Square filing chains

Good...
Now square file it out till the cutting side of the tooth looks like it's standing straight up...

 

Top and side..

 

I will clean the rest then. It is still a factory grind.

 

I thought so.... forward lean and not much angle under the top plate. File will take care of that.

 

Take a square file to the gullet?

 

I'm not trying to speak for Hedgerow, but what he is referring to is the cutting edge. Try to keep zero lean of the side plate (straight up). The side plate is the cutting area above your gullet.

 

2-3° is about right for lean on the side plate. More than that will get aggressive and pull real hard. 0 won't pull as hard but take more raker to bite good.

 

Okay, so he was saying to file the top and side back so that it is even with where the gullet material was removed?

 

Talking cutting angles....you will need to hold the bevel file to get the angles you want.

 

Bingo... Just file till you have a good corner established..
Don't remove any more tooth than you need to get that done.. Save that steel for future filings...

 

I am going to learn how to sharpen round

 

Its too hard, youll NEVER get the hang of it !!!

 

I have a harder time making round not too aggressive now.

 

I ruined another file...
Gotta order more..
Down to 1 decent one, and a ragged out one..

 

I finally got all of the gullets cleaned out on my chain. I've had project that has been real time consuming and I am still not done so I had not had much chance to mess with this chain. I took the saw out and it cuts a hair better. My next step is to square file it like hedge said.

 

Survived Hedgefest. The results from the chain race were surprising & left me with several questions.

First chain race definition as done at Hedgefest:
- All chains were run on the same saw ( Husqvarna 562 Tlandrum modified), cant (13-1/2"), & by same operator - Hedgerow.
- Chains were 3/8" drive, 84 links & most were .050 gauge. A couple were .063.
- A test to see if the chain would bore cut as well as a single down cut timed with 2 stop watches was done.

Unfortunately the chain I had sharpened for the race even though the box said was 84 DL ended up being only 82 so I will have to save it for another time.

There were 2 factory Stihl chains run for a reference. Both were full chisel, one square ground & one round.

Of the approximately 20 chains ran, only 2 were faster than the factory, Hedgerow & Mdavlee.

Now the questions, why did the factory sharpened chains beat most of the hand sharpened chains?
- Were they too aggressively sharpened to where if on an 80 or 90cc saw they would have shined?
- Number of teeth, would less teeth (semi-skip or full skip) have worked better with the saw being used?
- What about the size of the cant used? A smaller cant may have been better for the aggressively sharpened chains.

It would be interesting in the future to test each chain on two different sized saws (maybe 65-70cc & a 90-95cc saw) & maybe 3 different sized cants (6, 10, & 14").

Alright folks, lets hear some theories.

 

How much faster was the out of the box square than the out of the box round?

 

I think the chains were mostly too aggressive. It's easy to go a little too far on them and make them hard to keep in a sweet spot on smaller saws.

 

Here's the results sheet.

 

When I tested the square vs the round on the 034 super I got the same results, the square was .8 or .9 faster.