Making chainsaw chains

[shooterdon]

Does anyone make them from spools?

Any advice on equipment and sources of high quality bulk chain?

 

[xyz123]

I just made one yesterday to test on a saw. 63PS3 for G111 200T clone

Made some 24" for a local.

IMO get a good breaker and spinner and have at it.

Extra set I had I sold in my chainsaw repair group for 50 and shipping. You can buy them new around 100ish shipped.

 

[5030]

Buy a bulk spool of quality chain in the pitch and drive width you use and buy a spinner and riveter and have ai it. Just buy good ones, not HF ones. Bulk chain will usually come with links and rivets. Don't buy some off brand junk Chinese chain is all I can say. I buy Oregon myself. Bulk chain is on Amascon as well, cheapo stuff and Oregin.

 

[xyz123]

Lot of Oregon stuff made in China now too. Chain is one and Even bars, rims, clutch drums etc.

Blount Inc now has production plants in Portland Oregon, Guelph Canada, Curitiba Brazil and Fuzhou China.

Lot of good chains being made. Husky makes some good chain now since not using oregon. Husky opened their own plant. Stihl too.

China chains cost half as much and come a long way. If just a part time cutter you will like it.

 

[RandyT]

Lot of Oregon stuff made in China now too. Chain is one and Even bars, rims, clutch drums etc.

Blount Inc now has production plants in Portland Oregon, Guelph Canada, Curitiba Brazil and Fuzhou China.

Lot of good chains being made. Husky makes some good chain now since not using oregon. Husky opened their own plant. Stihl too.

China chains cost half as much and come a long way. If just a part time cutter you will like it.

But just for an FYI. Blount no longer owns Oregon tool. Oregon is currently owned by Platinum equity group. The same company that owns Rehlko, aka Kohler

 

[xyz123]

But just for an FYI. Blount no longer owns Oregon tool. Oregon is currently owned by Platinum equity group. The same company that owns Rehlko, aka Kohler

Ya I heard they sold again but didnt know who the company was tearing them up now. Heard even more China dealings. Is what it is.

This guy just finding out. I will find my old thread with info years back.

 

[xyz123]

China Oregon

Oregon sprocket rims.

From a guy that says he works there. = Get ready for Chinese rims. Rims made in the USA soon to be no more

If anybody on this sub-reddit uses Stihl, Husqvarna, or Oregon rims get ready for a drop in quality in the coming years. Oregon Tool, formerly Blount or Omark, will cease production of rims made in the U.S. and will be outsourced to China by June 2023. I'm one of the guys who makes those rims and Oregon tool makes the majority of all those rims for those 3 companies. If you're wondering why it's because Oregon Tool will likely not be around for much longer they're furloughing all production workers worldwide and are cash poor. The company has been managed into the ground. The company just keeps getting passed from one investment banker to another and bleeding the company dry. If you enjoy the Oregon brand, I'm sorry but I don't see the company lasting another 5 years unless something changes or is bought by another company.

The biggest reason for the outsource was Stihl and bad management on Oregon's part. The high temp furnace is from 1969, anneal was rebuilt a couple times but is WW2 era. Goff is from the 80's. In other words Oregon didn't invest in the department and the equipment is failing they asked Stihl for a price increase to fund new equipment as about 70% of what we make is for Stihl and it's not very profitable as it was first introduced to act as a bridge between Oregon and Stihl for another deal decades ago.

No they are made in a foundry.

If you care the process is as follows: First a plastic model of the rim is made, then 108 of those plastic rims are assembled into 18 layer trees, those trees get sent to ceramics and a robot dips them in sand and ceramic to make the mold. After curing they are sent to the foundry loaded into a 2100 degree furnace where the plastic is melted and all that's left is the ceramic mold we pull them out of the furnace and pour steel into them while they're still hot. After they cool we load them into a goff where it blasts the ceramic off the parts then a hammer is used to knock the pieces off the center of the mold. After that the parts are weighed out and loaded into a 1700 degree furnace to soften the steel then they get sent to id size where they are punched to widen the inside diameter of the part. The parts are then loaded into a vacuum furnace to harden them up, after that they go to cnc grinders which grind the outer diameter to size. They are then sent to shot ping which uses an abrasive machine to give them a uniform finish. Lastly they are sent to functional gauge where inspection is performed on 100% of the parts. There a few more steps but that's a brief overview of the process

There's going to be a drop in quality our foundry has 40 years experience making the rims, it's a long process about 5 weeks from start to finish for a batch. They've tried to outsource before, but no suppliers could qualify. A supplier still hasn't qualified and they've already eroded most of the infrastructure in the department.

 

[xyz123]

Pricey oregon drum that is made special.

China

Betting special chains and bars prob too. I will look later.

 

[JeepHead]

Better buy up the good ones while we can!

 

[RandyT]

Ya I heard they sold again but didnt know who the company was tearing them up now. Heard even more China dealings. Is what it is.

It has gotten to the point in the OPE market where everything is either outsourced to a third party manufacturer with license agreements, or owned by investment groups.

Just because a product bears a well known companies name doesn't mean that well known company has any input for parts, service, warranty.