Introducing the Chainmeister

[Philbert]

Tree Machine thought it valuable that new, first-time buyers give the reports. Treestuff thanks those contributors for donating their time, images and feedback. Now onto the next part of the presentation...

If you get Bob, Randy (any of the "big three"), Glen, Shaun, Bitz, Rope, Pac, Jeff etc, etc,etc, or Philbert to say this is $108 well spent, then it is.

I think that I have a pretty good idea of what this product does, and just to re-state, looks like it could be a useful device for the right users*. So I am not asking to be included. But there have been several newer products that have been made available to be passed around among A.S. members for their input, comments, and feedback. I recall the Atop filing guide, some unusual file handles, PowerSharp chain, etc.

So a 'next part' might be to create a list of interested 'product interviewers' who agree to give it a fair evaluation, post objective comments, and pass the device on to the next person on the list. Folks on the site will likely pay more attention to A.S. members they know. Just a suggestion.

*I am actually more impressed with the bar holding clamps, by the way - I think that a lot of conventional filers could use those with their saws for tailgate sharpening. Could be more convenient than a machinists vice. I have only seen them in this thread.

Philbert

 

[roberte]

I guess I don't get it. You have to have spare bars for every size chain, mount vise to a spare board, mount board to a stable platform, move and remount the vise for different size bars. I guess if you are going to sharpen 20+ chains of each size it might work for you (and many of you might do that). Obviously some people like it. If I am missing something I apologize.

No your on point.

 

[roberte]

I thought you were retired:msp_biggrin:



Oops, checking the skies for musical hammers

There's no retiring in my business. But thanks. I'm not even that old anyway.
In my mind I'm still 24 and bullet proof, even thou at 47 I know I'm not.

 

[Gologit]

There's no retiring in my business. But thanks. I'm not even that old anyway.
In my mind I'm still 24 and bullet proof, even thou at 47 I know I'm not.

47? Pfffft.... you're just a pup. 47? I've got wedges older than that. :msp_biggrin:

 

[roberte]

47? Pfffft.... you're just a pup. 47? I've got wedges older than that. :msp_biggrin:

Yea, yea, pup, been listening to that crap for a while too.
We are as old or young as we want to be. Cutting helps me feel good about life.

 

[StihlKiwi]

Maybe...but since a paying sponsor and his product are being featured that's not a bad thing.

You get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Not knocking the sponsor or his product, I'm sure it's ideal for some users. Just saying that the testimonials strike me as pretty damn cheesy.

 

[nelson727]

Had to read through the thread from the top again, yep I’m in the right place - a marketing thread!

“Oh shoot, maybe I’m kind of conning people!” No sure enough they said they asked
me if I would be a part of sharing what I thought about the Chainmeister. What they didn’t say is that I agreed as long as I could tell it how it was for me. When I first saw the CM I thought it was “an answer to a question that hadn’t been asked.” I do talk funny, don’t I?

I’ve always thought in terms of sharpening a chain on the saw for the life of the chain and if I were doing this in practice I wouldn’t need this tool. The only trouble was that in the days following first seeing videos of the CM in action I realized I wasn’t doing that. Instead I was throwing chains that couldn’t quickly be cleaned up on the saw in a box and never getting back to them.

Since my last post I have had this thought come back to me a few more times - I’m going to save hundreds of dollars in the next box or two of chain that I don’t give away.

View attachment 298736

One more thing I noticed, I started to touch up my big saws (two 28" and a 42") as I was putting them away and I thought, "Why don't I just lock them up in the CM vise for stability?" What a difference from just holding a saw with my elbows as I work it.

 

[kevin bingham]

I

*I am actually more impressed with the bar holding clamps, by the way - I think that a lot of conventional filers could use those with their saws for tailgate sharpening. Could be more convenient than a machinists vice. I have only seen them in this thread.

Philbert

I have a chainmeister, but really own two chains per saw at a time. I don't at the moment have a big pile of chains needing to be sharpened. Actually do have a pile of chains but don't have a saw they fit at the moment... Anyway I haven't really been able to incorporate the chainmeister at the moment to its full capabilities. It is a very well made tool. And it works exactly as described.

I think the real story for me here is these bar clamps. I can not believe they are not available anywhere else. There are the stump clamps... But who carries around a friggin stump. The chainsaw clamps are exactly what Everyone needs. I use it everyday now. I used to have a vice on my workbench that I would use but it is pretty unpractical. This is the real story that's going to come out of this project for most people. I really can't understand how these clamps have not been made before tree machine. I don't know how I worked on my saws before... Thanks!!!!

