wyk

It's OK until you bury it in wood. Then it can be a bit rough.

You don't have to do it, just get VX chain next time.

Oregon knows exactly what they are doing. After all, there's a reason they have multiple types of chains in 91(and others). Here is their fact page on race chain. I don't think Oregon allow you to link to their own page any more: http://www.madsens1.com/PDF/RacingTechfacts_93099.pdf

It makes vxl usable. It makes a standard chain cut like butter, especially for bore cutting and burying the bar. It literally takes 2 or 3 swipes of a file. I do it every time on every chain during the first sharpening. It adds just a few minutes.

Here's the quick file work I do to the chains I run. It makes a huge difference when the bar is buried, and makes the chain cut more smoothly over all. The VXL got this treatment the first time I sharpened it. On the left in the pic is 73 chain, with stock unused 75 on the right. This is how it goes in fairly hard yellow cypress:

Unlike the 201's, they take rather well to porting.

I'm not a fan of the VXL myself. It is a bit more grabby and jumpy because of the long top plate. One of the first mods a person does for a woods modded or racing chain is to grind the back of the top plate at an angle. It runs more smoothly, with less drag. It is one of the first mods I make to my work chains.

Take your T27 in there and remove the handle from the 261 they have on the wall. You'll find that one will be replaced within the same business week...

The 390 would be the in-between. Though a ported 365 will pull a 28" no problem.

Rhodi can be very hard. I would still be using a 50c saw for the reach with a 16-20" bar. The last rhodi I cleared was left sit for 40 years or so and was up to a foot thick in most parts. I used a ported 365 then. The light grained trunk you see in all that, uh...lyme(?) - that's rhodi, and in the background you have a stack of rhodi there which was typical at that site.

Good improvements can be made if you open that exhaust and retune it. The Echo's have a very thick gauge muffler, and sound great when modded. What most do is add a large 1/2" hole next to the existing exit. This bypasses much of the baffling and doesn't change the look of the muffler with the deflector replaced. Some add louvres to good effect.This is my ported 520 I filmed just to catch the sound of it; it has the 1/2" hole next to the original exhaust outlet with the screen removed. I must add that I also like how the Echo's feel and handle. Somehting about them.

I run a ported MS361 with lathe work on nearly everything nowadays with 18-24" bars.

I have seen 058 from Windsor and 080 for harvester. But most 404 is 063. All I know is the semi chisel 404 I used not long ago seemed to cut for freakin ever before needing any attention. I sort of want a 404 bar on a ported 80cc saw just for that reason on clean up duties.

Whattaya know bout 404?! Yer running 3/8 on an 088, for chrissakes! Where's my simonized video?

u wot m8?

A 550 with a simple muff mod will bury that 455 and weigh significantly less. Hrm... I may have an image or two....lemme find em... Here we are:

Fess up. You did that in frustration trying to swap the bar out.

Was the chain spinning at idle before you put the brake on? I am actually a fan of the lil 330. They are great saws once tuned a bit.

Sure, what could possibly go wrong? Also, on the OP, those folks are standing pretty close to what is basically a low revving harvester. Imagine what would happen if the 3/4 chain let go. Chain shot at that range might sting a bit.

You certainly do need a saw that can pull it. Having said that, a semi chisel 404 chain can go seemingly forever bucking and stumping without losing much sharpness.

That can be meaningless in a saw that lightweight. You do not know what your compression is unless you put it under a gauge. If that 201T, after the mods you mentioned, can not pull a 12" picco chain through wood with ease, there's something else wrong. Compression is where to start.

Checked the compression?

Wolves VS Bears! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08kObcEjtfc AH yeahhh.

McCulloch PM800

The edge of the files face forwards, sort of like petals on some files. Once that edge is gone, the file stops sharpening. The edge starts to disappear rather quickly and they become replaced with a top plate. When you lightly scrape them the opposite way, you remove debris and help the edge face more forwards. It is just a light scrape as you pull the file back. In any case, this makes literally no sense at all. You sharpen knives by hand with the cutting edge facing the sharpening surface and square ground cutters are always sharpening by hand with the file entering the opposite way most use a round file. This knocks off the bur and leaves a very sharp edge. As you can easily see with my videos - especially the second one as you have likely never seen chips that large fly out of a mid-sized chainsaw with 3/8 chain. If you have, they were using a mild race chain. An order of magnitude... Are we talking exponential? It depends on what the cutters are made of. We all know that files are usually W2 tool steel. Cutters are usually a closely guarded secret(as are drive links and straps), but any engineer can figure it out. Generally, cutters are high carbon steel. They do not need to be too shock resistant, and they do not need to be rust resistant as they are always oiled. This type of steel is usually hardened from 56-58hrc. W2 is about 62-65 HRC for files. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'magnitude'. What it means is they will both scratch each other's surface, but the W2 will last longer doing it. And neither do we. We brush it gently. Again, theory is theory, practice is practice. If you don't like it, feel free to ignore us.