Well I had the Oregon mini bench grinder for a while and it did a decent job but only came with the one small wheel for 325 or mini 3/8. I sold it when I upgrade saws and run almost all 3/8 chain. I switched over to all hand filing and it really did a great job. But I'm not the greatest and was somewhat inconsistent on filing the cutters. And after letting a friend run my 460 I found a really rocked chain. Too much to try to fix with a file. So I picked up a timber tuff sharpener today. Had three chains from today's cutting needing sharpened and I was excited to try it out. Sharpener comes with three different grinding wheels to accommodate all the chains I have. I put it together and pulled out the three wheels to get ready to sharpen the 3/8 chains, BUT the dang 3/16 wheel isn't in there. Instead there is two 1/4 wheels. Crap now I can't sharpen the chains. So instead I pulled the chain off the old Remington mighty mite and sharpened the chain on it. I haven't run that saw yet so I'll take it out tomorrow and give it a wirl.
I have a nice Oregon 511A grinder. I've used a Timber Tuff wheel from TSC. The center hole is not well defined in them and they wobble. You can dress the grinding wheels to get a little of the "out of round" out of the wheel but when you remove the stone and remount it to the arbor, you have to start all over again. I sharpened some decent chains with the Timber Tuff wheel but found some more suitable alternatives. What ever you do, do not order the Timber Tuff grinding wheels from TSC over the Internet for I got two broken ones and so they sent me a replacement order and one of those was broken also. The boxes had no damage so I concluded they were broken when they were put in the box at the shipper. That was it for me.
I've always sharpened by hand. My dad was a "Saw Filer" for 80+ years, and as a kind of joke, I bought him a Dremel with the chainsaw sharpening rig a few years before he died. He never used it. I decided to try it out a couple days ago. Man, what a nice sharpening job it did! I'm sure a bench type grinder must be even better. I'll continue to sharpen by hand when in the woods, but when I have power I'll be all about the electric grinders. I'll have to check out those Oregon grinders - thanks.
Ive always been a hand filer too...........but wouldnt mind a bench grinder . I have heard good things
I sharpen chains for customers with a timbertuff and the wheels are just fine. I have many many happy customers.
I emailed Timber Tuff and asked them to send me a wheel. Also going to call the local TSCs today and see if I can get one from them. I really like to sharpener and it brought the very old chain from the little Remington back to life. I just want to sharpen the chains for my 026 and 460 now. Kinda killin me having that nice sharpener and not being able to use it.
Nice GS! Looks to be the same type of set-up as a Dremel. A little beefier though, as far as the motor.
Maybe its the operator but my cutting buddy uses one of those and can't hardly sharpen a chain. The guy has cut wood for like 30 years but after a few folding just busy a new chain. I'm not impressed with them. If u want to play the harbor freight grinder is $30 and I can sharpen a chain pretty darn good. Better than I can hand file.
That is exactly the same as my Dremel Chainsaver. Its a single speed motor. I have been using it to sharpen my chains for several years. Only takes a few minutes to sharpen a chain on the saw. I picked up some diamond burrs on ebay for a good price. They work well.
Well I learned the hard way which way the washer goes on the grinder. Called Dex after it happened and he had seen it before. Washer goes on the wrong way and it pressures the inside of the wheel and then this can happen. Was half way through the first chain and boom. But nothing was hurt other then the wheel and it was a fairly cheap lesson. New wheels are only $14 so I ran down to TSC and got a new one and finished out the chains.
That's the way three of my Timber Tuff grinding wheels looked when I took them out of the box. I never got to mount them on the grinder.
I remembered that you had said that and when I went to the store to pick one up today I opened the box to make sure it was good.
I'm glad that he wasn't injured. As soon as I seen his pic yesterday (text), I was pretty sure I knew what had happened. I've had 2 break myself.
Ok how are you getting them to break? I am starting to get a little worried with the amount of chains I do..... luckily I havnt broke one yet. Glad your ok Sean!
I only broke the one but talking to Dex he knew exactly what it was and was right on. The washer that holds the wheel on was backwards. It is concave shaped and I had the inside of the washer touching the wheel, not the outside. Makes sense now but I just didn't think of it when I looked at the washer. I read through the manual but either missed that part or something. Anyways when the inside if the washer is on the wheel it's easy to over tighten and cause stress. Dex also mentioned to be really careful not to over tighten that screw.
