Chatting on Lastmohecken's thread about skip tooth chain and this question came up. Can i make my own full skip chain by grinding off teeth? I had considered full skip chain for a .325 chain on a 20" bar which i believe isnt available.
Well, it's a novel idea, anyway. I guess if one has an old chain to sacrifice to the experiment and time to fool with it, won't hurt to try it. Skip sequence would be quicker to go to, maybe try that first. I have an old mostly wore out Stihl green .325 chain, might try it myself, if I get interested enough. I guess one would need to file the raker down, also. Me? I think my next experiment will be to try my hand at square filing a 3/8 full comp chain. I am going to try full comp first, because I have a few old chains to play around with and learn on. Then I might try my hand on a skip tooth, but I don't have an old spare skip tooth chain, yet to sacrifice. This could be an indication that I have too much time on my hands. But I usually find something to piddle with in the shop, while I let my German Shepard pup out to play. I am not ready to let him out totally unsupervised for that long at any one time.
One of my coworkers is a former AmeriCorps hotshot. She said her team received full house chain for their 36in bar Stihl saws, and proceeded to hand file them down to full skip. It sounds like they had success, and spent less time resharpening. I’m curious too, maybe my bench grinder needs a project...
The need for a skip sequence is for chip clearance on long bars in big wood. If your saw isn't powerful enough for say a 24" bar, put a 16 on it. Can it be done, sure. My thoughts is why not just take less (or nothing) off the rakers/depth gauges for a sharpening, or three, so it's not sucking the power out of your saw? With proper tuning of the chain, your 325 @ full comp should run just fine with 20". From Madsens: Full-Skip - It is usually preferred by customers who run long bars and cut large softwood trees. Long cuts, common in these conditions, require the chain to carry chips a long distance before they are expelled. Since chips ride in the spaces under and between the cutter teeth, users have found that by reducing the number of teeth, a chain's chip clearing ability improves. On long and deep cuts, this enhances its performance. A side benefit is that it takes less time to sharpen than the other sequences. Its bad traits include that it is prone to vibration, its lack of cutter teeth make it grabby in short cuts, and its kickback potential is high.
I agree! I don’t see the point in a full skip on a 20” bar. Are you just trying to cut faster? I don’t think you will gain much. In fact I think it would actually be slower. If you’re not making huge chips that are clogging the cut you only have half the teeth their for half as much cut per one rotation of the chain. You will turn higher rpm witch could risk blowing a bearing in the saw.
All of what you say is true, but apparently some people still like it and buy it, because Bailey's sells it in 20". I cut some more today with it, and it's starting to grow on me, especially after I sharpened it. I run full skip on a 24 inch bar, also. on my 362 some of the time. I really like the fact that there are less teeth to sharpen. It cuts fast enough for me. It might be more grabby, but not a problem for me, as long as I don't start a cut at an idle. Kickback potential has not been really any more noticeable, but then again, I am pretty careful about not letting that happen, and/or always being ready for it, if there's a high possibility of that happening. But I always watch my bar tip, and rarely experience kick backs to any extent. I decided to try it on the 261, because lots of people have said the 261 is a little under powered to pull full comp 3/8" x 50, and I just like dealing with 3/8" x 0.50 chain over the smaller chain. Although, I still have several loops of .325 chain to use up. Granted the rakers play a role in how well full comp works with 3/8" x .050 in this case.
If you are noodling much, which I tend to do, full skip doesn't seem to clog up the saw nearly as often, and I really saw difference in this specifically on the 261. Of course proper technique enters into this to keep the saw clear, also.
Noodling and ripping are 2 different things. Noodling is pulling long fibers out parallel with the grain. Ripping is shearing off the fibers perpendicular to the grain. Both are cutting in the direction of the grain, but differ in how the teeth are contacting the fibers. Noodling makes noodles, ripping makes dust, crosscut makes chips.
Of course you can make your own skiptooth. My experience with skiptooth is that the only advantage is it sharpens faster. It also dulls faster and cuts slower in most applications. I have gone to all full comp and figure that every minute spent filing will pay me back with smiles while I am cutting. All this being said, why not experiment? Grab an angle grinder or die grinder and take off every other cutter on an old chain and see for yourself?
I just may do that. I think i have an old 20" .325 Welcome to the FHC Swanman Great to have you. I see you are from NW Montana. I have a cousin who lives in Columbia Falls.
