Found an old 16" chain i saved that was bent while i was freeing the saw from a bind. I tried to straighten it at the time in a vise but dint seem to work. The chain is almost new. Worth any effort or trash it? Id rather not ruin a bar with it.
See if you can get a new link or two, and replace what's bent. Guessing the bend is localized to a link or two. Hopefully, it's not several. Picture? I've never seen a bent chain, and I've had my share of bound up saws.
The bend is not that noticeable, it drags in the bar groove. Good idea, but I dont have the tool to do that.
I thought one of mine was bent years back but somehow a couple of drive links had burrs on them so I filed them off, it's been fine since.
Saw shop probably won't charge much to change it out, or buy the little breaker bar and use hammer and punch. What do you do when a chain stretches more than you can adjust?
Unfortunately I'm ususally getting into dirt, rocks, fence, nails, and whatever that I've never had a chain stretch all that much before the teeth were gone. Old fence rows and cleaning up areas that used to be other than woods can be hard on chains and keeping them sharp. I do a lot of underbrush removal and occasionaly pop a chain off on my 250 with the .325 chain, but the .375 chain on the other saws seems a little tougher. I've even been clearing brush in the middle of the woods and start throwing sparks and discover I'm standing on an old fence row and got into fence that I didn't even see or know was there. That's usually a few extra strokes to get it sharp again... I've had to file drive links on my old small Poulans after throwing chains, but the last few years I've only been using Stihl chain cuz it seems more durable for my uses. I haven't had to file any drive links on the stihl chains that I remember. Maybe once we get the place in shape and all I'm doing is felling trees and processing logs for the mill and firewood, my chains won't be getting abused so much.
