Or maybe some links are bent? Threw a chain cutting some very small limbs out of the way. I gotta stop that! Good way to throw a chain! The chain will not go around the bar. I put another chain on the bar and it worked fine, so, it must be the chain got buggered up. I can't find burrs... any tips for how to find the problem? Burrs, bent links? This is a Stihl chain on 20 inch Stihl Rollomatic bar, Stihl ms362 saw.
hold chain up so you can look down length - likely bent- might have to move it around a bit to find. redneck repair- 95% of the time I can bend it back, just have to identify the center of the bend as that is the link or links that are bent- course the other approved method is to remove and replace the damaged links. There is only a couple thousandths clearance in the bar groove for the drive links so it does not take much to bind one up.
When this happens to me I put the chain back on the saw with alot of slack in the adjustment. Then start the saw and at low rpm run the chain around to get the burrs out of it. Works most of the time .
Inspect this part of the chain very carefully: Typically when the chain comes up out of the groove, a drive link or two gets damaged. Sometimes processing apple orchard tree's I have to cut small shoots to get into the tree. Best practice for me is to make sure the chain is on the tight side vs. a little loose.
if it's not to bad I just bend them back by hand . It only take's a very little bit of a bow to bind it up in the bar slot. I will either use a file or a rotary tool to clean up any burred drive links- course if they are chewed off then they have to be replaced, but a typical 14-18 inch chain it isn't worth the cost of my time vs a new chain for a customer. I sharpen around a 100 or more chains a month any where from 10" to 7ft bar length loops . There is a box of 200 dl .404 loops not sure how many, waiting to be reground + another bucket with 15-20 of 14"-36" loops besides.
