Want square chain with a round grinder?

They look like a decent company, my only concern is how much to ship it all the way from Lithuania into the US? At my last job we used to do a little custom form grinding work where we'd have to turn up a wheel with a specific shape, then send it out for either Borazon or CBN coating. I'll have to ask the old foreman but I believe there was a local place within 100 miles that did it for us.

 

I got a CBN raker wheel from them for $100 shipped…

 

That’s cheaper than the squarejig ones

 

So i am not so set in my ways that i wont try change Eric has persuaded me to go to square ground chains so my question is why dont more companies make square grinders and why are they so much money

 

Beats me. You could get a brand new Simington from Bailey’s for $1600 or try your luck on the used market for well over a thousand bucks… I bought my Oregon grinder a few years ago for $200 and this square jig was $300 so I’m in it for considerably less. The files for square chain are expensive too if you want to sharpen by hand. If it was cheaper and easy to sharpen like round chain then everyone would be doing it. Then again, a lot of people I know can’t sharpen their own chains machine or not…

 

After half the price of used you might as well spend a couple bucks extra and buy brand new
I can’t lie by the looks of it you definitely can file a square chain better than I hand file a round chain

 

Trying to keep track of all the chain profiles, lengths and files sizes (now even 13/64" for the Stihl 2in1 guide) drives me crazy!

 

Yup. My friends other friend just buys new chains after dulling them to the point they smoke when he's cutting.

The guy at the wood yard I was cutting with the first day marveled at how little meat was left on the teeth on one of my chains. "I just throw them out when they get dull." he said! And he was a wood seller!

 

I suspect one reason is no competition, until now. When Silvey left the chat, Simington stood alone, and the price went from $899 to $1599 in less than 2 years?

Eric Wanderweg, bit (glad he did) and if he thinks that the results are acceptable at $300, I’m definitely interested. I paid a tad more than that for my Super Jolly, and absolutely love it with all CBN wheels, no dressing. The vast majority of us aren’t racing, so if a nice/fast/smooth/reasonable square grind is at $5-600 in a grinder, jig and wheel, it’s probably a no brainer…

 

Cool, I was wondering how the dressing was going to work. Looks like it’ll do just fine.

 

Don’t I remember you having a square grinder?

 

Glass on the jig side, diamond file on top, super bueno!!!

 

Yep, never could get it dialed in and didn’t have the patience for it, donated it to a raffle for Dallas on OPE. Every thread I read everyone else was running a 451 Simington that had way more adjustments.

 

I ordered a couple square chains so I can see for myself if I like them and depending on how they hold an up I will be buying the simington

 

The one caveat I’ll bring up comparing my $300 jig to the Simington is that it involves a lot more of the human factor. There are no stops to bump each tooth up against, and you’re relying heavily on your eyesight and a firm grip on the chain for keeping the teeth consistent. It didn’t take me long to get into the rhythm and touch up an entire chain, but at least from the videos I’ve seen of the Simington, there’s more risk involved going the cheaper route.
It’s probably also worth mentioning that my full time job is a machinist/toolmaker so I’m used to running various machines, grinders included. Over time you develop an eye for certain things working in that environment. Someone from a different background might face a steeper learning curve using this setup. I’m only speculating here though, and I have no doubt that with enough practice most people will be able to catch on.

 

Could there be any way to clamp the drivers?

 

Yes, but you would have to be able to compensate for .043, .050. .058, .063 gauge chain staying centered, that is the largest issue when trying to set stops on a single side or auto clamp vise.

 

Definitely. I could mount up adjustable stops and clamps to semi-automate the process a bit. I actually mentioned this on the developer’s YouTube video a year ago but he didn’t have much interest in it.

 

Some sort of vice grip style clamp would be easy to adjust. And I’m just thinking out loud here.. of a way to steady each cutter so you wouldn’t have to firmly hold the chain while grinding.

 

The angled section where the drive links get nested into the groove could have a floating plate on one side, with a thumb screw to clamp it. That would also eliminate the need to buy separate pieces for the different gauge chains.