chainsaw papa
ArboristSite Lurker
Hello and thanks for your time , I am relatively new to this although i have been cutting 10 chords a year for about ten years now so i'm used to chain sharpening for the purpose of tearing through fast. However I've only milled just over thirty ten footers and ive been having trouble with grooving through out the cut like a washboard. I'm using a stihl 461 with a 32 inch bar. Everything I've been milling is between 15- 24 wide, all red oak that's been standing dead and one old maple. I'm assuming the problem is with the chain and more specifically me sharpening it. I've been having a few issues, originally my stihl dealer gave me a pair of full skip chain when i asked for ripping chain and told me they were the same which iv'e now leaned the differences ,, after the second cut or so with the new chain its been taking me over 20-27 min for a 9+ foot oak 15-20 inchs across, sometimes running out of gas before it finishes. I "feel" like i'm sharpening it well and doing it after every cut at this point. I'm using the stihl long gauge you lay on top of the chain to check the depth gauge risers but no matter how many times i have filled the chain it still says they don't need to get filled down even tho it acts like its blowing powder out, am i just using it wrong?Do those gauges not work on skip chain for some reason? I can only assume my chain is no longer grabbing anything as progress eventually ground till a halt but the gauge still reads below the file level. So this painfully slow forever filing is all I ever knew. After getting frustrated with the saw not cutting i threw on a new regular chain that I had picked up, I started cutting the same logs in 7-8 min, half a tank of gas leftover and the saw was pulling me through out the cut gently, it was like everything i had read about. between cuts 5-7 it started to leave shallow but more prevalent chain grooving in the cut and had slowed down, so I sharpened it, I tried being careful to maintain even pressure on every tooth and counted my strokes. and when i returned for a cut it pulled right through again but not as smoothly or as fast as when new and it also left very deep chain grooves. It was only the first time sharpening it I didn't think I could mess up five strokes that fast. After that cut i tried again this time with the stihl 2-1 in case the depth gauge needed to go down or get even, I went back and it tore right down the log but again with very deep groves. So i guess one of my questions finaly is does the teeth wear very unevenly from side to side because of the pressure of horizontal cutting even when using alot of wedges? I just picked up a tool to measure the length of the teeth so i can keep them even but when I checked them there was a difference but maybe only a pen tip,,is that all it takes for such a severe reaction? do you need to measure them evertime you sharpen the chain then for milling? And if the stihl depth gauge tool dosnt work on skip chain then how do you all file them so there even because dosnt there height control more of the grooving then the length of the tooth? I would also love any ideas for covering and storing your piles ,my current plan was to wrap them in weed fabric to keep the rain off but still looking for a suitable cover. I have a few adds on Craigslist for scrap metal sheets from roofing but have hurd nothing for awhile now. Any ideas to do with the end cuts? Any and all of your help is greatly appreciated I have exhausted myself reading this past 10 months and I have three kids 3 1/2 and under so 20+ min a cut and all this trial and error with the chain is getting tiresome. Thanks again if you've managed to read to the end is. Also I live in CT there is literally NO ONE around here that does this to talk with and the three closest dealers to me have absolutely no idea about chainsaw milling other then knowing what it is and they have no other customers that do it that they could give my number to for help. Thanks and take care