Bench grinder sharpening dilema

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Old2stroke

Never too many toys
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Bench grinders are great, you can zing along and sharpen a chain fast but their shortcoming is, you can only do this if each cutter is the same length. Many chains get damaged and only a few teeth are affected or you could get a chain that has been hand filed and all the cutters are not the same length so what do you do? The following seems to be the options.
1. Do you start sharpening the chain by just taking off the minimum and as you go along and find a damaged or shortened tooth, do you stop and reset the chain-stop to properly sharpen it and then carry on adjusting the stop as necessary to sharpen each tooth as you go?
2. Do you sharpen the whole chain by just taking off the minimum that will do for the bulk of the cutters and then come back and fool with the chain-stop to sharpen each damaged tooth as necessary?
3. Do you proceed as in #2 but ignore any damaged/short teeth, knowing that eventually with a number of sharpenings, all the cutters will get ground back to a length that will include the damaged/short ones?
4. Do you just keep running the chain around, taking off a little more on each pass until even the damaged ones are sharpened? In other words, do you grind back all the cutters until they are all the same length as the shortest one?

Despite the information in the owners manuals, we know that for a chain to cut properly it is not necessary for each tooth to be the same length as long as they are all properly sharpened. What we need is a grinder that has the vise mounted on a lever operated slide that would allow the vise to be advanced a small amount and then returned to a home position. With this feature, if you find a damaged tooth, you could leave the chain clamped in the vise, slowly advance the tooth and nibble away at it until sharp, then return to the home position and carry on sharpening without disturbing the original chain-stop setting. I have yet to see a grinder with this feature.
Anyone who thinks that each tooth has to be the same length should visit Buckin Billy Ray's sharpening instructions on U-tube.
 
Bench grinders are great, you can zing along and sharpen a chain fast but their shortcoming is, you can only do this if each cutter is the same length. Many chains get damaged and only a few teeth are affected or you could get a chain that has been hand filed and all the cutters are not the same length so what do you do? The following seems to be the options.
1. Do you start sharpening the chain by just taking off the minimum and as you go along and find a damaged or shortened tooth, do you stop and reset the chain-stop to properly sharpen it and then carry on adjusting the stop as necessary to sharpen each tooth as you go?
2. Do you sharpen the whole chain by just taking off the minimum that will do for the bulk of the cutters and then come back and fool with the chain-stop to sharpen each damaged tooth as necessary?
3. Do you proceed as in #2 but ignore any damaged/short teeth, knowing that eventually with a number of sharpenings, all the cutters will get ground back to a length that will include the damaged/short ones?
4. Do you just keep running the chain around, taking off a little more on each pass until even the damaged ones are sharpened? In other words, do you grind back all the cutters until they are all the same length as the shortest one?

Despite the information in the owners manuals, we know that for a chain to cut properly it is not necessary for each tooth to be the same length as long as they are all properly sharpened. What we need is a grinder that has the vise mounted on a lever operated slide that would allow the vise to be advanced a small amount and then returned to a home position. With this feature, if you find a damaged tooth, you could leave the chain clamped in the vise, slowly advance the tooth and nibble away at it until sharp, then return to the home position and carry on sharpening without disturbing the original chain-stop setting. I have yet to see a grinder with this feature.
Anyone who thinks that each tooth has to be the same length should visit Buckin Billy Ray's sharpening instructions on U-tube.
Depends a lot on how much time you want to spend on it.
 
If a chain comes in thats been freehanded and nothing hits consistent...i can usually get it good on 2 or 3 passes., may have a cutter or 2 that dont get a full perfect edge. If a chain has been damaged and a couple cutters are broken back or not flat...i cut them off as long as they aren't consecutive.

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we know that for a chain to cut properly it is not necessary for each tooth to be the same length as long as they are all properly sharpened. What we need is a grinder that has the vise mounted on a lever operated slide that would allow the vise to be advanced a small amount and then returned to a home position. With this feature, if you find a damaged tooth, you could leave the chain clamped in the vise, slowly advance the tooth and nibble away at it until sharp, then return to the home position and carry on sharpening without disturbing the original chain-stop setting. I have yet to see a grinder with this feature.
Anyone who thinks that each tooth has to be the same length should visit Buckin Billy Ray's sharpening instructions on U-tube.

Isnt this the reason for the more expensive hydraulic foot pedal?
 
I sharpen to the longer teeth, if a short one comes I just pull the stone over to hit it. Running a Oregon 511a, there is a little flex in the head. Steve
Did the grinder come that way? It's a good feature and I have seen it before and always thought it was just due to wear on the head pivots or a weak design that allows too much flexing.
 
It's a judgement call. The general method for me is to lookie the chain over and try and find the worst tooth that will require the most sharpening. If the chain is in really good shape, but one cutter is kicked pretty bad, then I am tempted to sharpen the rest and just do a little on that bad tooth with a hand file.... if the chain down to the last 1/4 of life, then I might go ahead and bring them all to even. More than 1/2 the time I can find the start point of the chain (where it was joined up) and use that as the starting point on sharpening. The oregon 511 can do a very nice job of it, but I am going to see if the modified Stihl USG can beat it.
 
