Replacing a Stihl ES Bar Nose

[rotarysound]

Hello chainsaw experts,

I have a 25" ES Bar and one side of the replaceable nose appears overly worn on one side.
Is it possible to replace an ES Bar nose without special tools ie. rivet/chain breaker tool or is this a job better left for the dealer to do?

The nose comes with new rivets.

 

[056kid]

Easy put the bar facing with the bigger rivet holes down. Then take a punch and hammer the rivets out. Then replace the new tip properly in accordance with the bar. then place the aluminum rivet correctly in the hole,( larger side of hole where the un pressed rivet is flat). Now find a nice sturdy surface, aka steel anvil or whatever and hammer the protruding rivet until it is flush with the bar.
Shouldn't take ya more than 5 minutes! good luck.

 

[RiverRat2]

+1

Yep!!!!!!! If ya have an anvil with the hole at the back it makes it nice for driving out the Rivets with the suitably sized flat drift punch but a solid vice or just a good flat steel table works good as stated,,, and a 4 lb hammer works great !!!! wear your eye protection!!!!

 

[Lakeside53]

The rivets are steel... and... you should drill them out - exactly on center - until you cut though one head. Then punch out. Insert new, peen over, and then set with a ball-peen hammer (NOT framing hammer) on an anvil (or back of a vice).

 

[056kid]

i don't think they are steel. they don't rust and are pretty malleable

 

[Lakeside53]

I'm pretty sure they aren't aluminum... I'll look tomorrow.

 

[rotarysound]

Stihl ES Bar Tip

Thanks everyone for your responses. I tried earlier with a punch on the anvil side of the bench vise and the rivets do not move. The rivets both look equally sized to me and flat on both sides of the bar. I got one of them out by drilling it. Two left to do. I center punched a starting hole, used some oil to help the drill cut. The material seems harder than aluminum.

I have a small ball peen hammer (.65lbs) and a large framing hammer (2.5lbs) and various steel punch's. It seems like my little ball peen hammer may not have the required weight for peening over of the new rivets. I'll see if I can get a better tool to use. More later. Thanks again.

 

[SawTroll]

Don't forget to adjust the rail hight of the new tip to the one of the end of the bar, as necessary.

 

[RiverRat2]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I tried earlier with a punch on the anvil side of the bench vise and the rivets do not move. The rivets both look equally sized to me and flat on both sides of the bar. I got one of them out by drilling it. Two left to do. I center punched a starting hole, used some oil to help the drill cut. The material seems harder than aluminum.

I have a small ball peen hammer (.65lbs) and a large framing hammer (2.5lbs) and various steel punch's. It seems like my little ball peen hammer may not have the required weight for peening over of the new rivets. I'll see if I can get a better tool to use. More later. Thanks again.

I just dimple em good with the drill bit to weaken the ide you are going to punch from, use the new tip open holes or the new rivets to properly size/select the flat tipped drift punch prior to driving them out you want a drift that will slide through the holes in the tip !!!! get a manly ball peen hammer for smaking stuff like that,,,,,32oz minimum!!!! I place the tip over the hole in the anvil taking care to have the rivet to be driven just clearing the edge of the hole!!!! so it has some place to exit!!!! BTW,,, This is one of the only instances Sir Lakeside53 will approve of smacking anything saw related with a hammer umpkin2:

 

[sugarbush]

drilling is the recommended method but easier to touch with a small grinding wheel and removing most of the head and they'll punch out easy. I believe they are steel.

 

[rotarysound]

Okay, does that mean that once the new nose is installed with new rivets that the bar is put on the bench grinder to smooth any differences in the bar/nose transition?

I'm guessing here. Since this bar has had a good amount of wear, I am expecting that the new nose tip will be slightly wider than each side of the bar where the two connect. Thanks

Don't forget to adjust the rail hight of the new tip to the one of the end of the bar, as necessary.

 

[grawil]

You may want to check out the instructions in the oregon bar guide. When I did this, I needed to carefully drill it out first as there was no way I could move the rivet with a punch & hammer alone. Obviously, I need to buy a larger hammer.

 

[Lakeside53]

Okay, does that mean that once the new nose is installed with new rivets that the bar is put on the bench grinder to smooth any differences in the bar/nose transition?

I'm guessing here. Since this bar has had a good amount of wear, I am expecting that the new nose tip will be slightly wider than each side of the bar where the two connect. Thanks

I use a bar rail grinder to set the tip rail to the same height as the adjacent rail. You can also use fixed disk sander (with 90 degree table) with coarse paper. I wouldn't use a bench grinder - real hard to keep things true. Take ret to your local saw shop if you have a problem. Is only a few seconds on a rail grinder.

As for removing the rivits.. it's safer to drill the head off one side first...

 

[grawil]

Okay, does that mean that once the new nose is installed with new rivets that the bar is put on the bench grinder to smooth any differences in the bar/nose transition?

I've never needed a grinder when working on my saws... I figure that if you need to use a grinder, the bar is probably too worn to save. As shown in the guide above, file down the rails of the new nose to align with the rails of the bar. Keep your file 90 deg to the bar.

 

[Lakeside53]

I figure that if you need to use a grinder, the bar is probably too worn to save.

That's not correct... bar rails can be, and need to be, trued (ground, filed or whatever) many times thoughout their life. As part of a standard tune up here, the bar rails get ground. Sometimes it just a touch, but often it's a lot more. On short bars it's not so important, but long bars with asymmetrically worn rails make straight cuts in big wood difficult to impossible. The big burrs that form on the side of bars drag in the wood and indicate that the bar needs grinding on the top as well as the side.

 

[grawil]

That's not correct... bar rails can be, and need to be, trued (ground, filed or whatever) many times thoughout their life.

Agreed. I read rotarysound as wanting to use a bench/angle grinder which (to me) implied he was intending to remove a fair bit of material. I've never needed anything more than a flat file to touch up/true my rails.

 

[rotarysound]

Well this all worked out good. The bar nose is on and the newly whacked rivets are flat, done with a 3lb hammer. I will be going to Madsen's for bar rail truing/grinding, a new sprocket and some chains. Thanks all!

 

[056kid]

I split a tip on a my husky just yesterday.

 

[OilHead]

First purchased the Silvey bar rail closer then went over the edges by hand with a piece of automotive hone prior to closing , removed the tips installed new ones from Baileys . Stihl tips may not be in the catalog call them . After that work was done droped them off at my dealer he charges $ 10 each to finish them off . Stihl 36" & stihl 28" . They wont see a lot of use so seemed like the way to go.