Heads Up, Lidl Chainsaw Sharpener.

[Wendelspanswick]

Just a heads up that Lidl are selling a nice 230v chainsaw sharpener for £20, it gets good reviews so I've bought one but I have not used it in anger yet.
It looks well made, especially for £20.
I wouldn't use it for everyday sharpening as the electric sharpeners tend to take off too much each time compared to a file and guide but for bringing a damaged chain back into service or regrinding a cross cut chain to a ripping chain it's ideal.

http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/SID ... tle=Aparat

http://youtu.be/BrHYlL7zGhs

[oldclaypaws]

Its comparable to a Portek sharpener. While a sharp chain is always preferable to a dull one by whatever means, this type of sharpener generally gets the thumbs down on Arbtalk among experienced users, the criticism being that they take a fair bit off the chain, they can blue the metal and affect the tempering, and there are more effective methods.

Preferred are the good old hand file, the quite precise manual carbide-based Timberline sharpener, or 12v sharpeners like the Granberg sawtune. I've got the latter, for sharpening both my .325 and .404 chains. When doing a big 36" or longer chain a degree of precision and speed is desirable, its always gratifying to be able to get a dulled chain back to a factory edge and go through the wood effortlessly.

Does seem a bargain though, worth a punt & play if you've no other mechanised sharpener.

[Andy M]

I've had one for a couple of years and it works well. Obviously, grinding has to be in very short bursts to prevent any overheating, but it does speed up the task. I do like my 12v sharpener, but the bits are not cheap.

[Wendelspanswick]

Just been out to try it on a 20" chain that was damaged years ago when I 'found' a lump of flint in a beech crook and its been sat in the spares box ever since and I am really impressed.
The motor is quiet and vibration free and there is no slack in the tilt mechanism so the repeatability of the tooth shape is spot on.

When a chain gets damaged there is a tendency to file the damaged teeth back leaving the good teeth long resulting in a chain that refuses to cut straight.
With the chain grinder you find the most damaged tooth, set the backstop to grind away the damage and then grind all the other teeth giving you a perfectly uniform chain, even when you swap from the left hand teeth to the right hand teeth.
OCP is correct in saying if you were to be heavy handed it would be easy to blue or burr the teeth but with gentle application of the wheel you should be fine, the wheel is very free cutting resulting in a razor sharp tooth.

It won't replace my file and guides but for damaged chains or for changing the tooth angle it's really good, especially for £20 as replacing a damaged chain would cost me more than that.