I am experienced enough to give rather than receive advice most of the time, but this one has me confused. Little Dolmar 421 with a 16" B&C, chain is nearing end of life but it's still got a few sharpenings left in it. I sharpened it up good the other day and was cutting some really dry ash and cottonwood with it. Last night I went out after work and was cutting some pine that was mostly still frozen in the middle, rounds about 10-14" in diameter. I couldn't get more than 2" into the log before something started binding hard in the cut, and I had to force it into the log. Almost like the log was closing on the cut. By the time I got near the bottom, the whole bar and chain had taken a strong curve to the right, maybe 2" deviation from top to bottom. What was weird is that I did a close inspection of the chain and it seems very consistent in sharpness and cutter length, and it was throwing some very nice chips, not fine dust like you'd expect from a dull chain. The bar also looks fine. I've had this happen before and it was almost always a sharpening problem, but I can't imagine this being the case. I don't often cut frozen wood. I wonder if this might be part of the problem? What do you think might be causing this? I do have a new chain for this saw, so I'm gonna swap them out and see if it does it again with a new chain.
I would check to see if it’s oiling. Clean the bar make sure the oil channels are not obstructed. Try a new bar and chain. It sounds like a oiling issue to me.
This sounds like a candidate to try progressive style depth gauge filing. So do tell, how do you adjust those "rakers"? I've been here and done that and learned exactly what fixed it and what didn't.
Just recently my saw started acting up. I would start a cut on a log and everything would be fine, then all of the sudden it would stop cutting as well. I lifted the bar up then pushed back in cut and it would cut well again. The chain never seemed to slow down. On inspection I found that the chain had a lot of slop in the bar. Put a new bar on it was like a new saw. I also turned the oiler up.
Update - got to be my chain. I put a brand new chain on the saw, flipped the bar and checked everything was adjusted properly. Saw cut like.... well, a saw with a new chain. No issues at all. So, I'm unable to figure out visually why the chain is misbehaving, I'll probably mike the cutters to make sure they're all the same length and drop the rakers and resharpen. Hopefully that should fix the issues. The chain is more than 50% worn, so it's not worth getting it machine sharpened, it will probably take too much off the teeth. It costs me $11 for a sharpening and $20 for a brand new chain.
They don’t need to be all the same length if you use a progressive depth gauge to maintain. And I’m pretty confident that’s what the issue is. Been there, done that.
You can sharpen that chain until the teeth are almost gone. Get a raker Guage and lower them a bit. Remember the more you file a tooth the lower it gets.
It might be slop in the bar. If you flipped the bar and then added a new chain, there's a couple of variables. If you want to know if it's the bar, flip the bar back to where it was with the new chain.
Just a thought.... push on the chain of your new setup left to right, observing how much the chain rolls in the bar. Flip the bar and try it again at the same tension and see what you get. You can also look at the base of the tooth compared to where it sets on the bar at the same time. Bars were both side to side and on the face so maybe the bar is worn on the one side?