It's a judgement call. The general method for me is to lookie the chain over and try and find the worst tooth that will require the most sharpening. If the chain is in really good shape, but one cutter is kicked pretty bad, then I am tempted to sharpen the rest and just do a little on that bad tooth with a hand file.... if the chain down to the last 1/4 of life, then I might go ahead and bring them all to even. More than 1/2 the time I can find the start point of the chain (where it was joined up) and use that as the starting point on sharpening. The oregon 511 can do a very nice job of it, but I am going to see if the modified Stihl USG can beat it.
it will indeed!
 
When I have 67 teeth on a chain to do my cutting, a couple that missed the grinder wheel aren't going to make much of difference. I always use a bench grinder and set the depth to whatever tooth is first. All the others get sharpened to that setting. Some teeth get a rock or a nail in the tree and that's fine, grind what's there (or not) and move on. Next time around, that tooth or teeth will eventually get the grinding wheel.
 
Did the grinder come that way? It's a good feature and I have seen it before and always thought it was just due to wear on the head pivots or a weak design that allows too much flexing.

My grinder is 30 years old, could be some wear but I'd bet even brand new ones have enough flex to pull on the head and grind a shorter tooth. NO way am I grinding most of the teeth down to the length as the shortest tooth. Steve
 
It's a judgement call. The general method for me is to lookie the chain over and try and find the worst tooth that will require the most sharpening. If the chain is in really good shape, but one cutter is kicked pretty bad, then I am tempted to sharpen the rest and just do a little on that bad tooth with a hand file.... if the chain down to the last 1/4 of life, then I might go ahead and bring them all to even. More than 1/2 the time I can find the start point of the chain (where it was joined up) and use that as the starting point on sharpening. The oregon 511 can do a very nice job of it, but I am going to see if the modified Stihl USG can beat it.
My bet is on the USG
 
My grinder is 30 years old, could be some wear but I'd bet even brand new ones have enough flex to pull on the head and grind a shorter tooth. . Steve
The Oregon/tecomec versions have some "play" in the frame that would allow you to get couple thousands of an inch of play.
The Stihl USG is very solid. There is no perceptible play. Insane accuracy (german engineering again).
The motor on the USG can be setup with a reversing switch. It is NOT a easy task! The grinder I am using I messed up on. The first grinder seems to be doing just fine.
Your results may be different.

Once the wheel can be reversed the USG can produce a VERY nice cutter.

I am getting the bugs out of a Foley Belsaw 308, and I believe this will equal the USG once I get everything fixed and setup right.
Oh, and not a lot of "play" in the Foley either...
 
The Oregon/tecomec versions have some "play" in the frame that would allow you to get couple thousands of an inch of play.
The Stihl USG is very solid. There is no perceptible play. Insane accuracy (german engineering again).
The motor on the USG can be setup with a reversing switch. It is NOT a easy task! The grinder I am using I messed up on. The first grinder seems to be doing just fine.
Your results may be different.

Once the wheel can be reversed the USG can produce a VERY nice cutter.

I am getting the bugs out of a Foley Belsaw 308, and I believe this will equal the USG once I get everything fixed and setup right.
Oh, and not a lot of "play" in the Foley either...
T! I have one and the precision is first class,out of the box sharpening
everytime
 
FWIW, I keep two bench grinders, one for 3/8 LP and one for 3/8 both right by the saw "bench". I "shape" and clean the grinding wheel edge (matchingly round) with a mounted diamond. Both grinders have the "Oregon Sway". I set the head to come down so it just misses/touches a given tooth, and then I use "sway" in little "bites' (similarly to the way people with "Silvey" grinders make a quick set of little grinds with the wheel. I wear magnifying glasses and look at what is happening during the grinding moment, and at what the tooth looks like in between moments. I "tilt" the chain holder for square corner chain (and often tend to look particularly at the corner). I try to keep bars and the drive side of the saw relatively "clean", so I am usually taking the chain off for saw / bar cleaning when the chain needs a touch-up. So, sending the chain teeth around the grinder and then putting it back on is the quickest, easiest way for me, probably takes half the time of a file sharpening. (In sum, I would find the Stihl "no play" grinder less practically effective than the Oregon ("editable" touch) grinder.
 
If a couple of cutters are shorter than others, sharpening those shorter ones separately will more than likely have little or no effect on cutting as they will probably not even touch the wood when cutting as the height of those cutters is lower than the height of others that are cutting, thus will not contact wood-except if your maybe using the nose a lot for cutting ?
plus not every cutter will cut wood as it travels down the length of the bar
 
It's a judgement call. The general method for me is to lookie the chain over and try and find the worst tooth that will require the most sharpening. If the chain is in really good shape, but one cutter is kicked pretty bad, then I am tempted to sharpen the rest and just do a little on that bad tooth with a hand file.... if the chain down to the last 1/4 of life, then I might go ahead and bring them all to even. More than 1/2 the time I can find the start point of the chain (where it was joined up) and use that as the starting point on sharpening. The oregon 511 can do a very nice job of it, but I am going to see if the modified Stihl USG can beat it.
^^This^^
 
Did the grinder come that way? It's a good feature and I have seen it before and always thought it was just due to wear on the head pivots or a weak design that allows too much flexing.
I bought a new chinese cheepie grinder (looks the same as a Oregon, alloy, full adjustments etc) and the pivot has some play (not too bad), I am going to pull it to bits and make bushes on my lathe and generally try to improve it a bit.
 

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