What’s the best current bench chain grinder?

[Woodworks]

11 minutes ago, muttley9050 said:

30 minutes ago, doobin said:

Yes, come and have a play with the loaders and also have a play at sharpening a drill bit on the big cbn bench grinder. You’ll see why CBN is the only feasible option for such an application as a chainsaw grinder. It puts a razor edge on in seconds, and with no heat. It’s like witchcraft!
 
 
6% price increase on Sherpa from January I was told

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Do you know where you can get cbn wheels in the custom shapes needed for chain Sharpening?

Try these guys. They seem happy to make anything to order having chatted to them through  their ebay shop https://www.baltic-abrasives.com/en/

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/balticabrasivetechnologies

Edited December 26, 2021 by Woodworks

[skc101fc]

Another vote for baltic abrasives. They happily created some custom discs for me and the lucas mill, to my own spec, at reasonable cost and quick turnround and delivery.

[doobin]

 Baltic abrasives are where I was going to buy from. Seem to know their stuff. 
 

pretty sure I’ve had a couple of regular bench grinder wheels off them. 

[trigger_andy]

16 hours ago, lux said:

I bought the top Oregon one with hydraulic chain clamp.
Hardly use it. Think it was around £350 but can’t really remember

Ive got the same one. Need to re-prime the hydraulics. It is handy for evening up each side of the chain and 36" and longer chains 

[Elmsdown Forestry]

Clarks do a blue stone for Oregon grinders and is a world of difference to the standard pink ones. No heat issues but do wear down quite quick. I use the Borazon discs on my auto grinder about 120£ each last quite well and sharpen out some serious damage without over heating, also do them for the Oregon’s. 

[Conor Wright]

Keep an eye out for tecomec sharpeners, they make, or at least made sharpeners for both oregon  and stihl at various times. I was at my local dealer last week and he showed me his one. Well made and not as expensive as its white and orange cousin.

Ordered one for myself to replace the crappy lidl one I despise. It's a poor sharpener but it was a gift so it'll be mounted beside the new one out of daft sentimentality.

[doobin]

Well this thing is magic. Must have cost around £700 with both the Baltic Abrasives CBN wheels but it's worth every penny.

 

It's turned chain sharpening into a pleasure rather than a chore. I was pleasantly surprised to see how accurate my hand sharpening actually is, but with this you just set it and make like a robot. Advance chain, pull back against stop, dip wheel, repeat. The hydraulic clamp is a very clever addition, I wouldn't want to be without it.

 

I didn't even mount the pink stones- straight to CBN. You'll never need to dress them and it's putting on an edge every bit as good as you get with a file- and I know how to hand sharpen properly! What I did notice is that where I was putting a decent hook on them with a file, I wasn't perhaps going deep enough into the gullet. Because of the way this works, this does both. The curve of the disc forms the gullet, and the hook is set by the flat of the disc at the angle you chose.

 

The Orgeon grinder and the CBN wheels combine to make a product that is perfectly capable of taking off as little as you would with a file given a careful operator with some mechanical knowledge. If anyone still thinks that a file 'gets them sharper' or a grinder 'takes too much off', then I'm happy to prove them wrong.

 

There is enough adjustment in every plane for even the most finnicky of mechanics. It also comes with a flat wheel for doing the depth guages, which I found worked very well too.

Edited March 26, 2022 by doobin

[lux]

On 26/03/2022 at 20:55, doobin said:

Well this thing is magic. Must have cost around £700 with both the Baltic Abrasives CBN wheels but it's worth every penny.

 

It's turned chain sharpening into a pleasure rather than a chore. I was pleasantly surprised to see how accurate my hand sharpening actually is, but with this you just set it and make like a robot. Advance chain, pull back against stop, dip wheel, repeat. The hydraulic clamp is a very clever addition, I wouldn't want to be without it.

 

I didn't even mount the pink stones- straight to CBN. You'll never need to dress them and it's putting on an edge every bit as good as you get with a file- and I know how to hand sharpen properly! What I did notice is that where I was putting a decent hook on them with a file, I wasn't perhaps going deep enough into the gullet. Because of the way this works, this does both. The curve of the disc forms the gullet, and the hook is set by the flat of the disc at the angle you chose.

 

The Orgeon grinder and the CBN wheels combine to make a product that is perfectly capable of taking off as little as you would with a file given a careful operator with some mechanical knowledge. If anyone still thinks that a file 'gets them sharper' or a grinder 'takes too much off', then I'm happy to prove them wrong.

 

There is enough adjustment in every plane for even the most finnicky of mechanics. It also comes with a flat wheel for doing the depth guages, which I found worked very well too.

The CBN wheels leave a burr on the top plate and blue up the tooth very easily when you have a damaged chain which is the only reason I bought it. ( and yes that’s just light dabs not constant contact ) If it’s just a little dull it’s easier to hand hand file it on the bar.  Hand filing gives a better result in both circumstances 

 

[doobin]

16 minutes ago, lux said:

The CBN wheels leave a burr on the top plate and blue up the tooth very easily when you have a damaged chain which is the only reason I bought it. ( and yes that’s just light dabs not constant contact ) If it’s just a little dull it’s easier to hand hand file it on the bar.  Hand filing gives a better result in both circumstances 

 

Each to their own, I got it out again yesterday and it’s still giving me factory results. If it’s badly damaged chains you use it for then you could get Baltic abrasives to do you one with a coarser grit. But if they are badly damaged I find it cheaper to bin them than do anything with. 
 

You should always take a little off every tooth and then go round again for damaged chains, but that’s the same for any grinder. 

Edited August 22, 2022 by doobin

[Pete Mctree]

Why do they not spin the other way I wonder? There would be zero burrs and a better edge. Different wheel more than likely