How to sharpen a chainsaw chain fast. Working with a file

How to sharpen a chainsaw chain at home

When learning how to tune your chainsaw, be very careful, because wrong tune-up is the first reason for chain failure and tooth abrasion. Usually chain blunts for the following reasons:

• the use of low-quality oil or oil that does not meet the parameters specified in the manual;
• Incorrect setting of clearances between the edge and the limiter;
• Lack of lubrication in the system;
• poor chain tensioning.

Also, be careful when sawing old boards because there are nails in them, which also dull the sharpness of the teeth. Unskilled handling, frequent contact with hard objects such as rocks, bricks, heavy use of the chain saw, and other factors that contribute to the element’s wear are also considered to be significant.

Traditional methods of chain sharpening

To sharpen a saw chain that has uneven wear without removing it from its guide rail, you can use a round shaped file. You have to grind about 1mm of high-strength steel, and it will take you a lot of time to grind just one tooth.

saw design

To better understand what a chainsaw is and how it works, it is desirable to know how it is designed.

Incidentally, it would be more correct to call the cutting tool of a chainsaw a saw chain.

The first saw chains were invented at the beginning of the twentieth century. The constructors didn’t rack their brains and simply assembled teeth on the chain that quickly lost their efficiency. In appearance they resembled those on handheld wood hacksaws. Sharpening such a chainsaw caused great difficulty. But repeated attempts to develop the perfect saw chain did not succeed until 1947.

This chainsaw has g-shaped cutters. Modern chains are in fact the direct ancestors of this development.

If the cutting speed begins to slacken during work and the chain starts to walk in the hands of the master, the saw chain has most likely lost its performance, i.e. it has become dull and measures have to be taken to restore it.

Sharpening

Place the saw on a flat, horizontal surface, or, better yet, clamp the guide bar in a vise, as I did. We will sharpen the teeth of the upper part of the chain, so the chain must move freely on the bar. Now mark the tooth you want to begin sharpening. This can be done with a marker or by sticking a piece of adhesive tape on it. So, let’s get to the main part of the job.

Then place the file in the rounding edge of the cutting edge of the tooth and align it exactly according to the desired sharpening angle. This is the most important part. Sharpening should be at a 30-degree angle to the chain bar. On the outer part of the chain teeth, there are usually special marks that show the right angle. When doing this, keep the file parallel to the notch.

So, with the file in the desired position and two hands on the file (as described above) we switch on the drill and lightly press the file against the tooth to be sharpened. It’s enough to spend 1 to 2 seconds for each tooth. Let’s go over the whole chain in this way, gradually moving it along the bar.

How to sharpen the chain of a chainsaw quickly and safely, without dismantling it

The chain of a chainsaw can be sharpened in a workshop (the price of service from 250) or on own hands in the presence of special devices. But what to do when the tool is blunt at the logging site or in places where there are no workshops or special sharpening devices? In this case, you can use diamond tipped tips and get your chain saw working again quickly and without much trouble yourself, knowing a few simple sharpening rules.

Using diamond tipped tips for sharpening saw chain links is not only appealing because of its simplicity and efficiency. Sharpening tips also provide a gentle sharpening process by removing a minimum thickness of metal from the cutting tooth compared to an emery or angle grinder. This allows you to have more sharpening cycles and greatly extends the life of the chain before it is completely worn out.

If you keep on working with a dull saw chain, you will need to apply more physical strength to the tool, the cutting performance will fall, the engine will overload, fuel consumption will increase and the overall life of the chain saw will come to an end very quickly. This is why you should not procrastinate sharpening the chain.

It is possible to sharpen cutting teeth with diamond tipped accessories without removing the saw chain from the guide bar, and this not only shortens sharpening time at the cutting site, but also provides some comfort. But be sure to put the chain on the brake.

For convenience, first sharpen the left and then the right teeth, or vice versa. Place the burr between the cutting edge of the tooth and the kerf at an angle of 25-30 degrees horizontally and perpendicular to the chain vertically.

When sharpening, the spike should be slightly elevated above the tooth and rotate towards it. The good thing about this method is that it does not burn out the tooth stinger or weaken it like sharpening with an emery or angle grinder with their high revolutions.

By the way, instead of electric screwdriver you can use drill or boring machine with speed up to 2000 rpm. But the greatest care is required, because metal removal is intensive.

As the height of a tooth decreases with each sharpening of a chain it is necessary to sharpen the depth limiter after 2-3 sharpenings with a flat file or a diamond file.

How to sharpen a chainsaw chain

Chainsaw chain sharpening is a procedure that gardeners and professional woodcutters regularly have to deal with. In this article the master plumber will tell you how to restore the damaged teeth of the saw headset, and quickly return it to its previous working condition.

To understand how to properly sharpen the chain, you need to understand the basic principles of its construction and operation. You can’t just sharpen a chain by eye, you need to know the basic characteristics of the chain and its components.

