Chain grinder..

[lurch_917]

out in the field i hand file but if i realy bugger the chain i also have a faithfull grinder cost me £29 off fleabay for the big touch ups . 

[spudulike]

I got a cheapo Silverline grinder....I use it to sharpen home owner chains and ones that have been mullered or sharpened very badly...a sharpener does make the job on each cutter repeatable and easy.

The advice - I fitted a cheap speed adjuster on my sharpener to avoid heat build up and lightly dabbing the chain with the grinder avoids hardening the cutter.

Dress the wheel with a diamond file if it gets glazed.

Don't forget to file the rakers/depth gauges otherwise the chain won't cut well.

I use a file if the chain needs a light touch up but when it is well blunt, if you are pretty good at sharpening as it sounds you are doing drills.....I do that also using a magnifying glass and bench grinder, sharpening chains should be relatively easy.

[Macpherson]

18 hours ago, doobin said:

trying to sharpen crouched uncomfortable over a stump,

 

And in my case add the Midges😁

[john87]

4 hours ago, spudulike said:

I got a cheapo Silverline grinder....I use it to sharpen home owner chains and ones that have been mullered or sharpened very badly...a sharpener does make the job on each cutter repeatable and easy.

The advice - I fitted a cheap speed adjuster on my sharpener to avoid heat build up and lightly dabbing the chain with the grinder avoids hardening the cutter.

Dress the wheel with a diamond file if it gets glazed.

Don't forget to file the rakers/depth gauges otherwise the chain won't cut well.

I use a file if the chain needs a light touch up but when it is well blunt, if you are pretty good at sharpening as it sounds you are doing drills.....I do that also using a magnifying glass and bench grinder, sharpening chains should be relatively easy.

My first ever job was in an engineering works that did that "metal stitching" cast iron repairs. Part of the job involved drilling literally thousands of 1/4" holes, 2" deep in the cast iron to be repaired, and also in 2" thick steel plate to make the hourglass shaped repair inserts..

 

On my first day they decided to teach me to sharpen drills. I was crap at first but after a while it just sort of comes to you, you know the movement i mean, the twist and drop the angle of the shank to form the clearance.. Bigger drills i would narrow the point too.. far away days them...

 

As an aside; In work they chuck away "magnifying glass on a stand with a light built in" medical type things from time to time. I should get one of them,, Bloody good idea that!!! Never occured to me at all...

 

john..

[Stere]

My observation is file does alot better job than a grinder if you are skilled at it. The grinder done chains look abit  rough and less perfectly sharp in comparison from the ones iv'e seen....

 

 

 

Overheating while grinding can be avoided by using CBN wheels on  grinder (expensive but probably worth it).

 

Quote

Compared to aluminum oxide abrasives, CBN grains have twice the hardness, 55 times higher thermal conductivity, and four times higher the abrasive resistance. These grinding machines are well-suited for grinding high-speed alloy tools, which in turn cause little to no thermal damage to cutting edges due to their cool cutting design action, consistent sharp edges with no loss of hardness, increased grinding productivity due to less downtime, and less time required for any gauging or wheel changes.

 

I never sharpen chains out in field just  carry 3 spare ones.

 

 

[Stubby]

On 23/08/2022 at 10:15, john87 said:

Yes, i am lucky in that i can pick and choose what i do, so no way on this planet would i cut dirty wood or roots or any of that stuff.. I see "experts" [well, self proclaimed ones] on youtube sticking the bar in the ground when trying to cut logs and generally being well rough with the saw itself, clumping and banging it around, you would think it was a log they were handling..

 

I have seen people claiming that they can get a chain sharper with a file than a grinder, but i doubt that.. Before age ruined my eyesight i was VERY good at sharpening twist drills. but no way on this planet would it be possible to get the same results as you would with a drill grinding machine [and i mean a proper one, not one of then plastic things or an attachment for a bench grinder]

 

I would imagine a properly ground chain would be kinder to the saw too, less vibration and stuff??

 

john..

I would contest that slightly . I too am a time served tool maker and can sharpen a drill on an off hand grinder , thin the web when it gets short etc etc . When you do things by eye you can vary your angles , clearence etc to suit the materiel you are drilling /cutting ( lathe tools etc ) This skill is transferable to chain sharpening . I am one of the people mentioned who say give it 3 strokes every other fill up . That does not mean setting up a stump vice or removing the chain I mean sitting on a stump with the saw between your legs  and file free hand , just a tickle . You can do this in a couple of minutes not a long time .  Given the time and set up , back home I still say you can get a chain sharper with a file .

Edited August 24, 2022 by Stubby

[spudulike]

15 hours ago, john87 said:

My first ever job was in an engineering works that did that "metal stitching" cast iron repairs. Part of the job involved drilling literally thousands of 1/4" holes, 2" deep in the cast iron to be repaired, and also in 2" thick steel plate to make the hourglass shaped repair inserts..

 

On my first day they decided to teach me to sharpen drills. I was crap at first but after a while it just sort of comes to you, you know the movement i mean, the twist and drop the angle of the shank to form the clearance.. Bigger drills i would narrow the point too.. far away days them...

 

As an aside; In work they chuck away "magnifying glass on a stand with a light built in" medical type things from time to time. I should get one of them,, Bloody good idea that!!! Never occured to me at all...

 

john..

You know when you get a drill sharp after a grind, the swarf comes out thick and fast! Glad you like the magnifying glass idea!

[john87]

57 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I would contest that slightly . I too am a time served tool maker and can sharpen a drill on an off hand grinder , thin the web when it gets short etc etc . When you do things by eye you can vary your angles , clearence etc to suit the materiel you are drilling /cutting ( lathe tools etc ) This skill is transferable to chain sharpening . I am one of the people mentioned who say give it 3 strokes every other fill up . That does not mean setting up a stump vice or removing the chain I mean sitting on a stump with the saw between your legs  and file free hand , just a tickle . You can do this in a couple of minutes not a long time .  Given the time and set up , back home I still say you can get a chain sharper with a file .

I can still remember on that first day of drill sharpening that the boss showed me how to place two nuts side by side so that you could use the resultant angle between them [120 degrees] as a rough guide to the 118 degrees you were aiming at for the point angle [for general use as you say]  Were good days them... 8 to 12 degrees clearance too. We had to learn all this stuff and all the details of threads too [55 degrees angle round root round crest] all that sort of stuff too off by heart..

 

john,,

[AHPP]

25 minutes ago, john87 said:

I can still remember on that first day of drill sharpening that the boss showed me how to place two nuts side by side so that you could use the resultant angle between them [120 degrees] as a rough guide to the 118 degrees you were aiming at for the point angle [for general use as you say]  Were good days them... 8 to 12 degrees clearance too. We had to learn all this stuff and all the details of threads too [55 degrees angle round root round crest] all that sort of stuff too off by heart..

 

john,,

Are you old enough to have learned on Whitworth?! It's either that or your boss was German and you were making Obendorf Mausers.

[Stubby]

Strangely enough , when I started my apprenticeship at 16 it was with a German owned firm and we used metric . Was not till several years later when I worked elsewhere that I came upon BSW ,BSF , then UNC and UNF and finally back to metric again .