Cheap bars and chains

[SawTroll]

Apparently Windsor got sucked up into the whole Oregon/Carlton/Ozaki thing and the bars don't exist any more....

 

They still exist, but now is branded as Carlton (Carlton never made bars themselves).

[Ty Korrigan]

Reverse of the subject, are there better longer wearing bars than those supplied with the original saws?

Ty

[Little Al]

I run Carlton chains and find them as good as Oregon for me..... its usually an unseen stone, or my crap filing which wrecks them. But its the same reasons why i dont buy dearer chains.... waste of money on gnarly, windblown and skidded firewood IMO

 

Have seen Windsor chains advertised - anyone tried them or know much of them?

 

Oregon, Carlton, Windsor,are all Blount industries manufactured & in my part of France Carlton & Windsor brand's come & go. 2 or so years ago most Windsor kit disappeared, all Carlton, now Windsors back & Carlton is difficult to source. A lot of Blount products available here seem to now be produced in Belgium The last Windsor Lo Pro chain compered very well with Carlton's equiv & wasn't as "chatterie" as 91VXL from Oregon. I have not used Std 3/8 or 325, as the company I service saws for gets Stihl Chain for their commercial logging setup, so I use almost none of other brands, & IMO the Lo Pro way to go is Stihl PS (No safety bumpers, yellow label)

[Little Al]

Comparing cheap bars to Husky bars is a bit pointless IMO as husky bars are crap- (im a die-hard husky user) the sooner I can get an Oregon pro-lite on my saws the better! Looking 3 months commercial forestry from Oregon bars, opposed to maybe 6 weeks on an equivalent husky.

 

Try a Sugihara, Tsumura, or if available Cannon, You could be surprised, pleased on the lack of wear compared to Oregon. We use Sugi's in a commercial set up; used to use Tsumura's but can source sugi's at a more competitive price, but nothing to choose between either in performance terms, & in our usage are lasting up to 3 times longer than Oregon ( could be dependent on the cost you can obtain them for though) but to our company it's a no contest. As an aside you Husky bar was more than likely an Oregon Product as I don't think Husky's new bar producing Factory is pushing out production bars yet? Sawtroll will know;

[aesmith]

Thanks for all the comments. I think if rapid wear is the concern then the cheap bars would be fine for my use. Especially if 16" won't really suit the MS180 so I'll only use that occasionally.

[SawTroll]

.... As an aside you Husky bar was more than likely an Oregon Product as I don't think Husky's new bar producing Factory is pushing out production bars yet? Sawtroll will know;

 

Huskys bar factory has been operational for decades in Norway, but "solid" bars never was made there - only laminated ones (far from all of them), and lately the TechLite bars.

 

It is their chain factory that is supposed to become operational in 2015.

[DCS6800i]

Oregon, Carlton, Windsor,are all Blount industries manufactured & in my part of France Carlton & Windsor brand's come & go. 2 or so years ago most Windsor kit disappeared, all Carlton, now Windsors back & Carlton is difficult to source. A lot of Blount products available here seem to now be produced in Belgium The last Windsor Lo Pro chain compered very well with Carlton's equiv & wasn't as "chatterie" as 91VXL from Oregon. I have not used Std 3/8 or 325, as the company I service saws for gets Stihl Chain for their commercial logging setup, so I use almost none of other brands, & IMO the Lo Pro way to go is Stihl PS (No safety bumpers, yellow label)

 

 

Cheers for the insight!

 

Iv not had any bother getting Carlton chains in 5+ years - but im not a heavy user, so dont go through a huge number of chains. I buy them as they are IMO as good as Oregon chains, but cheaper - i dont grudge wrecking them quite as much on the odd stone iv missed spotting after iv dragged a tree out. Thats the same reason why i dont buy Stihl chains, they are good but dearer again. Its just not worth it for me.

 

I hadnt heard of Windsor before, then saw a local shop selling their chains - very cheap but i was cautious to try one. Same as all these unbranded ones on Ebay at the moment...

[Little Al]

Cheers for the insight!

 

Iv not had any bother getting Carlton chains in 5+ years - but im not a heavy user, so dont go through a huge number of chains. I buy them as they are IMO as good as Oregon chains, but cheaper - i dont grudge wrecking them quite as much on the odd stone iv missed spotting after iv dragged a tree out. Thats the same reason why i dont buy Stihl chains, they are good but dearer again. Its just not worth it for me.

 

I hadnt heard of Windsor before, then saw a local shop selling their chains - very cheap but i was cautious to try one. Same as all these unbranded ones on Ebay at the moment...

 

A genuine Windsor chain will compere well to Carlton & be premier league to the cheap' y Chicom ones available.

[BobbyDee]

I run Carlton chains and find them as good as Oregon for me..... its usually an unseen stone, or my crap filing which wrecks them. But its the same reasons why i dont buy dearer chains.... waste of money on gnarly, windblown and skidded firewood IMO

 

Have seen Windsor chains advertised - anyone tried them or know much of them?

 

I have been using Archer or Carlton chains (Mister-solutionsltd.com) for years as well as Oregon and apart from having to sharpen a bit more often the cheapos perform well at half the price. I suspect the cheap chains are made from a softer metal bit IMO that makes em easier to hand sharpen.

[SawTroll]

I suppose it depends where it's measured, but either way a 55DL bar will be 1 7/8" longer than a 50DL 14" bar, won't it?

 

Almost (the real pitch is .366, not a true 3/8" or .375) - but then the 14" (called) bars are a bit less than 13"...