 

[Tree Machine]

Greetings, everyone.

I have been asked by Treestuff to come in and contribute.


You're a tough crowd here in the Forestry and Logging Forum, but that is precisely why Treestuff decided the ChainMeister introduction thread would be started here. The device has been through rigors of development, redevelopment, refinement, testing and more testing.

As of this writing, the ChainMeister has not even been formally presented to the professional community. You guys are getting a pre-release preview, some time before the rest of the world gets the news. The ChainMeister has been recently made available, but those who have bought one have literally stumbled upon them at the treestuff webstore. The thought behind this thread was to have the earliest, new users of the ChainMeister to share their findings with some of the most highly experienced, seasoned professionals in the industry who've never seen it.

I all honesty, we really didn't know how that would go. Who knows what is the best way to approach introducing such a new and unfamiliar piece of gear? We chose to go where we would get an acute level of scrutiny, where judgement would be the highest, where acceptance would be the most difficult to achieve.

So thank you, Forestry and Logging Forum. You are the tough crowd Treestuff chose to share with first.
View attachment 298958

 

[roberte]

Greetings, everyone.

I have been asked by Treestuff to come in and contribute.


You're a tough crowd here in the Forestry and Logging Forum, but that is precisely why Treestuff decided the ChainMeister introduction thread would be started here. The device has been through rigors of development, redevelopment, refinement, testing and more testing.

As of this writing, the ChainMeister has not even been formally presented to the professional community. You guys are getting a pre-release preview, some time before the rest of the world gets the news. The ChainMeister has been recently made available, but those who have bought one have literally stumbled upon them at the treestuff webstore. The thought behind this thread was to have the earliest, new users of the ChainMeister to share their findings with some of the most highly experienced, seasoned professionals in the industry who've never seen it.

I all honesty, we really didn't know how that would go. Who knows what is the best way to approach introducing such a new and unfamiliar piece of gear? We chose to go where we would get an acute level of scrutiny, where judgement would be the highest, where acceptance would be the most difficult to achieve.

So thank you, Forestry and Logging Forum. You are the tough crowd Treestuff chose to share with first.
View attachment 298958

opcorn::greenchainsaw:

 

[Tree Machine]

To best present what I have for you, I will politely ask to start a new thread, heavy in pictures and video.

With permission to do this from the moderator, I will continue. I don't want to commit an infraction as I am representing treestuff.com

 

[Philbert]

Please post a link to the new thread here so folks can follow it?

Thanks

Philbert

 

[2dogs]

More ChainMeister info? Haven't we had enough already. Yeah I know about sponsorship but why isn't this in the sponsored forum?

I have never seen any sponsor invade the F&L forum like this.

 

[madhatte]

Tree Machine, you REALLY ought to seek sponsorship if you're going to discuss products. "Non-Sponsor Selling" is a bannable offense on this forum. I'd hate to see you get your wings clipped by a rule you already agreed to abide by when you clicked "Yes" to the Terms Of Use when you signed up here.

 

[Tree Machine]

I tried to be clear that this is treestuff's product, that they are a sponsor here and I accepted their invitation to share some real inside scoop on this product.

But I will only do it if it is wanted and needed. Treestuff is just offering readers of this forum to have first news, it was intended as a respect thing. It is OK with me if we introduce it in the treestuff sponsor area. Maybe that would be better.

Phlbert, I will offer a link here if the request is cleared.

 

[KiwiBro]

If there can be 100 channels on TV then I can't see why we can't have 50 different ways to sharpen a chain. Someone, somewhere is going to buy this device. Me, I will continue my crusade against complexity and thus refuse to buy something like this that to me has the potential to be used once or twice then gather dust in the back of the shed or cluttering my tool boxes without good reason.

But others can fill their boots for all I care. If it works for 'em and they get a good sharp chain then good on 'em.

 

[madhatte]

I tried to be clear that this is treestuff's product, that they are a sponsor here and I accepted their invitation to share some real inside scoop on this product.

Ah. I suppose I already knew that, but forgot. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by walls of text. All's well; carry on smartly.

 

[Tree Machine]

Opinion acknowledged, KiwiBro.

