need some advice

logan97 · Nov 12, 2010

I ran a brand new chain for 1 day and hit a nail today. Do I have to take all of the teeth down to the smallest tooth? I don't know what you call these but I obviously built it wrong. It is 3 X's perpendicular to some straight pieces of wood to cut firewood on. Is there a way to build this apparatus so no nails are in the way of the chain?

SpudHauler · Nov 12, 2010

No, chainsaw chains are not like a saw blade where balance is important. Sharpen each until they are back to good shape. I believe if you even had a couple broken right off it would not really matter. Sound like you should buy the second chain, that way on days like this you just slip the other chain on and keep working. Later sharpen the, now old one, and your ready for the next nail!:laughing:
:thumbsup:

chipsndust · Nov 12, 2010

logan97 said:
I ran a brand new chain for 1 day and hit a nail today. Do I have to take all of the teeth down to the smallest tooth? I don't know what you call these but I obviously built it wrong. It is 3 X's perpendicular to some straight pieces of wood to cut firewood on. Is there a way to build this apparatus so no nails are in the way of the chain?

I agree with Spudhauler, the teeth don't all have to be the same, just get them all sharp. By the time you get all the teeth sharpened, you will probably have to lower your rakers.

If I'm picturing your buck correctly, can you run stringers on the lower legs of the "X"s, to keep the nails below the cut?

You should be bucking the part of the log that extends past your last "X", so there shouldn't be any nails in the path of the cut?

logan97 · Nov 12, 2010

chipsndust said:
I agree with Spudhauler, the teeth don't all have to be the same, just get them all sharp. By the time you get all the teeth sharpened, you will probably have to lower your rakers.

If I'm picturing your buck correctly, can you run stringers on the lower legs of the "X"s, to keep the nails below the cut?

You should be bucking the part of the log that extends past your last "X", so there shouldn't be any nails in the path of the cut?

how do I identify and correctly lower the "rakers" ?

chipsndust · Nov 13, 2010

Logan:

Please find someone experienced with chainsaws to show you how, or take your saw to a shop for sharpening. If your rakers are too high, your saw will cut poorly or not at all. If you file them too low, the saw will be "grabby" and is likely to "kickback", causing serious injury when you cut with it.

You need to have someone else sharpen it or find someone to teach you, for your own safety.

There are many different sharpening guides available to make it easier to hand file chainsaw chains.