A chainsaw chain is made up of three kinds of links made of high-alloyed steel:

• Cutting. basic chain components. There are right- and left-handed saws that are arranged alternately, their cutting edges are above the plane of the bar. Tooth design incorporates kerf limiters.
• Drives (shanks). transmit torque from gasoline-powered motor to chain through drive sprocket. This feature extends sprocket life and gives the chain a more stable hold on the bar.
• Connecting. connects shanks and cutting teeth of the chain.

One of the main elements of the chain is the cutting tooth that plunges into the wood and removes chips. The tooth depth limiter determines the thickness of the wood chip and limits the depth of penetration into the wood.

Depending on type of chain, the recommended settings relative to the limiter are 0.025″ (0.65 mm) or 0.030″ (0.75 mm).

Long life of any chainsaw depends on proper care and use, including the use of chainrings. Good performance qualities of the latter affect the performance of the device and performance parameters. Untimely sharpening can cause some problems with the saw itself. The most common ones are:

• Crooked cuts;
• High stress on the chainsaw which causes increased wear on parts and therefore a shorter life span of the machine;
• Increased fuel consumption.

If the saw produces fine, dusty chips and the saw plunges into the cut with too much force, it means that the saw has blunted its aim.

There are other signs of a dull chain:

• The speed of the tool has decreased;
• Uneven and sharp sawdust is produced;
• A great deal of force must be applied to cut the wood;
• The chain is stretched or has become slack.

A chainsaw chain can quickly become blunt for the following reasons:

• If you saw too often;
• When the operator presses hard on the saw while sawing;
• If the chain is made of low-quality metal, or the steel has undergone the wrong heat treatment;
• When frequently sawing raw or resinous wood;
• When sawing hardwood trees such as oak, birch, cherry, acacia, elm, ash and others;
• If the chain meets on the way obstacles in the form of sand or stones;
• If the chain is not properly sharpened or has insufficient tension during operation.

The design of all chain saws is similar, so the chain removal procedure will be the same:

• First put on oven gloves, cotton gloves, to avoid cut by the cutting teeth.
• Remove the protective cover from the working part of the chainsaw and lay it on its side on a flat surface.
• Use a socket wrench of the correct diameter to unscrew the fastening nuts that hold the housing and the bar, remove the upper housing cover.
• Now you need to slide the bar all the way down to the sprocket, thereby loosening the chain, and remove the working elements from the mounting bolts.
• Disconnect the chain from the bar.

How to tell if a chain is blunt?

There are several signs that tell you that the chain is currently not suitable for work:

• physical effort is needed for the same work.
• Stretching the chain.
• A vibrating sensation when working with the tool.
• Unevenness of the sawdust, which in addition becomes more like dust.

A chain can also become blunt for a number of reasons:

• Incorrect handling.
• Contact with too hard objects, e.g. stones.
• Working too hard and for too long.

Description of the sharpening process

on how to sharpen a chainsaw chain. The first thing to do is to prepare a place to install a clamp, or if the process will take place without it, it is convenient to use an ordinary log as a support to fix the bar in the horizontal plane. The chain saw is on a flat surface, a log is placed under the guide bar, and the brake is applied.

To avoid injury when sharpening your chain saw, always use the chain brake.

The next step is the direct sharpening of the tooth. To do this, a circular file is used to move from the inside of the tooth to the outside.

It is very important to keep the correct sharpening angle at this point. The standard angle is thirty degrees from perpendicular to the plane of the file. How to position it correctly is shown in the photo below.

When sharpening a chain saw for a non-standard cut, such as a longitudinal cut. Angle of sharpening changes to a less sharp angle. As a rule, it is not more than 10°. It is in such cases that the holder, handhelds, or filing gauges are used to control the sharpening angle.

Some manufacturers of chainsaw chains, in order to facilitate sharpening, as well as to indicate the maximum possible sharpening, on the upper surface of the tooth make a special mark.

By keeping the file parallel to the marking, one can be sure that the right angle is being observed.

The number of filing movements should be identical for each tooth. This will enable all teeth to be ground evenly.

When sharpening the chain, it’s common practice to sharpen the teeth on one side first and then the other side, which is convenient because. к. you don’t have to change your position with respect to the chain saw.

After sharpening the work teeth, adjust the height of the limiting tooth with a flat file. To do this, the file gauge is placed on the chain so that the limiting tooth aligns with the slot in the chain, after which the protruding part is ground with a file. This procedure is performed on all limit teeth.

Using a roller attachment

A sharpening fixture, with which the teeth can be quickly and properly resharpened, consists of a small guide template, on which two rollers are mounted.

Once the guide bar is attached to the guide bar, you can sharpen the chain saw teeth even without prior experience.

topics. some expert advice:

“Newspaper ad: Trade your chainsaw for a prosthesis”.

I hope that the information was moderately useful. If yes, then subscribe to the blog for updates and share the article with your friends Have a nice day. Good luck!

Quote of wisdom: It’s not the word, but the tone in which the word is pronounced (Belinsky).