Assuming complexity, though, is an assumption. The intent of the device is to streamline and simplify a repetitive process.
I am aligned with your crusade against complexity.

Pulling a sharp chain off a chainsaw to put a dull chain back on so it can be sharpened, to me, is complexity. Why would anyone in his right mind remove a sharp chain from a saw and put a dull chain back on? Well, that's just the way it's been done since day one because there were no other option, short of mechanical grinder sharpening for those dull loops hanging on your bench.

Sharpening on the saw, in the field, nothing wrong with that except the chainsaw is decommissioned. I do this regularly, and both the saw and I are not working. On 14" chains that need a touchup, no problem. On 36" chains that got rocked out, you may be spending an hour of valuable worktime getting that chain back in usable form. I may lose 50- 100 dollars of income standing in one place instead of cutting, like I should be doing.

If I rock a chain, I have a spare bar and chain, all mounted up. I swap one for the other and get back to business. Now I have a sharp chain on the saw, dull chain mounted on the bar with the ChanMeister and I can sharpen that chain, free of the saw, when it is a more convenient moment, like during a break, or while eating a sandwich.

This simplifies my workflow greatly. I have not had to put a dull chain back on a chainsaw in quite a long time and I do not miss that a bit.

I also swap 24" and 36" bars between my big saw, as needed, the ChainMeister simplifying that and leaving the ChainMeistered bar and chain ready to be sharpened when the moment is convenient, and it is sharp and ready for action then when I need it.

The ChainMeister is always mounted to a bar and chain, it does not collect dust. Since it works with any pitch, gauge or length bar and chain, new options are available that weren't before. That's not complexity. The intent is simplification and streamlining of a repetitive task that we all face.

 

[KiwiBro]

Perhaps complexity isn't the right word. Clutter might be more appropriate. I've got files for sharpening on the saws, grinder for off it. Anything else is clutter unless it replaces one or both of those options adequately. This device could slice bread and make the coffee for all the use it would be to me.

Now, if hand filling off the saw is somebody else's idea of a good night in then like I said in my post above, I'm glad it works for 'em and this device could be the bees knees for it.

 

[Tree Machine]

Perhaps complexity isn't the right word. Clutter might be more appropriate. I've got files for sharpening on the saws, grinder for off it. Anything else is clutter unless it replaces one or both of those options adequately.

I've been down the road you're on, Kiwibro, had the grinder, a nice one by Stihl. I got fewer sharpenings during the life of a chain, the chain was never as sharp as I could get it by hand, the abrasive grinding wheel sent tiny dust particles in the air and on the bench and on the wall in back of the grinder, those machine-sharpened chains then won't take a hand file without ruining the file, yada yada, same reports as you'll see all over the internet. I got rid of the machine because to me it represented clutter, potential pulmonary problems, repetitive replacement costs of the worn out wheels, regular fine-tuning of the machine to keep consistency, and readjustment of the machine for the next chain if it was worn differently from the former chain. As time went on I was finding I was spending an amount of extra time to maintain the machine to maintain the chains. I assumed the machine would save me time, effort and money, which is why I bought it. I finally had to admit to myself that I was wrong in this assumption. It didn't meet my expectations in the real-life setting. Your results may vary.

You present an assumption of (clutter, complexity) based on, well, I don't know or claim to know your reasonings, but that's OK. Your system works for you. We all have to go down our own paths. Your system worked for me for awhile until after a great deal of actual, personal, first-hand experience I went back to hand-sharpening.

I'm amongst the crowd that knows you can get a chain sharper with a one dollar file by hand than with a machine. And like that crowd I hand filed, on the bar, on the saw. And I still do.

Nothing has changed, except now there is an option, not a replacement, to the way I have been doing it. Let's be very clear on that. The ChainMeister takes nothing away, doesn't require any real change as the hand-filer is still filing by hand. It just adds certain options that you employ only when the advantage serves you. So bottom line, you call it clutter, I call it options. An option is only viable if the option is somehow better than the norm.


With this device, from my own personal experience, it becomes more useful, and you find more uses for it the longer you have it. That's the general report treestuff is getting from others. And at this point I sincerely apologize that I have not yet shared the options, advantages and efficiencies you can expect. All I have given is the 'cover of the book'.

I'd like to offer a picture and video based presentation on all that I know of this device. As of this time, a have only replied to responses. I've given nothing of value, and for that I am sorry.