Electric Chainsaw sharpening - advice

nudepcguy

By the above title I mean that I require advice on sharpening a chainsaw with an electronic grinder / disc. Does anyone have experience of these and recommend a brand name that they ar happy with? I have been sharpening manually for years but it can be hit and miss and want to try one of these sharpeners now.

Any advice warmly excepted!

CJhaughey

nudepcguy wrote: »

By the above title I mean that I require advice on sharpening a chainsaw with an electronic grinder / disc. Does anyone have experience of these and recommend a brand name that they ar happy with? I have been sharpening manually for years but it can be hit and miss and want to try one of these sharpeners now.

Any advice warmly excepted!

They work well but you should never see sparks, if you do you are heating the tooth and will destroy the temper, making the tooth softer.
Hard to get a decent one for anyway reasonable money a good reversible grinder will be ~200+ at the minimum.
Those 12v ones that have a small barrel shaped grinding wheel are useless IME.
Tecomec make reasonable grinders probably the best value.

bing3

Curious about this myself. There are a lot of these on ebay from a guy in Mayo. Seem good value at €37 but I ordered a Dremel attachment. Got pretty good reviews and at only 10 bucks you cant really go wrong. You do need the rotary tool though but they are a lot more portable than the workbench variety. Wil let you know how it goes.

Discodog

I used to use a full bench setup but now I only sharpen by hand as I don't doo a lot of tree work. I too have been tempted by the Oregon 12 volt small unit.

The problem must be that if you are a little out with your angles using a file it is not critical whereas a powered grinder could wreck your chain.

Have you ever tried the handhelds CJ or is your opinion based on not trying them ?. To me 12 volt is an advantage.

It always amazes me how pro's & contractors will disagree. About 20 people posted on a pro forum regarding mowers & all had different views !

johno2

nudepcguy wrote: »

By the above title I mean that I require advice on sharpening a chainsaw with an electronic grinder / disc. Does anyone have experience of these and recommend a brand name that they ar happy with? I have been sharpening manually for years but it can be hit and miss and want to try one of these sharpeners now.

Any advice warmly excepted!

I think CJ is right. I've been sharpening my saws with a hand file for the last couple of years. I hit some dirt in a rotten tree stump last week and wrecked a chain so I took it to a service shop. The guy there used an electric grinder to clean it up a bit first. Lots of sparks etc, then he finished it off with a hand file and did what looked like a really good job. It was sharp enough to pare my fingernails with it anyway and I got nice long strips of wood on a test cut. After 1 tank of fuel the next day the chain was f*cked again. I'm gonna stick with hand filing from now on. It's slower but much better in the long run. My tip is to use a chunky vise-grip to hold the file, I get better control and accuracy than I do with a cheapo file handle. If you take the time out to give it a light rub every 3 tanks of fuel it'll work out better in the long run.

johno

CJhaughey

Discodog wrote: »

I used to use a full bench setup but now I only sharpen by hand as I don't doo a lot of tree work. I too have been tempted by the Oregon 12 volt small unit.

The problem must be that if you are a little out with your angles using a file it is not critical whereas a powered grinder could wreck your chain.

Have you ever tried the handhelds CJ or is your opinion based on not trying them ?. To me 12 volt is an advantage.

It always amazes me how pro's & contractors will disagree. About 20 people posted on a pro forum regarding mowers & all had different views !

I have tried the 12v oregon one, and it was very hard to keep a consistent angle on all cutters, one slight movement and you are at 28 or 33 degrees instead of 30!
The bench mounted ones are better as they can be adjusted to grind an accurate angle but they need to be reversible and a lot of the cheaper ones are not.

12v is an advantage but not when they are that poor, To be honest if you are any way good at hand filing, get a stump vise and use that, and your chains will last way longer.
Those mini grinders are just for lazy b'stards IMO.:D

Discodog

I have to agree with Johno. Nice to know that it is not just a Galway thing. Some of us here have noticed the same with chains that are sharpened by a local dealer. Razor sharp when you get them & blunt 5 mins later.

A friend of mine carries a genny just to power his mains grinder - he wasn't too impressed with the twelve volt ones either. It doesn't help when your Stihl dealer makes up cheap chain out of sight & tells you that it is Stihl. They also tend to fit the wrong chains. My 020T cuts way better on the Micro chain that it was designed for than the bigger chain than my dealer "recommends" as the bigger chain slows the revs.

Last week I was helping a friend with some big Leylandi. His saw was removing big chips & mine fine sawdust. My saw was consistently quicker.

CJhaughey

Good sharp file, if you have trouble holding it I use a Wine cork on the end.
if the file is going dull soak it in vinegar overnight then dry off and use again.
Stump vise makes it easier in the field but I usually carry 3-4 chains and just swap them if I rock out or hit dirt.
Stihl cutters are the hardest, next are Oregon LPX and then LP.
Carlton and Windsor make good chain as well.
Jaxmax, you may as well use it on dirty stuff and then throw it away, I could never get any kind of edge holding on it.
I use .325 on all my saws up to 60cc over 60cc 3/8.
Small tophandle saws like the 020T should run way better on PMC 3/ 91VX then the larger 3/8 stuff, your dealer is pulling a fast one giving you the wrong chain, Stihl chain always has its name on the on the side and Oregon does as well.