Any ideas on how to use a hand-file (5/32") to sharpen a 4" grinder-disc ("Lancelot" type, a 4" angle-grinder disc that's go 22 chainsaw-teeth)

[ArborOdyssey]

After a couple years' of carving my bonsai's deadwood with this as my go-to for 'roughing-in' cuts (I usually work w/ sizeable bonsai so lots of wood can need removal from a single tree), I've since learned how integral chain-sharpness is and that's w/ my real saws (heck I've begun using cheaper chains - "Trilink" is the brand I think - simply so I switch chains more often, can rarely get a client or homeowner to think sharpening on-site is anything more than "You didn't sharpen before getting on-site like you should've" so my thinking is to have extra chains so I can always have a new chain or a sharp-chain since, w/ extra's, I can just sharpen 2-3 of the used/extra ones and then go to a job and just swap chains 2-3x in a day if I want and it'd be far easier than trying to deal w/ on-site sharpening!)

 

SOooooo....how on earth do you guys sharpen these 4" chainsaw-discs for angle-grinders?  Am close to just grabbing my 5/32" file in one hand, the chainsaw disc in the other, and justtt work my way through the ~15-20 teeth on it but, being new & seeing a sub-forum like this (wish I'd found this sub years ago before I ever even pondered climbing/cutting as a profession, have been carving bonsai-deadwood nearly half a decade now ) so wanted to ask, will not bother w/ more Q's here will be going through all the old threads I expect this'll be a treasure-trove of information for me

Thanks a ton for any advice on this one, am able to fully clean-out and re-lube it, am thinking it'll be simple-enough to take its rakers down a lot, but since regular tootth-sharrpening is so angle-dependent I'm afraid I won't be able to be anything near consistent/uniform as I go around that 4" chainsaw disc's 22 teeth, will probably have angles from 20deg to 45 and just make it want to pull but reality is I need it very precise because of how it's used..

Edited February 7, 2020 by ArborOdyssey

[Macpherson]

Hi, I have in the past sharpened these by simply gripping it in a vice by the centre using two sockets as spacers and sharpen as normal whichever is your preferred way... there's loads on youtube about sharpening.

 Personally I use a dremmel type tool with a diamond burr of the correct size....but if you use a file mounted in a guide it shouldn't be to hard to get the angle correct, give each tooth the same number of strokes with the file it should keep the teeth evenish and I'm sure with practice you'll be able to get it fairly good, cheers. 

 

If it was me it would be my knuckles I'd be worried about?

[wisewood]

I've read so many threads of these Lancelot discs destroying people's hands/fingers.
Best advice I could offer is bin it and invest in a chainsaw. Put a carving bar on it and it will be infinitely better and so much safer[emoji106]

[gobbypunk]

Hi I have one of those I think it’s called King Arthur’s Wheel ,and it’s bloody deadly there are loads of pictures of horrific accidents with them ,but to your question mine comes apart so if yours is the same you should be able to clamp it in a vice and sharpen like an ordinary chain ,if it does come apart make sure you remember what way round it all goes as it took me ages to put mine back together ! I have one that is a solid disk with chainsaw cutters shaped into it ,they are both sketchy and spend most of their time on the shelf I agree with Simon ,throw it on the shelf and buy a carving bar ,and keep your fingers 

Cheers Mark 

[stuckinthemud]

I used to carve with the arbortech wheel in an angle grinder but once I used a carving set up on a chainsaw I would never ever go back to it.

[ArborOdyssey]

On 07/02/2020 at 14:05, wisewood said:

I've read so many threads of these Lancelot discs destroying people's hands/fingers.
Best advice I could offer is bin it and invest in a chainsaw. Put a carving bar on it and it will be infinitely better and so much safer

Am new but am a contract climber I have a 25cc/12" and a 32cc/16" it's not about that it's about precision, the use-case for my lancelot-type disc is bonsai-deadwood (I've got like 120 or 140 trees right now in my nursery), this is for bulk-removal followed by 1/4" shanked rasp-bits on a die-grinder, there's simply no chainsaw in the world that'd do this an 8" bar on a 2511t would still be FAR too-blunt a tool for the precision required here, at any rate I am very careful and do consider it my most-dangerous tool/attachment!!!  But yeah honestly even this 4" wheel is usually too-large for me, on maybe 1-of-3 or of-5 of my trees there is enough deadwood-carving that using the chainsaw-disc for a minute saves me 30min of using rasp-bits on the die-grinder!

[ArborOdyssey]

On 08/02/2020 at 15:00, stuckinthemud said:

I used to carve with the arbortech wheel in an angle grinder but once I used a carving set up on a chainsaw I would never ever go back to it.

If you're still holding the arbortech setup and wanna sell..... (it's the one that mates-up to any angle-grinder and essentially extends reach and gives you a 2" wheel at the end right?)

What do you carve?  I get the impression this forum is for blocks of wood/ice so I know carving 1-->4" bonsai-trees makes me an outlier here lol I just figured if anywhere had good advice on maintaining a chainsaw-disc's teeth they'd be here (can tell you the bonsai guys certainly didn't have good reco's although it's fair to expect that most bonsai artists are utterly unaware that chainsaw teeth aren't "best when sharp" but "meant to be sharp for proper function" lol

[wisewood]

Am new but am a contract climber I have a 25cc/12" and a 32cc/16" it's not about that it's about precision, the use-case for my lancelot-type disc is bonsai-deadwood (I've got like 120 or 140 trees right now in my nursery), this is for bulk-removal followed by 1/4" shanked rasp-bits on a die-grinder, there's simply no chainsaw in the world that'd do this an 8" bar on a 2511t would still be FAR too-blunt a tool for the precision required here, at any rate I am very careful and do consider it my most-dangerous tool/attachment!!!  But yeah honestly even this 4" wheel is usually too-large for me, on maybe 1-of-3 or of-5 of my trees there is enough deadwood-carving that using the chainsaw-disc for a minute saves me 30min of using rasp-bits on the die-grinder!

I don't really understand what you mean by
"there's simply no chainsaw in the world that'd do this an 8" bar on a 2511t would still be FAR too-blunt a tool for the precision required here"
Are you saying the work you do would blunt the chain or do you mean the tip of the bar would be too big/clumsy?
If the former what's the issue with sharpening the chain?
If the latter, the lancelot is a 4"disc, how can that be more precise than even a standard chainsaw setup. What I am suggesting is to use a carving bar, so either a dime tip on 1/4. 50 chain or better still an R7 tip with 1/4 0.43 guage chain, which is about the size of your finger tip.

[wisewood]

This is the size of an r7 tip bar.
You may also want to have a look at Manpatools angle grinder attachments.
The multi cutter and the smaller belt cutter would be much more precise and safer than the lancelot [emoji106]

[stuckinthemud]

Sorry, but my disk is a 4" cutting disk that you use as a direct replacement for the 'normal' cutting disk on an angle grinder but PM me and I'll just send you it  to you if you want to try one out.  It's no-where near as accurate as my dime-tip bar fitted with a carving chain though.  What sort of timber does your bonsai produce and what are you trying to carve?  Once you get below a certain size you're better off with hand tools and die-grinders.