Two extra chains came with my used 400 when I bought it last month. Was going to put one to use on the next cutting and on further inspection...weird rakers? I've never seen any like this. Its an Oregon brand. Is it some type of safety chain?
That's the Vanguard I was telling you about. Safety chain. I have a few loops. Works fine but the raker is a PITA to take down.
Never have seen it before. Im familiar with the loops with the raised extra anti kickback link. Usually on homeowner saws. Not a fan of Oregon, but as long as it cuts the same. And yes I could see how filling them down would be a PITA. Hafta see how the Stihl 2 in 1 guide handles it.
It probably won't IIRC files either skip off, or get trashed quickly. On my Vanguard loops I grind the rakers so it's a non-issue. I also grind most of the extra material completely off too. That's a lot of extra weight that the saw has to pull through the cut.
Makes sense. I was looking at them and thought the extra metal could be ground off without issue. I just don't have the capacity (or patience) to do that. Seems like its rather time consuming, even with the right set up.
It's about a 10 minute job standing at a bench grinder, or a 1 minute job followed by a flying chain and profanity when you grind the tip of your finger
Honestly if I were you I'd just run the chains as-is. When it comes to filing the rakers, use a flat file if your jig thing doesn't pan out.
Free handed? Thought maybe you had a jig in your chain grinder or a machine at work. Mebbe ill give it a shot on my grinder. Use my left thumb as a pressure point! Already missing some of that!
Yeah I free hand grind them. If I was ever given a large pile of Vanguard chains I'd probably strap them down to some kind of holding fixture and grind away. I think at this point I have maybe only 5 or 6 loops; half of those were gifted to me from 2 members on here. The hard part of grinding them is not to overheat them and burn your fingers.
Probably what ill end up doing. It'll get dull and end up MIA somewhere waiting to be sharpened. Is there a noticeable difference in cutting? Rougher/more "chatter" etc?
Not that I've noticed, and I've used my Vanguard loops a lot the last couple years on my 18" bar set ups. It performs just fine, and I've even bore cut with it. As far as longevity goes, it's a middle of the road chain IME. The first one I acquired came with the Husqvarna 61 that used to belong to my grandfather. You can see here how I thinned the raker considerably. I used that chain to practice square filing before I bought the jig to grind square chain. I still have this chain, although it's been relegated to dirty work as it's quickly running out of useable tooth length by now. FYI Vanguard comes branded in both Oregon and Husqvarna, but Oregon makes both variants.
Save it for stumpin’ chain. I too have ground off most of the flat part. Now if I acquire any in a package deal, I’ll give it away.
I have two loops of this that came with a guide bar I bought on ebay. Didn't really pay attention to them until I went to mount one. Not to place a jinx, but I can count on one hand how many kickbacks I've had in 20+ years of mostly standard chains. Is the kickback thing a ghost from the past with the shape of the bars and no brakes? Brake has been activated twice while I have been running a saw. The other couple kicks weren't even enough to engage the brake. And yes kicks rather than the occasional 'unwanted bar movements'.
Well I'll give it a run on my next cutting and see what happens. Thinking back when I bought the saw he had two new chains. The one in the box was submerged and rusted so I'm guessing he bought these not realizing what he had??? he was a landscaper/tree guy so I'll assume he knew what he was doing. Again I don't know what SOP is for tree services when a chain dulls.
Probably throw them in a bucket and maybe resharpen some day. I just spent a year servicing a dui client who is a busy tree guy. He mentioned to me once about giving me chains to sharpen and I never brought it back up. Didn’t want to start something I couldn’t finish. He said he just tosses them in a bucket for another day.
I got some of that stuff by mistake. It was a pain. I resorted to grinding the folded part of the raker off on my belt grinder. It went much faster than I expected. Only a few minutes. It worked ok after that, but I won’t get any again.
