Probably old hat to a lot of you guys with more experience. I have been cutting some really crappy, dirty, sandy even, Cedars, with a few small Black Locust thrown in and also old downed logs, etc., trying to open up a road through a patch of timber. I will go cut for 3-4 hr stretches, and usually dull two saws before I get done. I am also cutting a lot of small dead lower limbs. And I had been doing pretty good, and watching my chain tensions, but finally threw the chain on the 362 I put it back on and cut a little more until dark. But I think the problem started even then. Next day I sharpened the chains again on my 362 and my 261, and went out and decided to work on clearing some Osage Orange in the fence line of my old garden spot. This Osage Orange was terrible! I got a little firewood out of it, but the main reason to cut it was to get it gone as it was a total mess, and very difficult to cut down, and cut up, because of the many thorny small branches, in many ways, much worse then Cedar trees. The trunks were twisted and multiple trunks intertwined and grown grafted together. I ran out of gas on the 261 and started up with the 362 and cut till right at dark and finally hooked a small sucker and threw my chain again. So today, I decided to clean up the bar and saw really good, turn it over the other way and touch up the chain, to best sharpness again. Well, I couldn't tighten up the chain as it was not seating down in the bar groove every where, and the chain was stuck, wouldn't slide and I knew the bar was good and clean, but some of the drivers were not going down into the groove in a couple of places. I took the chain back off and it was hard to see, but I had buggered up some of the drivers when the saw threw the chain. I might have thrown the chain away, but it was less then half wore out, so I clamped the chain down to my welding table and took a sanding disk to the offending drivers. There were some very tiny burs on about 15 of the drivers, and once sanded down, put me back in business. First time I remember buggering up the drivers on a chain. But I haven't thrown that many chains. Probably something to always check on if one throws a chain, although I have thrown the chain on Jonesred a couple of times and never had a problem.
Definitely. When I process apple trees, there are typically tons of suckers/small shoots that can derail the chain if not tensioned enough. I've had it ding the drivers like that too. I started running the chain a little tighter and it helped in my situation.
I usually just use a small flat file but have used an air sander before. In Osage it’s those little limbs that you don’t see that throws your chain if your chain is even a bit to slack. I am working up a bunch now, cutting off root balls & limbing in preparation for cutting fence posts & firewood.
Happened to me too, also a 362 There is a thin piece of metal behind the cover that got real bent out of shape Tried straightening it out but it was too far gone, cheap enough at the dealer
I had one chain years back that had three or four drivers like that so I cleaned the chain up and then took the raker file to them, it worked fine and it hasn't happened since. I do take care of the chainsaw bars and the chains much better than when I first started cutting.
Yep, me too. I am still learning, but I have learned quite a bit on keeping chains and bars in decent shape. It's fun running a chainsaw in good condition, but terrible if it's not in good condition, and one ends up just working himself to death, fighting it.
