which chain

[DogBoy]

I just acquired a Sthil 026 and need some chain advice. I would prefer to have just a single use chain. As a woodturner I used to section my logs with my old chainsaw (poulan wildthing) when I needed to and split them the hard way by hand. What is my best option for a chain that will rip well and do the occassional sectioning work? Most of my pieces are no bigger than 20 inches in diameter.

 

[Lawn Masters]

I'd go with a good chisel chain, those seem to work well on the 026. welcome btw. the 026 is a great machine, if you dont abuse it. a Stihl chisel chain would be quite nice on this saw. I've looked at the cutters, they're slightly larger than the ones on other brands of chain in .325 pitch.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

If you're going to be ripping, get a ripping chain. It depends on how much sectioning you're going to be doing, and by "sectioning" I'll read that as conventional cross-grain cutting. If it's going to be literally one or two cuts a day, it might be hard to justify a convential chain for just that, and if you're going to be ripping with that 026 it's going to need all the help it can get, as it's not a milling saw, and ripping is tough on a saw, and calls for large amounts of torque, though theoretically any saw can do it. I'd say get both types of chain, and do it right. I guess I see it as chains are cheap, and your saw will thank you if you have the right chain for the job. You'll be happier yourself as well when the job goes faster with the right chain for each respective type of cutting. If you get the ripping chain, you'll have to convert that saw (and bar if it's a roller tip) to 3/8" pitch if it isn't already, as I don't see any ripping chain in Bailey's in .325 pitch. Though someone may know of a source for ripping chain in that pitch.

And just as an aside, if you're going to be relying on a saw to rip wood on a consistent basis, you might look into another saw besides the 026. Like I mentioned above, even your Wildthing is capable of ripping, but ripping takes it's toll on a saw, and it'll be far more noticable and accellerated on a smaller saw that wasn't meant to cut like that. Just a thought.

Jeff

 

[SawTroll]

If you want to stay with .325, Oregon Micro-lite bar ("Narrow kerf", .050 gauge) with 95R chain for ripping and 95VP for crosscutting would probably make a good setup.

 

[DogBoy]

I won't be doing a lot of cutting with it either way. The limit of my time mean I am goign to cross cut probably two or three 16 to 20 inch wide x 4 feet long logs or so away from home, and maybe section another 6 bowl length pieces and rip them at home.

 

[SawTroll]

If you are going to rip short pieced of wood, you don't need a ripping chain, just remember to cut them from the side at a slight angle, and not from the end.
Also remember to clean out the wood curls that result from under the clutch cover quite frequently.

 

[CNYCountry]

If you are going to rip short pieced of wood, you don't need a ripping chain, just remember to cut them from the side at a slight angle, and not from the end.
Also remember to clean out the wood curls that result from under the clutch cover quite frequently.

Agreed, the only way to efficiently rip wood if you don't care about smoothness of the cut at the sides of the kerf is to lay it down so the grain runs from you towards where you're looking, tip the bar up about 20° and ease into it with the tail of the bar near the powerhead. You don't want to cut with the bar flat because you'll take entire long sections of the grain and the chips will be many inches long, clogging up the side cover. As you drop through the wood all the way on the near end you can start tipping the tip end down to get the rest, now you'll be taking shorter sections of grain and it won't be as likely to clog...

You will find how much to tip the bar with practice, you want the chips long and stringy enough that you're cutting quickly but not so long they clog things up. Tip too much or set the wood up on end and you just wind up with fine dust and it's extremely slow because you're just cutting the ends of the wood grain over and over again. The trick is to peel whole short sections of grain off. Done correctly it's almost as fast as crosscutting; here you'll find that the top plate edge of the cutters does most of the work instead of the corner as with crosscutting, so a sharp chain is as always important.

 

[trimmmed]

I just acquired a Sthil 026 and need some chain advice. I would prefer to have just a single use chain. As a woodturner I used to section my logs with my old chainsaw (poulan wildthing) when I needed to and split them the hard way by hand. What is my best option for a chain that will rip well and do the occassional sectioning work? Most of my pieces are no bigger than 20 inches in diameter.

Just use a regular chain, no need for a rip chain unless you are making boards.