Need advice from the chain sharpeners…

Grinder Hoarders…

 

I hear you.

The one on the left I call a "Tecomec clone". There is no brand or any ID of any kind on it. Obviously produced with the thought it would be re-badged. There was a little casting flash under the vice and once removed, worked smoothly. For the money, it's pretty decent as it's 1/3 the cost of Oregon/Jolly Star/Tecomec.

The Oregon 511AX had a slip in the box that said it was made in Italy by Tecomec.

 

I might have told this story elsewhere? But I will tell it here as a alternative for those wishing to get a grinder.
I sharpened my chains for 40 years with a file plate. My chains cut just fine.

Then for a couple years I used the fancy Oregon "Clamp-on" Deluxe file guides and they were much more consistent than the file plates.

Last summer I went to this guy's house in Columbus that had bought out an old chainsaw dealer. He had two sharpeners, a GB with the hump style vice and a Oregon 511A that looked in nice shape at a very good price. When I got the Oregon grinder home and started playing with it, I discovered that most of the threads were stripped off the main vice hold down screw. So I bought a new Tecomec vice that was exactly like the original one on the 511A. Now the Oregon 511A was not a steal but just a OK deal. I guess I could have made new threads on the old vice stem and went ahead and used it? As it is, my 511A is just like brand new. It is accurate left & right and I enjoy it very well. I don't have any saws with chains that do not use a 3/16" wheel so I bought a Borazon wheel for it.

I'm sure I would be just as happy with a NT or a Timber Tuff.

Someone gave me a Harbor Freight grinder, you have to go slow and careful with it and it will not do the 10 degree droop on the chisel chains. Flex City, it is! But if you know what you are doing and take your time, it will do a chain that will cut pretty good.

 

Anybody ever used one of these? or is it just a way to sell a special Oregon chain? I like the concept, though.

 

I've used the Oregon Power Sharp system and it seems to be a valid system for the yard pruning saw and normal chain dulling.

But a badly rocked chain will wear out that stone getting the rocked chain back into cutting condition.

 

Yep! Had one . Not a bad little saw . It forced me to learn to file after using the built in sharpening feature a few times .