Small Woodland Owners' Group

Chain Sharpening

A place to discuss or review of tools and equipment, how to look after them, handy hints for using them.

Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby mikepepler » Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:18 pm

I've been wondering about getting one of these electric grinders as well... Question is though, what width grinding disc do you use? They seem to come only with a limited range of widths, e.g. 3.2 and 4.5 mm: http://www.portek.co.uk/MiniMK2_General.html

But when hand filing, I use a 4.8mm on our .325 chains, and a 5.5mm on our 3/8 chains...

Anybody know what is the right width to use with a grinding machine?
Mike
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Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby Terry » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:31 pm

each size chain needs a specific size file or stone - check details with your supplier.

A lot of amateurs struggle with sharpening because they are only sharpening the cutters and forget to file down the depth guages as well.
There are a few decent instructional videos on the internet to guide you and they generally include a few other useful tips to keep your saw running well.

As has been said in a few other threads, if you can afford it, do a proper chainsaw ticket which includes maintenance of saws and the cost will be reimbursed in reduced payments for sharpening and servicing etc, not to mention the satisfaction of doing for yourself and also losing the hassle of getting to service centres or sending your chains off in the post.
Sods law also dictates that you will have problems just when you really need the saw :roll:
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Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby mikepepler » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:47 am

Cheers Terry - I've already done CS30/31/32, so am quite comfortable sharpening chains by hand and have done so for over 5 years now. My interest in the grinding wheels is simply about time - will they do as good a job as I can by hand, but quicker?
Mike
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Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby SimonFisher » Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:40 am

mikepepler wrote:My interest in the grinding wheels is simply about time - will they do as good a job as I can by hand, but quicker?


Mike

I've a Portek Ultra Chainmaster http://www.portek.co.uk/Ultra_General.html which I'll be using for the first time soon. I'll let you know how I find it.

Simon
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Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby ncrawshaw » Sat Feb 09, 2013 6:54 pm

Mike, I wondered the same thing and asked the same question on this thread about a year ago! The Portek site doesn't seem to explain this, at least I couldn't find anything on their site about stone sizes/chain sizes. Chain saw files come, generally, in four sizes, 4mm, 4.5mm, 4.8mm and 5.5mm but there are only two stone sizes with the Portek.
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Re: Chain Sharpening

Postby mikepepler » Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:19 pm

I suppose you can get away with the file size being slightly different, although it goes against all I learned on the CS30/31 course....
Mike
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