chainsaw sharpener

[kitestrings]

This was a belated holiday gift to myself - that Santa knows just how I like to use gift cards.  Anyway, I've wanted one of these for a long time, but just never wanted to spend the money I guess.  I grew up and spent most of my adult life filing by hand.


Quite a few years ago I got one that mounts on the bar and runs on 12V.  It's a similar design to this, just a bit smaller diameter disc.  I'd gotten to like that one quite a bit, except for two problems: 1) you couldn't do up say 2-3 spare chains without swapping one off and another onto the bar, and 2) it was not very easy to transition to different stones for smaller gauge chains.

With my boys pitching in now, we have four saws just here at the house ranging from a 12" 'micro' (1/4"/6.35mm, 64) electric a 3/8" 73LGX on the bigger saws.

Anyway, this thing is great.  I paid a bit more for the hydraulic clamping, but it really makes it quick.  When you lower the cutter-head it automatically clamps the chain, so you don't have to keep clamping and unclamping at each stop; just advance the chain, sharpen, lift, advance sharpen, lift...

I have three stones, and the thickest (3/8") I have dress at 60 degrees for cutting the rakers, so it does both with easy.  I think my days of hand filing are over.

[DanG]

I had to laugh when the excavator clearing trees for my septic field stopped to dress his Stihl chain with a cordless motor & was using an orange-red stone… I was like carborundum or diamond would be quicker and last longer? and he guffawed and pointed to the skid & dump drivers and said ‘tried them, those muppetheads wore more chains out removing too much metal (with aggresive abrasives) than Oak bark ever would…

[bigrockcandymountain]

I bought one as an impulse buy a few years ago from Princess Auto ( Canadian version of harbour freight). It was insanely cheap, and the quality shows it.  You can get decent results if you keep your technique consistent. 

I'm definitely drooling over your new toy.  Looks like it's made well and should last a couple of lifetimes. 

[ruddycrazy]

I bought one of them year ago and used it for years and found after after run cutting firewood they needed a resharpen and after a while found the chain(s) had uneven wear on a each blade. then thought a bout it for a while and grinding hardened metal with no coolant to keep it cool will anneal the hardness thus causing the blades to dull as I found. So onto the next job shelf it went and went back to using a file with my Shihl on blade file guide.

A few years later pulled out a diamond sharpener that is put onto a dremmel and tried that, well story over as this just plain works. I can use the chainsaw's multiple times before a resharpen is needed and when I use I spray water over the diamond shaft as diamond does need coolant to cut properly.