Full complement or skip-chain?

[spudulike]

Can i be enlightened as to what a skip chain is ?

 

I believe there is a half skip and full skip chain, on has one in three cutters missing and the other, half of them missing. A lot of the cheap Chinese stuff has them - you know the ones .....35cc with an 18" bar:001_rolleyes:

 

Apart from allowing cheap home owner saws look pro, they are used to keep chainspeed up when using long bars through large wood to stop bogging in the cut.

 

That's me about done - not something I have much knowlege on.

[agg221]

Full skip goes (in sequence down the chain) left cutter; missing cutter; right cutter; missing cutter etc.

 

Half skip goes left cutter; right cutter; missing cutter etc.

 

Alec

[agg221]

Just an update. I bought a loop of skip-chain from Rob D and fitted it to the 47in bar on the 076. I took it for a run today - a quick skim off and then straight through the centreline of an oak butt - 29in at the base, 24in at the top, 14ft long.

 

I don't have a lot to compare it with (066M doesn't count!), but it felt very very quick - chewed its way through and didn't bog down, although I'll have to play with the tensioning a bit. Couldn't really get an accurate time, as I had to stop and fiddle with a few things (wedges, top end of the tree, refuelling as the breather cap leaked etc) but I reckon just over 5mins, so say between 5 and 6sq.ft. cut per min.

 

The surface finish is poorer than with full complement, think of the finish on sawn softwood from a builder's merchant, but it's still flat and would plane up OK.

 

For what I wanted, which was speed, it seems to be a good fit to the saw.

 

Alec

[Rob D]

Good stuff - sort of agrees with my thoughts on skip link in that it works better with the older, big torquey saws.

 

There still is prob a place for it with modern saws like the 880 for instance in very soft wood e.g redwood, or using a 30" bar where the torque isn't so vital.