing.
Just a bit of sawcology.

 

[babybart]

Sawcology you say, very interesting...

 

[Canyon Angler]

Cool tip on the orbital sander Gypo. Never heard that before. I guess you're deburring the outside corners of the rails...?

I never worried much about burrs, but I'm just a weekend hack and probably don't know any better.

 

[Huskybill]

Sounds like the 4 1/2” disc grinder mounted solid will work. I’m opening up a bar from .050”/.058” to .063”.

 

[Canyon Angler]

Sounds like the 4 1/2” disc grinder mounted solid will work. I’m opening up a bar from .050”/.058” to .063”.

...I'd make sure EVERYTHING was locked down solid on that setup. Serious kickback/shatter potential when zip disk is down in a deep kerf...

I'd also do a test to see just how wide a kerf is created by your zip disk on your grinder. It might be too wide due to runout in the grinder shaft and flexion in the cutting disk. Those disks supposedly have a kerf of 1/16" which is .o625" ... no room for ANY runout there...

 

[Huskybill]

Need to mount the disc grinder solid then space the bar groove to the center of the disc. Or mount the bar solid to a guide plate using the grinder guard as a guide. And slide the disc down the bar groove. A plate mounted solid and indicated parallel would work. The mounting base support plate could be “I” beam. At 50” long to do up to 42” bars. then mount a aluminum plate on top of the beam. Use this base plate to slide the grinder on. Then space the bar up to the center of the groove, this sounds better.

I need to do a test sample with the groove to make sure it’s the correct width to the chain.

 

[Huskybill]

...I'd make sure EVERYTHING was locked down solid on that setup. Serious kickback/shatter potential when zip disk is down in a deep kerf...

I'd also do a test to see just how wide a kerf is created by your zip disk on your grinder. It might be too wide due to runout in the grinder shaft and flexion in the cutting disk. Those disks supposedly have a kerf of 1/16" which is .o625" ... no room for ANY runout there...

Being a welder fabricator too I have all the higher double digit amperage Bosch and metabo hand grinders up to 7” discs. I think these too much power for my application. I bought a 8 amp metabo hand grinder for the groover. I tad heavy duty over the cheaper grinders.

 

[Huskybill]

The use of the harbor freight 1” x 30” belt Sander at $59 I’ve used for over 3 decades now making the worn rails smooth and parallel. Add a larger wider belt sander with a 6” disc too for taking the burrs off the side of the bars and chamfer the edges. I think both sanding setups will work well together. The belt sander makes the worn bar rails smooth, square and flat no rounded corners, the bars edges look like new again.

I do bar maintenance ahead of time when I start seeing wear. Or everytime I install a new chain the bar gets a “sawcology” (tuned) treatment. Sawocology “maintenance” clean the bar groove, square the bar rails, chamfer the groove edges. Check the sprocket for play, if ok grease it. Check the drive sprocket or rim where applicable for wear replace as necessary or if ok grease the clutch bearing in the clutch drum. If I’m running saws 24/7 this is done often.

Don’t forget to chamfer the inside the grooves too. This square corner on the grooves can cause more friction in the square corner in the chains drive link. It’s putting a outside square edge into a inside square edge equals more friction. I chamfer all four corners of the top of the grooves just a little leaving two narrow flats for the chain to ride on.

 

[heimannm]

I would recommend looking for a used table saw, 10" would be most useful. I put one of the discs for the Bar Shop device in my table saw and used the fence to keep the bar in alignment with the disc. The vintage bar had cracked and needed to be rewelded before I restored the groove.







You can also find a 10" sanding disk that will make short work of squaring the rails when they are worn.



The bar rail closer tool from Bailey works well once you practice with it a bit.



I haven't gotten to it yet, but I hope to make a tool like this for straightening bars that aren't bent too badly.



Mark

 

[Canyon Angler]

I like the table saw idea. I actually considered suggesting it, but didn't know of any cutoff disks big enough.

 

[Huskybill]

Table saw good idea grooving the bar verticle would keep most of the sparks going down inside the saw? I have an older sears cheap table saw. I don’t know if it has the amperage.

 

[CR888]

You can buy little linisher setups that are around 3/4hp that have a sanding disc & guide to run a bar @90°. You don't want too higher speed for bars, something around 3500rpm should be about right. Cutting the bar grove is where it gets tricky and potentially dangerous. You can make your own adjustable closer with some case bearing I think I used 660 Chinese bearings, some fasteners, slotted flat metal stock etc. But as gypo mentioned even if you close the gap, that don't last really long as the shape of the wear inbetwen the rails is not parallel like this ||its more like / \ so the best real solution is to machine it up a gauge size. And with competitive bar pricing out there often this work is really only worthwhile for special NLA vintage bars and stuff.