Harbor Freight Chain Grinder On Sale

[yukiginger]

...search past threads for discussions on this unit, and quality issues, but anyone interested in it can find it on sale now for $29.99. Even if you don't have a store near you (print out the price from the homepage if you go to pick one up) with shipping it still comes to less than $40 delivered to your door.

http://www.harborfreight.com/

MarkG

 

[bump_r]

Thanks for the heads-up, but I'm holding out for a bigger/better one.

 

[hornett22]

for a little more money.........

i just ordered the stihl one.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

How much was the Stihl one? I can't find a price online.


Based on what I've read on other threads, it seems the cost of a grinder is not just the price of the grinder and replacement stones, but you also have to figure in the cost of going through chains faster than a hand filer would. (Because the grinder takes off more metal each time.)

So it seems the cost of various sharpening methods goes like this, from cheapest to most expensive:

1. Hand filing.
2. Grinder.
3. Pay someone else to sharpen them
4. Buy a new chain every time one gets dull.

Does that sound right?

 

[computeruser]

A few years ago I was looking at the Stihl grinder. A local shop quoted me something in the neighborhood of $600.

Your ranking of sharpening costs looks about right. If you aren't planning on doing tons of chains, the manual bench mount sharpener jig thing that Stihl sells seems like the best deal at $150. Plus, because you're using standard round files with this setup you get a really good edge, much prettier than a grinder with the standard pink bonded wheels.

That said, $300 for the Tecomec/SpeedSharp/Oregon 511A grinder is well worth it for most folks who do any real quantity of sharpening. http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-bin/baileys/1758?mv_session_id=j4PkUqze&product_sku=45320 It is quick, easy, and durable. Charge your buddies and neighbors a few dollars per chain to sharpen theirs and you'll soon have it paid for.

 

[sawn_penn]

So it seems the cost of various sharpening methods goes like this, from cheapest to most expensive:

1. Hand filing.
2. Grinder.
3. Pay someone else to sharpen them
4. Buy a new chain every time one gets dull.

Agreed, but around here in terms of quality on round-ground chain:

1. Hand filing.
2. Buy a new chain every time one gets dull.
3. Grinder.
4. Pay someone else to sharpen them

I've seen so many blued chains with atrocious angles in town that I haven't had the guts to give my chain to even the local dealer I trust.

People seem to think that with a grinder they don't need to keep their mind on the job. Sharpening is a subtly demanding task.

 

[SteveH]

My regular Stihl dealer/repairman is about 25 miles from here, so one day I decided to try out the local Coast to Coast hdwr store only 5 miles away, they'd become a Stihl dealer also. Left them a chipper chain to sharpen, figured I might need someone closer by now and then, give them a chance to test customer service. This chain had never been sharpened, I hadn't hit any rocks, etc., cut-and-dried touch up sharpening job. Yeah, I coulda done it by hand, was just giving a local business a chance. When I went in to pick it up, the teeth had been ground back to where there would be no more sharpening. I was displeased. The manager, when I got to him, said, well, he was training a new guy who'd never done any sharpening and he just kind of, well, didn't do so hot.

They would not replace the chain [not much money at their cost], charged me anyway the $7 or whatever it was, and wouldn't even admit this was a problem. I continued to use my one-man shop a few miles farther away. Live and learn.... [Seems I do a whole lot of that learnin'.]

And, yep, I've told that story to everyone I know locally who cuts wood....

 

[coveredinsap]

Anytime you create sparks you are ruining the hardness of whatever you are grinding. In other words, these grinding gizmos are not only shortening the life of the chain by removing more material then necessary, they are also ruining the hardness of the teeth and making the chain dull quicker.

In essence, these types of grinders (all of them) are garbage if you care about your chains.

