|
| I've seen a few guys above complain about saw sharpeners taking too much tooth off. I bought my own grinder for this very reason. I could never seem to master the file method, so I'd take my chains to town - and they'd come back with half the tooth gone. Bought my own grinder, practiced on my own chains & did a lot of reading on the net until I figured it all out, and hung out my shingle.
But here's the kicker..... To be a GOOD job of sharpening, all damage on the cutting corner of the tooth needs to be removed. If you don't, the chain will dull very quickly again. I've had guys bring me new chains where, to do a PROPER sharpening that will last, I've had to remove 1/4 of the tooth. This kind of tooth damage is commonly caused my running them way too long after they get dull. Often times, damage from hitting wire or nails will only damage a couple of teeth in a row. To save chain life on those, I will usually not take all the damage off. All top plates should be sharpened to the same length. Taking all the teeth on a chain down to remove damage from one or two is crazy IMO.
The smart thing to do is to use a file, give the teeth a couple of strokes at each gas fill-up, and when you start to see visible differences between teeth, take it to someone with a grinder to bring the angles all back to proper. Now, I have also seen some rather interesting chains from guys who have filed. Staying too low in the tooth with the file is common. As stated above, a proper tooth profile should look similar to a large wave. I have had to grind a LOT of top plate off on some of these because they filed too low.
I also have customers who never file - they bring chains to me for every sharpening. The guys who know when to quit on a chain - as soon as they show signs of being dull and before you start damaging the teeth - I can set my grinder to just barely shave the tooth. I know that I am not taking anymore off than if he had filed it with 2-3 strokes.
Soooo, where does this all leave us in this argument? I don't sell chain - so I don't have any incentive to over-grind. Most shops that sharpen chains, also sell the stuff. What I'm saying is, there are no doubt some unscrupulous shops that will purposefully over-grind in order to sell more chain. BUT, if you get a chain back with what you think is too much tooth gone, it may be because YOU ran it too long, ran it into the ground too much, or didn't know what you were doing when you hand filed. There is a lot more to sharpening saw chain than the average joe knows. I have simply gotten into the habit of doing a quick inspection of chains that are brought to me, while the customer is standing there, and will tell him in advance if it appears as though I will need to remove a lot of tooth and why. I also offer advice to correct the problem in the future. | |
|
Sharpining Chain saws... Tell me best way
