Changes to my 261

Yep, shorter bars = less teeth to sharpen, that's for sure.

 

Here's a dumb question. Can i grind off a few teeth from a 20" .325 chain to make my own full skip chain? Ive used a chain in the past that had a broken, or two teeth missing.

 

That looks great!
I haven't used a skip chain yet. Think I'll have to give it a try.

 

I wondered that too before.

 

Lets ask the forum??? Here goes.

 

Chain Sequence Explained

 

I don't see why not, that's even cross my mind before. I wouldn't hesitate to remove a bad tooth or more, if I rocked a chain or filed a tooth or two too short, for some reason.
What about seimi-skip configuration! It might be the best of both worlds. I may try a semi-skip chain, next time order a chain or two.

 

Yes you can but skip will cut slower and since there are fewer cutters, they are each doing more work, so they’ll dull quicker.

 

Great reference Jason. Thanks.

 

Yep, I have read that before, and it makes sense. The other thing is I believe it takes less power to pull a full skip vs. full comp.

 

That’s where proper “tuning” of the depth gauges or rakers comes into play. You can easily take too much off them and make any chain suck the power out of a saw.

 

I think that is generally true in clean wood, but on my own saws, I have found that I am perfectly capable of dulling a full comp just as fast as a full skip, when I hit something, metal, rock, dirt, etc. If you really get into something over a second or two, you are going to hit it with all of your teeth, or at least all of your teeth on one side of the bar at least, no matter how many you have on your chain, and then you will have to sharpen all of you teeth, no matter how many or how few are on the chain.

 

Yes sir, I have done that a time or two. Raker height is so important, I always pay close attention to mine, after a lesson or two.

 

Thats what you run on your 42" bar...square grind too???

I never knew such a chain existed. Second pic looks like its angled for milling. Is it special order?

 

I've never used any. A lot of times it's advertised as for carving use. Largest bar I use full compliment on is 28" and while it's a pita to file, it milled like grease lightning!

 

Just for reference, the pics in my post about full house weren’t right so I asked for a redux.

 

I sharpened my chain, last night, when I got back to my shop. I took it back out and finished cutting up the Osage Orange, and done some splitting and some of it was pretty knotty, so I noodled several pieces. The saw cut better today, they yesterday. Factory chain sometimes just isn't as sharp as it could be and I think I ended up with a better sharpening job then came new on it. I also lowered the rakers a little and they needed it even after only the first sharpening on the new chain.

I waited until I was done, just in case I trashed the chain on the stump, but all was well, and the chain is still pretty sharp. The saw cut that stump off just fine, but as you can see, was about as big a stump as I care to tackle with this saw and 20" bar. I know one can cut a lot bigger stump with a 20" bar, but I much prefer to just grab a bigger saw, myself.

 

So, I have ran over 3 tanks of gas through it with this chain and bar. enough to draw the conclusion that I like it pretty good. I am tempted to try a semi-skip chain on it, just to see if I can detect a difference good or bad. Also, noticed when noodling before, with the .325 chain, I had more instances of the saw plugging up, from the long shavings, but I was very pleasantly surprised that plugging up, practically never happens now, as long as I use any sense at all, on how I go about it.

Anyway, it's a viable alternative, at the very least.