blue bar question info/advice

[predator]

I,ve noticed on ebay that a good deal of chainsaws for sale have the chain bars gone blue and as i,ve never had this on my saw whats the cause and does it affect the life of the bar or make no differance etc

 

please be gentle as i,am no expert just a log burner bloke and what may seem a stupid question to you is a big help to me understanding/learning more and more and just greatfull for shared knowlege etc

[treequip]

It's the way they are made, the blue colour is from the heat treatment they apply to the rails to make them more durable

[predator]

so am i right in thinking a blue bar is a longer lasting harder wearing one as my ms260 has a 16" stihl bar fitted and is,nt blue etc so will have a shorter life span and on that note how long does a bar last like mine 1 year 2 years etc

 

am i better buying a spare bar

[agg221]

I wouldn't worry about it. Stihl bars are decent enough quality and will cut a lot of wood before they wear out, particularly if you keep the chain tension right. To get the most out of it, turn the bar over so it runs equal amounts of time each way up, so it wears the top and bottom rails equally. Do you have one of the Stihl type depth gauges for setting the rakers? If so, the end prong-shaped bit is designed to run down the rails and scrape the gunk out, which also helps. It is graduated, so you run it along the rail and find the shallowest part. Once this is shallower than the recommended depth you need a new bar, but it won't go suddenly so I wouldn't worry about keeping a spare bar.

 

Alec

[predator]

thanks for the info but only have a oregon bar raker that come in the file kits i ordered for my old 038 i dont have the saw anymore as it used more fuel than i liked compared to my ms260 unsure now confused on the max min depth of bar groove before its bin time can you help what the minimum is please so i can monitor it etc sorry to mither

[felixthelogchopper]

Think I remember this correctly.If you look at the bar raker you have, at the opposite end to the bit you rake out with is a cut out. If you put that end in the bar groove at 90 degrees to the bar and you cannot see the cut-out then your bar is ok.

[agg221]

On the subject of bar maintenance, there's a couple of other things you can check while you're at it - again, not things to worry about, just good practice which you may already know.

 

One is that as the bar rails gradually wear down they form a burr - you can feel it as a rough bit sticking out either side of the rail. It's easy enough to take off with an ordinary flat file. The rails don't always wear evenly so it's worth checking that the rails are the same height on each side from time to time - stick a set-square over them, but remember to take the burr off first.

 

The other thing to check is that the chain doesn't wobble from side to side in the groove. You're fairly unlikely to get this problem if you're just cross-cutting firewood to length. If you do, to be honest on a short bar it's probably easiest to just to follow recommended practice and buy a new one. You can in practice nip up the rails a bit (Stihl don't recommend this but I have done so with no problems). You want them so that the chain just runs through with no sticking. If you make it a bit too tight you can open them up again with a flat bladed screwdriver. You then need to check very carefully that there are no cracks in the rails and check regularly for a while to ensure that none have shown up. If you see cracks the bar is scrap.

 

Hope this helps, but again it's not things to worry about, just things to have a quick look at when the bar is off anyway.

 

Alec

[spudulike]

The depth is typically 5mm deep and the drive link is typically 5mm deep. A bar used for domestic firewood will last for years and can be made to last a few more with the advice Alec has given in the post above.

The thing that finishes them off is play in the nose sprocket or the chain being run loose and wearing the rails just before the nose sprocket.

[agg221]

I'm entirely with Spud on this one (who was in fact the person who put me on to the fact that you can get away with nipping up the rails - since which I've sorted out a couple of my other older bars).

 

Alec

[Rob D]

Ditto the above... you can nip the bars to get a bit more life out of them but when you start doing this there is prob a new bar on the horizon.

 

 

I got some of the bar rail closers that Baileys do and they work quite well on the long bars. Only thing I noticed was that they had to be re done quite regularly to keep the chain snug.