sharpening chains

[skyhuck]

My local husky dealer charges £6, I live in NW who's you local dealer if you don't mind me asking.

 

Dick Leigh, I could be wrong, I haven't had one ground for years, maybe its gone up:confused1:

you may get discound if you have bulk ?

[Big 'Ammer]

Morning!

 

Apologies if your offended drtsfc, your later posts have clarified the circumstances.

 

However, I bet I wrote what a lot of others were thinking!

 

My advice is to sharpen with a file not a grinder. You can get a far sharper chain with a file by hand.

 

Once you've taken a grinder to a chain it heats up the cutters too much and then they are hard to file by hand afterwards.

 

If you are cutting a lot of dirty wood and are repeatly having to sharpen, buy a carbide tipped chain and use it for that purpose only.

 

You will find that it will save you endless time in the future if you spend some time now with your groundman and teach him how to sharpen chains properly. Like anything else it'll only come with practice.

 

On the other side of the coin, these people presumably have got certs and will have been passed as competent to maintain a saw. If they can't then they deserve to struggle until they make the effort to be able to do the job your paying them for.

 

If they are no hopers then get some other staff.

 

I am of the opinion that if some one can't sharpen a saw to at least a reasonable dgeree of usability they should not be any where near one in the workplace.

 

They will only have an accident and cut their leg or boot when they are trying to force a blunt chain to cut and keep the job going when the pressures on.

 

Why not send the lad home with a saw and some of the blunt chains and let him have a go in his own time?

 

He'll be pleased as punch if he brings them back and you tell him he's made a good job.

 

If he ruins them, so what? You say they are cheap anyway?

 

It was my junior staff members job to sharpen any of the medium sized ground use saws in a vice whenever they required it. In this way he was getting as much practice as possible. Now he's not bad and we let him sharpen anything.

 

As regards hitting nails etc and keeping the job going on site we always take a couple of spare saws onto every job in case of nails/breakdowns whatever. That is a lot quicker than sharpening or changing a chain.

Change chains or sharpen during a lull in the work.

 

Thats my bit of advice, others may do it differently and tell you otherwise.

 

All the best.

[18 stoner]

He can drag brash, tend my rope, feed the chipper, hump logs, rake up, and unhook the slings once the timbers been lowered into the trailer by my crane, what more could I ask ?

 

Recently i have been running the same as Huck, my groundy can do all i ask of him very well, he is happy too!

 

I do have a guy i can call on when i need a sawing groundy, but you can usually get by well without.

 

I believe its well worth looking at the issue of staff doing what they can well, rather than doing allsorts not so well.

 

I also believe that should i decide to give my groundy a saw, he will be taught from scratch, basic maintenance as Nige says, sharpening etc before he gets the saw in his hand. If he doesnt want to do it, thats also fine, we will carry on as we are!

 

Every person in the workplace should be able to carry out his work competantly and safely. Therefore a saw operator sharpening his own saw, on site, is a must, otherwise he is not a saw operator is he?

[bob]

surely you should all have a qualified climber on site for rescue purposes who will be able to sharpen saws if he can not sharpen saws i would not have him on site

 

you can get chain bench vices to sharpen chains off the saw

 

i always take spare saws very rarely sharpen on site and still have a 254 with a crap bar and put chains that are at the end of there life for stumping ect

 

how much do you pay for your chains as if buying in lengh and sarp or sabre they really are cheap though very substandard imo compared to stihl and oregon

I can buy sarp for half the price of stihl but wouldn,t

 

and on those rainy days teach your groundies to sharpen chains if they spend all day sharpening chains they may not blunt as many next time

 

if you take your chains to dealers or hire shops they usually do them on a grinder which usually makes them too hard to then sharpen by file

alternatively send them me and i will never have to buy chais again and i will pay the postage

Or let the lads take them home to sharpen in there own time in exchange for keeping there job or a bacon butty if your nicer than skyhuck:sneaky2:

[treediver]

Ive just brought an Oregon Electric Sure Sharp - 12v sharpener thinking i could grind down quickly a load of blunt knacked old chains which have been lying around for ages.

If your thinking of getting one DONT!...Biggest load of inefficient crap ive wasted money on for some time.

[skyhuck]

if your nicer than skyhuck:sneaky2:

 

[arc]

Skyhuck, does your groundie operate the crane when your on a dismanlting job or do you climb with the remote control round your waist. Also what would you do if you were to need rescuing or have you given your groundie some basic aerial rescue training? i.e. a mobile phone with 999 in the memory.

[skyhuck]

Skyhuck, does your groundie operate the crane when your on a dismanlting job or do you climb with the remote control round your waist. Also what would you do if you were to need rescuing or have you given your groundie some basic aerial rescue training? i.e. a mobile phone with 999 in the memory.

 

I take the remote with me

[Dean Lofthouse]

Skyhuck, does your groundie operate the crane when your on a dismanlting job or do you climb with the remote control round your waist. .

 

It's HIS toyand nobody else is playing with it!!!!

[benedmonds]

We carry at least two spare chains for each saw in each truck and have 7 or 8 chains of each size in use at one time. I won't use a blunt chain. When it's blunt we can quickly change it. All the blunt chains go on a big hook and on an early finish or in the morning if we're farting around our groundie can sharpen them with the grinder.

 

It's way quicker than by hand and although it does require some skill and attention it's much easier to get it right on a machine.

 

As to groundies that don't use a saw, we have a subbie, an ex farmer who is the best groundie you are ever likely to find. He will use a saw and we put him through the NPCT but most days he won't bother. He doesn't have to use chainsaw trousers so can drag and lump logs longer, better and faster..

 

Our other full time groundie is just frightening and I hold my breath everytime he picks a saw up and sticks it in the dirt!