cross cutting bad for chain?

[Stihl Alive]

I knwo that's not the term for it. I mean when you cut into a log parrallel insted of perpedicular. Basically any cut that produces curly noodle instead of square mulch. Is this bad for my chain? Does it dull quicker?

my spelling and grammar are so awesoem I'm not even going to fix it this time. You guys get the drift.

 

[Brian VT]

I don't think it's bad for it, it just won't cut as well as a chain designed for ripping. Those have a shallower cutting angle (5-15 deg.).
Cross cutting is the common cut, like when felling, limbing, or bucking.

 

[Rickytree]

Eh stayin Alive! I think your referring to cutting against the grain which would be hard on the saw. This is the cut where is if you took your saw and started to cut down the center of the tree towards the ground. You get dust! What hurts a chain in a clean tree is included bark and rotten/junk stuff( black crap ) KEEP CUTTIN:greenchainsaw:

 

[JeffL]

I havent seen too many adverse effects from it. I think the big problem is you tend to run into a lot more crap when cutting like this.

Example, we cut down 200+ Hemlocks ranging from 4 to 24+ inches in diameter, and wanted to keep the amount of scrap wood we hauled away to a minimum. I was milling stumps down small enough to get into the chipper, and you run into so much dirt/included bark/just utter crap in those crotches of multi-trunk trees. Thats what really did the chains in. Not to mention an old barb wire fence was run through the "hedge" at one time.........

 

[mpatch]

I knwo that's not the term for it. I mean when you cut into a log parrallel insted of perpedicular. Basically any cut that produces curly noodle instead of square mulch. Is this bad for my chain? Does it dull quicker?

my spelling and grammar are so awesoem I'm not even going to fix it this time. You guys get the drift.

It's called ripping. They do make ripping chains.

 

[Stihl Alive]

It's called ripping. They do make ripping chains.

I don't do it enough to buy a ripping chain. I just did it the other day so someone could get a huge piece of wood on the splitter and wondered if it had any adverse effects on my chain.

thanks for the answers guys.

 

[tomtrees58]

no not at all we chunk trees down all the time tom trees

 

[Stihl-in-Ky]

Won't hurt anything do it all the time with knotty and crotch pieces just cut it from the side and not stand it on end as that makes it cut much harder

 

[(WLL)]

It's called ripping. They do make ripping chains.

the rip chain is also called a milling chain, it should have a more narrow curf and will allow for a faster cut. every other cutter on a rip chain lacks a top plate; this helps to remove sawdust. a standard husky bar will prolly be a 3/8 pitch, the ripper should be more like 0.325. with a set-up like this you should change your rim sprocket, after all that jazz you want about a 10 degree attack angle and you will get a much smoother cut. imo ripping wood will not damage the saw chain but will beat on the saw and take a lil extra time. ripping chain rips but good luck getting all the right goodies for any small saw.

 

[TreeTopKid]

I've done quite a bit cutting like this making benches/tables etc for people, and if your saw is sharp it cuts fine but you need to assist your saw by pulling out the long shavings it produces as you go. A chainsaw was never designed to throw out long shavings of wood.

 

[(WLL)]

somthing to think about

don't cut from bark to bark. cut from the bark to the internal sapwood, then complete the cut from the other side of the log. when you cut from bark to bark while ripping, the chain pulls dirt trapped in the bark onto the end grain and wrecks the sharp edge of the tooth. when you cut from bark to wood, the nose should always cut in clean wood and the sawdust will throw the dirt out. end grain is good at holding dirt; side grain will not hold so well. proper cutting prevents excessive dulling that causes many problems with rip cutting and saw work.

 

[pdqdl]

I knwo that's not the term for it. I mean when you cut into a log parrallel insted of perpedicular. Basically any cut that produces curly noodle instead of square mulch. Is this bad for my chain? Does it dull quicker?

my spelling and grammar are so awesoem I'm not even going to fix it this time. You guys get the drift.

No, it's actually less load on the chain and on the saw.

All the previous posts seem to focus on ripping or milling, which is cutting across the grain, perpendicular to the long axis of the log.

Unless I am mistaken, you are asking about cutting with your bar parallel to the log. This is the best way to make big sections of log small enough to carry, yet leave them long enough to split and burn. It's only good for logs shorter than your bar, however.

 

[rmihalek]

It's a great way to make nice looking pieces of firewood from nasty sections of wood, the kind that jam up the splitter or where the splitter just wants to pop off a small section.

 

[(WLL)]

It's a great way to make nice looking pieces of firewood from nasty sections of wood

firewood, dont gotta be purtty ta burn.

 

[Maldeney]

All I know is it beats taking a maul or splitter out to manage those over sized rounds that you need 3 men and small child to move around!

I don't have to cut like that often but I don't think your are going to see it dull the chain any faster than bucking. Although as mentioned earlier, if you cut down through the grain (perpendicular to the grain) you get nothing but dust, the cut takes twice as long and you can definitely feel the saw working much harder.:greenchainsaw:

 

[Stihl Alive]

yeah. I was talking about ripping. My FIL has a home made splitter he just put a 3000 lBS winch on to hoist up big pieces to split and I was helping him the other day. I was already tired and we had been splitting for about two hours. He insisted on me hooking every piece I couldn't lift so he could play with his remote control winch. I finally got tired of messing around with it and pulled my 660 out of the tool box to just half some of them up. Seemed to me to cut slower. And I did have to stop a lot to clean the noodles out.

thanks again for the info.

 

[Rickytree]

Eh Stihl Alive when cutting like that try to hold the saw on a angle(Preferably nose down) so the shaving don't jam the saw or get caught in the wood. Cuts pretty much the same speed but the strands are not as long and don't get caught up. Just makin posts!