Trouble Cutting Stump

[galde]

Ron: Good idea to start with new sprocket, bar, and chain. Your second pic shows classic "chain too loose" battering of the bar just behind the nose. You can see how this happens if you observe the path of a too-loose chain while running the saw on its side. With no load on the chain, the running chain accumulates its excess slack on the underside of the nose, and it arcs outward when coming off the nose sprocket, and then crash-lands on the rails just behind the nose, as evidenced by the pounded-down area in your second pic. The sprocket-bar-chain combination is a precision mechanism in which damage or excess wear on one component will quickly damage the others. Failure to keep the chain properly tensioned is a common form of saw abuse, even among users who really know better. Chain tension should be checked at every filling of the fuel tank, and adjusted if necessary.

 

[Lawn Masters]

Those rakers are WAAAY too high, I like mine at about .025 or .030, depending on the wood and the saw. .025 is pretty good for most any task.

 

[Al Smith]

As that chain is sharpened and the cutting edge goes further back,you have to file down the depth guides,to allow the tooth to "rock" into the cut.These are most definitely too high.The chain,if sharpened properly ,would make a good "stumper".

 

[badcars2]

they speaketh the truth

went to homedepot and got the oregon depth guage, you wont believe the difference it makes, but if you do put your chain in trash you will be sharpening it again when you get done.

 

[hammerfall]

if your not in a hurry to make the stump dissapears...
i think there is some chemical powder that you put on the stump (after drilling some holes) and the cemical will make the wood rot faster and make it easy to get rid of it.

maybe some folks here have seen this stumb buster powder.

 

[hammerfall]

take a look at this site!
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lazylandscaping/ht/stump_removal.htm

 

[klickitatsacket]

here is a great trick for getting rid of stumps roots and all... Drill several 1" holes as deep into the stump as possible. Make a thin slurry of Potasium Nitrate (salt peter) and water and fill the holes. cover with plastic. Do this for 3 months straight. Recover each time you fill the holes and allow it to soak in. This will permiate all the way into the feeder roots. At the end of the 3rd month soak with kerosene and light on fire. This will burn the stump completely out including all the roots. The saltpeter is an oxidizer and provides the oxygen for the roots to burn under ground. We used this in Idaho to clear a 5 acre "stump farm". I heard it is a little difficult to get in large quantities since 9-11 but if you get a letter from your local Sheriff you can still get it in 100# bags.

 

[geofore]

Doug, does Gypo know a lot about sharpening chain? I thought he was stihl working on building a fast chain. Cleaning the gullets tidbit is true. If you don't clean them out better they hold/lift the cutter off the wood just long enough for the side of the cutter to miss it's mark and foul up the cutting action as you stump. I see from the picture you didn't flip that bar over often with the loose chain on it. Your cutters looks to be more than 2/3ds gone and now you can take your rakers down near the hash mark and change the file size you use by 1/64" as you get close to the back end of the cutter. Some folks change file size near the back of the cutter some don't. Save this chain for stumps after you get it touched up a bit. Don't waste your new chain on the the stump till you've try this one again after a bit of touching up.

 

[turnkey4099]

Nah ! Come on that is really too obvious !


Well then again MAY BE NOT !

Nope, not too obvious. I bought a used saw once from a knowledgeable man. Yep, the chain was on backward.

Harry K

 

[geofore]

Doug, I just saw the pics of the 999 Gypo posted on DozerDan's page in "other sponsors". He does know how to clean out the gullets or somebody did it for him. Take a look at how well they are cleaned, right to the line so they don't lift the side of the cutter till it hits wood. Now he's going to be bragging about his barbed wire, looks like he got it sharp enough cut fast. Roc, take a look and you'll see what your gullets should look like when your done cleaning them out. You don't need to take the cutters that far back or the the rakers that low but you do need to clean the gullets so they look that nice if you want the chain to be steady in the cut when you're stumping. It does make a difference.

 

[tony marks]

just lay a flat something across the chain.. the depth gauges should not touch the surface of the flat something..should see lite between it an the gauge.. as to how much ,lite .. its easy to adjust an you can find out what cuts best.. remember ,u can take metal off.. cant put it back on.. so little increments at a time..jmo