Bucking spikes - necessity?

[Al Smith]

Oh Lawdy the dawg thing again.All my big dogs are west coasters complete with the big dawgs,giant ones.I kind of figure what's good for the far coast is good for the heart land.

My little midwestern saws of 60 to 80 cc have midwest dawgs,pups really.The micros have none ,they are not mature yet.:biggrinbounce2:

 

[slowp]

Off topic googily moogily speak

Tried using Googily Moogily today when I slipped on something under the snow and landed on buns. I could only utter goooo.

 

[drmiller100]

so by the time you buck up 10 cords in a day, at one point or the other you probably had a slightly dull chain.
dogs let you keep going until the chain is really dull.

if you stick a 28 inch bar into a 8 inch spruce, she wants to feed HARD down into the log. Real world says you stand there and keep the chain out.
now take that same exact setup and move over to a 26 inch doug fir, and by halfway through the log the engine isn't being loaded and the chain is just taking little ittybitty pieces. put the dogs to her.

so you are cutting a 20 inch log laying on the ground, and you are down on your knees. it has been a long day, and you are tired, and not paying total attention, but you have the dogs set and both hands on the saw.
the tip hits a log on the far side, and the saw jumps. with the dogs, it jumps about 2 inches.

i've been cutting a lot of dry piss fir and dry spruce. i'm running an 8 tooth driver on my 7900, and rakers are at .035, and i'm getting plenty of big chips.

what can i do to get my chain to feed better into the big stuff without getting scary stupid on the little stuff?

 

[adkranger]

What craziness..........

To each there own, but I can't imagine running my saws w/o any bumper spikes/felling spikes/dawgs or whatever else you wanna call 'em. They are there for a purpose, not a West Coast thing, a macho thing, or a bling thing but a tool built for a purpose.

Like I said, to each their own preference though.....I guess that's why they make them removeable. The only saw I've ever removed them on is one of my small limbing/climbing saws because there are times when the saw can get hung on a chunk of wood and wants to take the saw with it to the ground. Not a good feeling.....

I can see omitting them from racing saws though.

 

[raycarr]

I just got this old McCulloch from a friend, compared to the rest of his Macs, these dogs are medium. I had to borrow the pics, I'm not risking another shot to the generals asking to use my sister's camera.
I can't wait for the weather to clear and tie into some 20" alders with it.

Ray

 

[p575]

i have a ms390 with the same dogs that were on it when i got it. what exactly is the "proper" way to use em? i typically let them dig in and the leverage against em to drive the bar into the wood. i will admit that my chain isn't always as sharp as it should be...sometimes though, it seems putting some leverage on it is the only way to make it cut...is this right?

 

[GASoline71]

Using leverage against them to drive the saw into the wood is not the way they are intended to be used.

They are actually intended to grip thick bark on big trees and they work as a pivot point when fallin'... again, on big wood is where they really come in to play.

If you are usin' the dawgs to reef on the saw to force the saw to cut... you need to work on your chain sharpening skills.

Gary

 

[joecool85]

Using leverage against them to drive the saw into the wood is not the way they are intended to be used.

They are actually intended to grip thick bark on big trees and they work as a pivot point when fallin'... again, on big wood is where they really come in to play.

If you are usin' the dawgs to reef on the saw to force the saw to cut... you need to work on your chain sharpening skills.

Gary

And this info right here is what I was looking for. In other words, little to no reason to through them on a 36cc saw w/14" bar.

 

[GASoline71]

Prolly not...

Gary

 

[2dogs]

I have a bumper with no spikes on it that I think came with my MS260 Pro. I run aftermarket dogs on the 460 and 660 and would not be without them. Redwood bark is thick and tends to sluff off and jam up small dogs. Mainly I feel it is safer and easier to use the big grabby dogs. I have never thought, or cared about losing bar length. Nor have I ever considered dogs to be useful with a dull chain. That just seems like a quick way to ruin a bar. The 361 has dual smaller dogs with a roller chain catcher and the 441 has dual large Stihl dogs but I have been experimenting with those two. My 371 and 394 are both factory full wraps and came with big dogs. I even had dual small dogs with the roller catcher on the 260. The 357XP comes with one teeny, worthless dog. I don't know if there is an optional bigger dog for it or not.