 

[cuttinscott]

Ok Sappy I have sharpened more chains than I'd like to remember in the last 25 years. How do you thing the chain manufactures sharpen they use robotic grinders... I wish I had one of them fancy machines haha.. So as far as our sharpening for our customers we have 2 grinders set up if the chains are very nasty. But you know I never blue or remove more tooth than needed, if I was to remove more than needed it would take longer to sharpen the chain. And last I looked I sell sharpening for a flat rate not by the hour. So why would I want to slow down the sharpening process any more than needed? Also if the chain is just wood dull and the cutter does not need reshaping I usually just file them anyway..
Just My 2 cents
Scott

 

[Lakeside53]

Wrong again sap... In the hands of the inexperienced, sure, you can mess up a chain in a grinder, but anyone that knows what they are doing doesn't.

It's all to do with feed rate. An have you ever heard of Kool-grind?

As for "removing more material than necessary" - nope... that's operator error. I only remove as much material as necessary, and sometimes hardly anything at all. Most times if I'm removing "a lot" it's because of a chain that's been ruined in dirt, or, filed badly.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Wrong again sap...

Hey, at least he's consistent!

 

[coveredinsap]

Hey, at least he's consistent!

As are you...crying like a baby to the moderators all the time.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Oh good gawd, here we go again...Is no topic safe?

:bang:

.

 

[woodshop]

1. Hand filing.
2. Grinder.
3. Pay someone else to sharpen them
4. Buy a new chain every time one gets dull.

Does that sound right?

Interesting list. I had heard of number 4 above, but until I actually came across more than one guy that does in fact toss the chain when it stops cutting and just buys a new one, I thought that that was just a one in a thousand guys. The kind that buys a new saw and promptly puts raw gas into it and burns it up.

Been thinking about a grinder myself, but decided if I do get one, I only want a good one, thus hard to justify the price for what little I do. In all honesty, I kinda enjoy hand sharpening my chains. True I don't sharpen every day like some of you, but I don't mind taking the time, and like getting it right.

As for a local shop not knowing what they are doing... took my milling saw into a dealership for some service a while back, and when I went to get it back I was scolded for taking the dogs off of it and for sharpening my chain incorrectly. Well the dogs were off so it could fit in my mill, and I had milling chain on it, ground at 10 degrees. Here they went ahead and had reground my milling chain back to standard chain. I never even asked them to sharpen the chain when I took it in, they took it upon themselves to do that when they saw that it was "ground at the wrong angle". When I complained that he ruined my milling chain, he said he didn't know what milling chain was. Silly me. Like SteveH says, live and learn.

 

[Paul61]

Anytime you create sparks you are ruining the hardness of whatever you are grinding. In other words, these grinding gizmos are not only shortening the life of the chain by removing more material then necessary, they are also ruining the hardness of the teeth and making the chain dull quicker.


Unbelievable, ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess the die makers who sharpen the progressive dies (they're carbide, if this means anything to you) that stamp the chain teeth are in fact actually dulling them with the surface grinder (it make's sparks btw)!! I gotta forward this one to my Die Maker buddies working @ Blount, Canada...........(They manufacture miles of Oregon chain per day), they'll put this beauty up on the wall!
Well, so much for your knowledge of basic metalurgy Sappy, stick with the framing jobs buddy, you don't have to deal with Rockwell "C" scale there huh?

 

[Lakeside53]

Oh good gawd, here we go again...Is no topic safe?

:bang:

.

not from a umpkin2: "carpenter extraordinarie"

 

[Cut4fun]

Anytime you create sparks you are ruining the hardness of whatever you are grinding. In other words, these grinding gizmos are not only shortening the life of the chain by removing more material then necessary, they are also ruining the hardness of the teeth and making the chain dull quicker.

In essence, these types of grinders (all of them) are garbage if you care about your chains.

Use your Mr. Bill voice here. Ooooohhhh Nooooo. I just sharpened 4 riding mowers and 4 push mowers blades. Man the sparks were flying just like in years past. Guess I better go pull them and get new ones according to ole sappy, because I am sure that all them sparks have took the temper right out of my blades over the years. But now I know I should have tossed them the first time I sharpened them and had all them sparks flying.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Ooohh Noooo!

Not to worry! They come from the factory "pre-ruined".

:bang:

.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

LArry, I think your avatar came from the factory with his hair "pre-ruined".



Will you get rid of that ugly thing!!!!:bang:



Uh, I mean the avatar.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Done, just for you!

:hmm3grin2orange: