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Posted by D Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Friday, May 21, 2010 at 14:58:03 :
In Reply to: Re: I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay....... posted by Rich Rauff [65.55.67.212] on Friday, May 21, 2010 at 13:43:32 :
I bought an "Oregon" saw chain grinder a couple years ago and it's one of those "how did I ever live without it" tools. It's not so much that it saves me money over buying new chains or having the saw shop sharpen them (though it probably only took about 10-12 sharpening jobs to pay for it), but it makes it easy to sharpen my chains frequently and well, so that I no longer waste a lot of time cutting with a dull chain, or trying to hand-file it enough to sort of get by for a while longer. I tried one of the plastic saw chain grinders they sell at Harbor Freight but it was too flimsy. Sold it for what I paid for it, though, so I can't complain. The Oregon one is way better, runs nice and smooth, has a good light, is all made of metal, and comes with two thicknesses of grinding wheels for sharpening the teeth and another one for trimming the depth gauges.
If you want to get maximum life out of a saw chain, you need to grind the depth gauges down at least once during the life of the chain, so that it can continue to take a deep bite. You can go deeper if you have a powerful saw and you're strong enough to keep it under control, or less deep if it tends to grab too much and slow the motor down or you're using it one-handed in awkward places like tree trimming. It's nice to have the flexibility to adjust the depth gauges to your liking.
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