 

[joecool85]

I have a bumper with no spikes on it that I think came with my MS260 Pro. I run aftermarket dogs on the 460 and 660 and would not be without them. Redwood bark is thick and tends to sluff off and jam up small dogs. Mainly I feel it is safer and easier to use the big grabby dogs. I have never thought, or cared about losing bar length. Nor have I ever considered dogs to be useful with a dull chain. That just seems like a quick way to ruin a bar. The 361 has dual smaller dogs with a roller chain catcher and the 441 has dual large Stihl dogs but I have been experimenting with those two. My 371 and 394 are both factory full wraps and came with big dogs. I even had dual small dogs with the roller catcher on the 260. The 357XP comes with one teeny, worthless dog. I don't know if there is an optional bigger dog for it or not.

What is a roller catcher? Pics?

 

[24d]

pics of big dawgs with rollers this is always my favorite part!:chainsawguy:

 

[thomas72]

I think chain speed has a big factor on bucking gaffs. A saw with a high chain speed will not have any use for them unless the chain dulls then a lot of people tend to keep pushing on the saw instead of sharpening the chain. On bigger saws you need the spikes to managed the extra weight of the saw, and to put the engine under the correct cutting load that the saw was designed to run under. I could not see running my SP125s or Poulan pro 655 without bucking gaffs.

 

[raycarr]

I have seen saws with big spikes, too big for anything but logging, they look cool, but would be in the way for normal firewood use. I'll ask for some pics from the owner.

Ray

 

[kevinj]

pics of big dawgs with rollers this is always my favorite part!:chainsawguy:

The roller is located at the bottom, between each the spikes.

 

[joecool85]

The roller is located at the bottom, between each the spikes.

Ah, I see. So, why do you need a roller there? I guess I don't see why it'd be important.

 

[2dogs]

Yes it is a bigger tougher chain catcher that is the full width between the dogs. The little hook catcher gets beat up pretty fast and breaks off. The roller catcher protects the saw much better than the hook.

 

[geofore]

not so

I think chain speed has a big factor on bucking gaffs. A saw with a high chain speed will not have any use for them unless the chain dulls then a lot of people tend to keep pushing on the saw instead of sharpening the chain. On bigger saws you need the spikes to managed the extra weight of the saw, and to put the engine under the correct cutting load that the saw was designed to run under. I could not see running my SP125s or Poulan pro 655 without bucking gaffs.

bucking spikes are for the guys that don't know they ought not to remove the rakers more than 25-35 thous. it keeps the saw from being pulled into the wood hard enough to break the front of the saw or splitting the case causing a leak. Then on the other hand if you used the spikes you could run the saw through the wood with just one finger lifting on the trigger.
None of that two hands on the saw for safety, dawg in, pointer finger under the trigger and lift gentlely. I suggest you stand to one side or the other and not directly behind the saw if you do this to find out how well you can sharpen a chain. If it doesn't cut through the wood with just the lift of one finger your sharpening skills need work. The saw should have enough power to hold the dawgs in the wood and the chain should be sharp enough to pull the saw down through the wood.
There are a few common mistakes harry homeowners make that make spikes a must have. The bad start, not revving the saw up speed before touching wood. At a dead stop on the chain harry places the saw to wood pushes down then pulls the trigger. Saw slams into the wood and breaks the front of the case as the saw responds to the trigger pull. Starting the cut using the tip end of the saw and as the chain bites into the wood, harry's grip is inadiquate to hold on and the saw goes flying into the wood busts the case. Some times caused by removing the rakers or lowering them way too far but that's covered in harry learns to sharpen a chain.

 

[2dogs]

Well! Thanks for showing me the error of my ways. I'll be sure to remove the spikes off all the saws. We all need the exact same tools no matter what the job. No room for tolerance here.

 

[joecool85]

Yes it is a bigger tougher chain catcher that is the full width between the dogs. The little hook catcher gets beat up pretty fast and breaks off. The roller catcher protects the saw much better than the hook.

Hey, that's pretty cool! I hate the little aluminum bugger on my saw, one chain that came off and the thing is all messed up.