Want square chain with a round grinder?

Probably because it is harder and more work to do square chain. Yes it cuts faster but a very small percentage of people really care enough to take the time to make square to cut a little faster. So since it’s a small amount of people doing it they need to charge large amounts for the grinders and files to grind it. If the same company made round and square grinders the round would probably be 85% of the companies revenue per year. Grinding square seems slower to me the times I’ve seen it done and 90% of the people wont think the extra time is worth it. Actually seems a the number of people that sharpen their own chains has gone down a significant amount. I get lots of chains to sharpen at 8-10$ each depending on the length.

 

I got my dad the Pferd 2n1 for Christmas. He told me Ace had a one month backlog for chain sharpening. That seemed nuts to me. Dad said he had just had his chain sharpened at another hardware store. Either he had already grounded it or they did a less than half azz job grinding. Sure hope he takes to the CS-x instead of throwing $ away. I don’t live close enough to do it for him. I demonstrated the simplicity of the 2n1 to him.

 

The 2 in 1 works great and is simple, he just needs to remember to only by full comp chains or it won’t work

 

I realized that last week when I sharpened one of my 28" chains. Forgot one of them was full skip.

Other than that I love the 2 in 1. Simple and easy.

 

A friend got suckered into a used Silvey SDM4 . Spent over twice what they used to be BRAND NEW !!
I told him he should just get a new Simington 451C . Beforehand . !!!!
But , the cool guys convinced him there was nothing like a Silvey. So he got it . After grinding about 15 chains , the main bearing froze up . Grinder don't work . He took it apart . Got the parts. Other projects took prescidence. His grinder was still in pieces last I knew . AND he's bucking on the landing with round filed chains .
Had he bought a new Simington. He would still be enjoying Awesome chisel ground chains .
1600 bucks isn't that bad for 20 or more years of awesome chains .
My old small motor 451 A ground away over 1,000s of feet of chain . I bought it used for 400 bucks . 30 years ago . Finally the motor burned out . I'll probably buy a new Simington 451C .

 

A little bit faster per cut over a lot of cuts ends up saving you quite a bit of time on the job. The only time I run round chain now is on semi chisel or beater chains that don’t have enough tooth left to convert to square.

 

Let me guess, that was definitive Dave rubbing the end of the log?

 

Thank you Eric you have been very helpful and you have made my mind up I am going to switch over to square ground chains

 

So how do you like this jig and the chains you grind with it??

 

The short version:
In a nutshell, it was a good choice for me.

The long version:
I use it fairly regularly (really whenever I have to sharpen a full chisel chain) The chains I grind with this jig cut well; zero issues there. There is a somewhat steep learning curve to overcome, trial and error with wheel angles and machine angles, but once you find what works, the results are pretty consistent. I recommend trying it on a junk chain first rather than one with a lot of life left in it. Better yet, a junk made in China chain where the cutters are soft and you really don't care what happens with it. I haven't gotten any CBN/diamond wheels made for my grinder yet but that's the next step to improve upon this setup. The downside is it requires a lot of hand/eye coordination. If your up-close eyesight is poor you're going to struggle. Also when you nest the chain in the groove getting ready to grind it, you're just eyeballing the rivets level. There's no positive stop to make every tooth the same. I use this to my advantage by favoring the chain to one side at first, taking small grinds on it slowly cleaning it up, moving it over a little at a time. Doing it that way, you can leave the jig clamped in one position in the vise to do all your left (or right) cutters without moving the jig. And that method gives you flexibility when dealing with chains that got smoked hard and the teeth are inconsistent. The last thing I'm going to bloviate about is that the instructions that came with it aren't especially helpful. Just go straight to the YouTube videos on SquareCutter's channel. Seeing the process in action is where it's at.

 

Bloviate? I had to look that one up! Can't say I have run into it before. A $5.00 word for sure! Interesting post!

 

It was brought to my attention not too long ago by someone on here in an underhanded kind of way that I tend to do this. I don't care. I'll bloviate. I'll pontificate. I'll even... never mind.

 

Was not picking on you Eric. I appreciate words that I am not familiar with. A large vocabulary is supposed to be a sign of above average intelligence. Spposta be anyway!Scrabble anyone?

 

I know you weren’t picking on me Russ. Full disclosure: I picked up the word bloviate on this forum over 5 years ago. We’re never done learning

 

I've never heard of the word either, but I can almost guarantee that if some around me knew of the word, they'd say I bloviate. Lol

 

55 bonus points and a get out of jail card for correct use of Bloviate in a square ground chain thread! Couple things in this conversation stand out. The need for good to excellent close up vision is universal for getting the elusive perfect corner. Also, the learning curve... I have had several grinders, and each type has to be "learned". They are all adjustable in many ways, but I find that once I have it set, I rarely mess with adjustments again. Truthfully, any decent square ground chain will knock the socks off all but the very best round chain.
.325 RS and C83 might be exceptions? However, you won't get their factory profile/performance with a single file. The compound angles are the source of the magic for them.

 

Did you already have a grinder prior to this one??

Also some may disagree but I love the cbn wheels they never change shape so you throw in a consistent element right off the bat, I used to sharpen chains for the public and I was time and money ahead when I switched to cbn wheels..

 

I did have have an Oregon grinder for a few years before buying this jig, yes.
Agreed, if you’re sharpening chains for other people (or a lot for yourself) having a machine is a must.