Touching up chains

[BobL]

Because I cut mainly hard wood I touch up the chain on the mill after about every 32 sq ft of cutting. A few people have asked me seeing as I run full comp chain whether I swap out chains or touch up on the mill.

Here is a short movie showing how I touch up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qE0iN_P-6E

That's 15 cutters touched up in 54 seconds or 3.6 seconds per cutter.
For the 60" chain with 95 cutters thats about six minutes of filing, plus a few seconds to tap out the filings every 20 cutters or so, and time to scratch myself and walk around to the other side of the mill, so make it ~7 min all up. Sometimes I go for 3 strokes instead of 2 but it only adds another 1.5 minutes to the process.

With the 42" bar it's ~4 minutes of filing plus scratch time, ie about 5 minutes.

Given it takes me 5 minutes to swap chains and then I still have to sharpen you can begin to see where I'm coming from.

I usually take the chains off to do a raker reset or to get all the cutters back to the same lengths.

 

[losttheplot]

not sure if you posted a link to the wrong file or something but that bar sure looks like its clamped in a vice on a work bench

 

[BobL]

not sure if you posted a link to the wrong file or something but that bar sure looks like its clamped in a vice on a work bench

Sorry - I should have said something about this - In this case it is a 60" chain on a 42" bar clamped in a vice. Next time I have a chain on the mill I will take a vid of that - it doesn't change the time it takes me to file on the mill. It's more the sharpening pattern I use.

 

[gemniii]

Good vid Bob.
How about putting it in the sticky.
How often do you change files?

 

[BobL]

Good vid Bob.

Cheers.

How about putting it in the sticky.

OK - I'll write up a brief sharpening and include the vid.

I just got myself an iPhone and made myself a little tripod bracket so I hope to make a lot of short vids related to CS stuff in the near future.

How often do you change files?

I change them when they no longer make that nice crisp rasping cutting sound and start to skate across the cutters and make more of a scratching sound.

 

[gemniii]

I change them when they no longer make that nice crisp rasping cutting sound and start to skate across the cutters and make more of a scratching sound.

Thanks -
Any SWAG on how many "60inch chains" you get thru?

 

[BobL]

Thanks -
Any SWAG on how many "60inch chains" you get thru?

I have 5 60" chains 2 pairs are ~2/3rd worn, 2 are ~1/4 worn and 1 is new.

 

[Kicker_92]

Could just be the angle, but that looks more like a 30° angle your filing at there...

 

[BobL]

Could just be the angle, but that looks more like a 30° angle your filing at there...

Yeah the angle of the video shot doesn't help
I rotated and reloaded the video so the top plate angle is more obvious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwLEuY5Iao

The black lines on the file guide are marked at 12.5º and I stay slightly shallower that that so they are around 10º. It's more obvious if you look at the the cutter tops themselves.

Here's a raker setting vid you may be interested in;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSr9j2EDoqk
Some discussion thereof here.

 

[Eddie39]

Good video Bob there looks to be plenty of life left in that chain and all the teeth look nice and even how do you sharpen your chains when your out milling somewhere on site do you take extra pre-sharpened ones with you and just swap over or do you use a stump vice and touch them up on site i always take one extra chain already sharpened in-case of unseen materials embedded in the wood and Ive got a small hand held metal scanner like the type door security would use at big events to scan for weapons might sound funny but it works you just have to remember to set your saws well out of its range before you scan the wood plus i take a few good files just to keep the chain thats on the saw good for as long as possible .

 

[BobL]

how do you sharpen your chains when your out milling somewhere on site do you take extra pre-sharpened ones with you and just swap over or do you use a stump vice and touch them up on site

I nearly always sharpen on the mill. I lay the mill over on my portable worktable like this and clamp the mill to the top of the work table as show.

At the milling yard or at home I sit in a plastic chain and sharpen one side sitting down. Then I walk around the back of the mill and actually lean my chest on the lengthwise tubular handle and my arms come thru from the back. It sounds crazy but it works.

i always take one extra chain already sharpened in-case of unseen materials embedded in the wood and Ive got a small hand held metal scanner like the type door security would use at big events to scan for weapons might sound funny but it works you just have to remember to set your saws well out of its range before you scan the wood plus i take a few good files just to keep the chain thats on the saw good for as long as possible .

That's basically what I do. My logs are pretty hard so if I cut 6-8 big slabs or 10-12 small ones in one day I reckon I have done OK.

 

[Eddie39]

That's similar to what i do myself although i have to say it took me a while to get used to sharpening the saw in the mill one side was fine to do but the other side wasn't, for a while till i found the best point to sharpen through the mill .