Newbie question: Using Oregon M80 chain with my Farm Tough bar (80DL/.325/.50/20") good to go?

[klaus von herten]

M80 instructions say to only use with Oregon "Microlite" or "Speedcut" bars. Is this just marketing-ese or are there serious safety implications with using a different bar? I'm currently using the Farm Tough bar that came with my 450 Rancher at the moment. I'm thrown by the "narrow kerf" and "speed cut" designations.

Is an Oregon bar a better bar anyways and I should just buy one? I noticed the Speedcit bar seems to have a replaceable sprocket and a grease hole.

Thanks in advance.

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[GrassGuerilla]

Sounds like you bought a narrow kerf chain. Question is: is your bar standard or narrow kerf? It should fit fine, and be "safe" so to speak. However it may not work ideally together. The kerf may not be wide enough for the thickness of a standard kerf bar. In that case it may get pinched easily or at least wear the paint off the bar very quickly. Some standard bars will work acceptably with a NK chain, but I couldn't begin to say which ones. I'd say either get the correct chain for your bar or switch to a NK bar. It will cut better with NK as it has less material to remove with each cut.

 

[Franny K]

I doubt many of us here use chain that is labeled by the letter coding M in this case. If your 450 rancher came with 0.050 gauge bar, that is the slot for the drive links, chances are it is not one of the thicker bars one could find. Oregon could have chosen to put an acceptable overall thickness for the bar but chose to do it that way like you wonder probably for marketing reasons. The actual kerf gets smaller as the cutters are sharpened back. Probably would work fine with a new chain on all but the thickest solid replaceable nose bars. I have used .325 NK chain on some hard nose bars that certainly do not have those trademarked names and did not worry about it.

 

[klaus von herten]

So the M80 designation by Oregon seems to be a Lowe's thing maybe? It is also known as 95TXL080G.

I ended up getting a speed cut bar, Oregon 200TXLBK095 to go along with it. I didn't get the calipers out yet, but it seems to be the same width as my 20" Farm Tough bar, but an inch or so shorter. There are some ads on this site about the SpeedCut system found here: http://www.oregonproducts.com/speedcut/

From the Oregon site and the description, it is not a low kickback chain. I am going to hang up bar and chain until I get comfortable. Got an 18 inch low-kickblack chain and bar combo (Oregon 39272) in the meantime.