Buying an electric sharpener

[MiloFrance]

Although at times I quite enjoy it (quite therapeutic like hand building bicycle wheels) sharpening a chain by hand is sometimes more than I want to do. Until now I've taken it to our local place who have done a fairly good job. The staff in the shop have now changed. Time to get an electric sharpener and do it by hand and when I get the urge...

 

[unclefish]

Tecomec super jolly . do a search on hear . Best sharpener I have ever owned. only time I pickup a file is if i run out of chains to switch out.

 

[MiloFrance]

Looks great thank you unclefish. Sadly about 4x my price range!

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

Your chain pic is why I broke down and bought a USG. I got tired of folks bringing me chains that looked like they been cutting concrete.

I was going to suggest Tecomec too. Dad got one and was about a 1/2 cost of a USG.

 

[Philbert]

Looks great thank you unclefish. Sadly about 4x my price range!

What is your price range?
(And how do you say, 'You get what you pay for' in French?

Philbert

 

[MiloFrance]

Lying in bed researching. Found a tecomec midi jolly on a deal I can cope with. Going to look around town tomorrow, up to 80€. If I don't see anything that I like I think the midi wins at 150 (payment over 4 months). Hopefully that sounds reasonable...

 

[Wood Doctor]

Looks great thank you unclefish. Sadly about 4x my price range!

Looks like you are not able to buy a good electric chain saw sharpener. That's the way it is sometimes. Nobody said that commercial chain loop sharpening is an easy task, money wise or skill wise. That's because it is not.

 

[Doorfx]

 

[Doorfx]

 

[Flint Mitch]

https://maverickmowersupply.com/700010-chain-grinder-super-jolly-w-hydraulic-clamp
I recently bought one from here, money well spent. Got it in 3 days too!

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

 

[Philbert]

The Tecomec Midi Jolly is a decent quality, but smaller sized, and lower powered grinder. Selling for $110 (eBay) to $150 (Bailey's ) over here.

I prefer the full sized grinders, with the larger motors. The basic, full-sized Tecomec goes for $200 here (eBay).

If you go with the smaller one, that is probably a good choice. Also check out the small Oregon grinder - limited power and adjustments, but lower cost.

Philbert

 

[Philbert]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tecomec-Co...383242730198?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10
https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/oregon-310-mini-grinder.283691/
Philbert

 

[MiloFrance]

I believe that I am sorted for the moment! Two words in French for sharpen so I changed my search criteria to the less used word, and a Tecomec mini came up for €20. Only an hour away, 2 chains in the box as well. Thank you all for the advice, I'm not a heavy user, I should think it will barely get used once a week. As a last note on the shop sharpening they also manage to do all the teeth slightly differently and overheat some.

 

[computeruser]

That’s a good price. Good choice!

I had good luck with the Oregon 511 grinders - first an early reversible motor version and a later non-reversible. I used these for many years. Profile the wheel well and grind cautiously, and you will be happy with the results.

You may also find that the grinder works best to even things up every few hand sharpening. That is what I discovered, particularly as my hand sharpening got better.

After a time I took a different approach, focusing on not rocking my chains. Short bars, plunge cuts, keeping the tip out of the dirt. Made a lot of difference. I went to all hand sharpening almost 10 years ago now and it works for how little I cut anymore. At that same point I also realized that it wasn’t worth my time to fix loops that get banged up too badly, so I just give those away on CL, since time is the resource that I most lack.

Now if I could find a gently used square grinder at a good price I would be back in the grinder game for sure!

 

[Philbert]

Congratulations!

Take your time and experiment on some 'scrap chains' before sharpening you good ones. See what small changes in the settings do to the cutters. Take a chain that you like and try to 'copy' those angles, without looking at the numbers on the machine, and compare that to some cutters that you ground according to the numbers.

Intentionally try to overheat some cutters, then work backwards to see how to prevent that (you can usually grind through those 'burned' cutters if it happens accidentally.

Many of the tips in this thread will also apply to your grinder, even though it is a different model:
https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/511a-grinder-improvements-tweaks.197073/

Philbert

 

[Patrick62]

I had good luck with the Oregon 511 grinders - first an early reversible motor version and a later non-reversible. I used these for many years. Profile the wheel well and grind cautiously, and you will be happy with the results.

Oregon 511a is reversible, but you have to do a bit of wiring... Somewhere I did a diagram on how to do it. Years ago... a DPDT switch.
They probably think it is unwise to be shooting sparks at the operator. Whimper, getting outta bed isn't safe! But the chain comes out MUCH nicer.
I am disappointed that the Stihl USG that I have at the store is hard wired in the motor, and I can't easily access the connections to reverse it.