Someone please explain what chain guage is all about

[Mange]

I must have missunderstood what guage is or something....
If you have a new chain with 1,5mm (0.59 inches) drive links and want to run this in a 1,3mm (0.51 inches) New bar, as the Husqvarna bar's and chains are here, you will not get it to work. I have tested and so have many others.

The 1,6 (0,63 inch) is used on sttt..stihrgdb, ah you know the white orange stuff....
It was used on the old 3/8 and .404 chains here, but it is impossible to get bar's with chainsaw mount here now, only harvester...

There is also 1,8mm (0.71 inches) but it is not at all common.

I heard of bigger, but just very old chains. And I mean very old!

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

If you keep a sharp chain and do regular maintenance, todays bars should give you plenty of good service. For the long time a bar lasts and the little bit a bar costs, its not that big a deal to change it out.
The thinner bars are attractive because they are lighter. I hope the technology of laminating bars improves, because the idea of having aluminum or some other alloy that would make the bar lighter would really save a lot of work lugging it through the woods and throwing it around when cutting with it.
I don't really have issues with bars bending. Usually the rails wear out, so as far as I'm concerned, the body of bars are over built if anything.

 

[coveredinsap]

I must have missunderstood what guage is or something....
If you have a new chain with 1,5mm (0.59 inches) drive links and want to run this in a 1,3mm (0.51 inches) New bar, as the Husqvarna bar's and chains are here, you will not get it to work. I have tested and so have many others.

The 1,6 (0,63 inch) is used on sttt..stihrgdb, ah you know the white orange stuff....
It was used on the old 3/8 and .404 chains here, but it is impossible to get bar's with chainsaw mount here now, only harvester...

There is also 1,8mm (0.71 inches) but it is not at all common.

I heard of bigger, but just very old chains. And I mean very old!

So you can't buy .404 .063 or 3/8" .063 bars or chains there?

And yes, .058 chain won't work in a normal .050 bar.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The other thing is if durability is a big problem, you should think about going up a size in pitch, not changing gage.

 

[046]

thanks for weighing bars!

shouldn't the .050 guage bar be slightly heavier than .058 guage, due to thicker rails on .050 guage bar?

I concur on the bar thickness being the same. Here are Dims. on two of my stihl bars one is an E and the other an ES.

Bar#1 20" Rollomatic ES #3003 000 9421, 0.063
Overall bar thickness = 0.175"
Weight = 1235g (2lb - 11.6oz)

Bar#2 20" Rollomatic E #3003 000 8921, 0.050
Overall bar thickness = 0.175"
Weight = 1063g (2lb - 5.4 oz)

Tom

 

[Lakeside53]

thanks for weighing bars!

shouldn't the .050 guage bar be slightly heavier than .058 guage, due to thicker rails on .050 guage bar?

The bar's weighed are different - one is laminated and the other solid. But yes, logic would indicate a very slight difference in two identical bars.

 

[Lakeside53]

Agreed. Everyone seems to be trying to do things on the cheap these days, including bar manufacturers. It appears that one way they can cut costs is to just make all the bars the same ....and the grooves different. This is not a step forward in quality, it is a step backward.

huh? Why is this a step back wards? You way you state things a new reader would think you're obviously talking from the depths of your experience, but have ever owned a quality pro bar from this century?

If you doubt this, look at some of the bars from the 70's and 80's, and compare them to the bars marketed today.

You can't make a valid blanket argument that any old bar is better. I have a lot of bars from the 70/80s... and from the 21st century. Pro bars from a quality manufacturer are excellent today. Yes, there are a lot of garage bars around, but that's the same for everything that becomes a consumer item.. you get what you pay for. Of course there are cheaper and also lighter (and not necessarily cheaper) bars - the market market demands both, but you get to choose. I have a bunch of bars from the 80's that great and a bunch that are pure junk... and I get to grind a lot of bars from many manufacturers. It's really easy to tell which one stand up to the tests of time, but time isn't the indicator - usage is. 25 year of "abuse" twice a year isn't the same as cutting 6 hours a day for a year(s).

The old Mac bar I have is over 35 years old, and has seen tons of use/misuse. After grinding off all of the rust, fixing some nice sized dents, etc., etc., the bar is back in business doing stump work. I doubt the bars of today will be so lucky 35 years from now. Restoring a good thick piece of steel is one thing....and restoring a thin pos is another thing entirely (and generally not worth the effort).

Thick doesn't equal better. Let's compare apple with apples - A Stihl Duromatic bar (similar in construction to your old mac bar) will fair just as well or better.

You don't actually know if it has had "tons of use/misuse" - how long have you owned that saw? Your damage could have all happened in a few days of cutting, and how long ago doesn't matter. Yes, you'd be best to use it for stumps - hard tips were replaced a long time ago for general cutting.... hey, that sounds like an advance.

For other readers, the mac bar and the duromatic are hard-tipped bars (no sprocket).

 

[manual]

Chain Guage

Lakeside is right on the money about diff guage sizes (Oil Distribution).
Also as far as Quality of bars nowadays. Yes there are junk Bars out there. as always. The better bars have different Alloys Combined. to make them wear better then the older ones. Even the bearings are made better then the older ones. Why because research has gone along way baby.

 

[Mange]

So you can't buy .404 .063 or 3/8" .063 bars or chains there?

And yes, .058 chain won't work in a normal .050 bar.

The 1,6 (0,63 inch) is not availeble here with husky mount, as far as I can tell..
I have seen with stihhh...Stttt (I will never learn to write that word) mounting, but thats it as far as chainsaws are concerned.
I know there is some private small importers that might could get, but I doubt it.

When looking at HVA's web site here they offer 2 bar's with .63 guage.
501 84 31-04 36” .404, 104DL, 1,6mm
501 84 31-24 42” .404, 124 DL, 1,6mm

This does not mean that I can bye them. When I called the dealers this winter to order one 501 84 31-24, they were not availeble and I doubt they would sell any here anyway.

Chain's I can order, but not from any chainsaw dealer.