Case hardening of cutters?

[top_notch]

What do y'all do when one or a few teeth hit the dirt or rocks and get to be significantly less sized than the rest of the remaining teeth? I've heard some folks say to file all the rest of the teeth down to the same size but this seems like a waste of time and chain life. I just usually get all the teeth sharp and hopefully the good ones will catch up to the rocked ones a few sharpenings down the road. Hope this description makes sense.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I sharpen them up and use them for brushing myself. Don't care if they are uneven if they are sharp in the brush. Chances are I will just be hitting more stuff ALAP doing so. Save the good chains for the wood.

 

[HolmenTree]

What do y'all do when one or a few teeth hit the dirt or rocks and get to be significantly less sized than the rest of the remaining teeth?

Sharpen as normal, if only a few teeth are rocked don't sharpen all to smallest cutter size.

 

[Tucker943]

Sharpen as normal, if only a few teeth are rocked don't sharpen all to smallest cutter size.

Ill co-sign that

 

[Cobleskill]

That makes me feel better. I always figured I was cheating, not shortening them all up. Seems to work.

 

[flushcut]

As long as the raker is the correct height to its tooth it does not matter if the cutters are the same length. Personally I use the ABN wheels for rocked chain and have had no issues with burning the teeth.

 

[Al Smith]

Well truth be known grinding is just a form of machining . If you get some types of steel,with enough carbon content up to about 1400 degrees F ,which is the critical temp it will get hard as a rock. ABN /CBN Wheels cut smoother than regular grinding wheels and thus doesn't raise the surface temp of the metal that much in comparrison .

 

[SkwerI]

IMO not every single cutter has to be cutting and you'll likely never notice if one or two are not perfect. I gave up on filing all the teeth to match the shortest cutter a long, long time ago. I think that rule was created by the guys who sell chain. :roll: If I can run skip chain with 50% fewer cutters and it cuts every bit as fast as full comp, then that is proof enough for me that they don't all need to be perfect. Get 90% of the teeth perfect and the really rocked out teeth will just take a break for a couple rounds.

 

[squisher]

I don't often hurt a chain bad enough that I don't pretty much sharpen to the lowest cutter. I like my chains even but more importantly even so I can keep them even side to side easier. My chains stay pretty much even right down to nothing and I usually use chains until the cutters start breaking off or damn close and then it gets moved to the dirt saw or hung on the wall. I always keep one saw to hang the oldest chains on for doing things you'd never want to normally do with a saw. I only run razor sharp always and I find that my chains stay very even and equal side to side.

I'm cheap with chains, once you take it off a production saw and put a new chain on odds are that chain you took off is done making you money.

 

[cory]

Holmen Tree, thank you for the info. I think I got it all straight, but just one thing to add or clarify- when I hit metal, it's not the rounded hunk that neeeds to be filed out that causes the problem, its the first several strokes that don't bite into the tooth, they just kind glance off without filing anything, without taking any material off. I guess that is the chrome talking and/or extra-hard metal from the foreign object that got hit.

 

[HolmenTree]

i hear you cory. Yes a little overhang of chrome meeting the file can cause some slip sliding of the file but 9 out of 10 its probably debris from the metal cut [hardened deck screws are terrible] , I even find some hard granite like stone in my cutters also. When you look at the chain speed of our saws depending how long the operator keeps cutting after rocking it out some case hardening can occur , which will be a top layer of about .005 thousand inch that can be removed with 2 strokes of a sharp file.

Speaking of full skip and full comp chain the full comp is more efficient and faster cutting then full skip. The only advantage of the full skip is its efficiency in chip removal while falling huge oversized softwood.
I've competed in timbersports for years and in bucking speed contests only full comp chain is used by the winners.
Plus in the work environment a full comp chain holds a better longer lasting edge over full skip . Full skip may have fewer teeth to file but your defeating the purpose of using it when you have to file more often. Full skip was designed for what it is to be used for, falling clean PNW softwood.

 

[SkwerI]

In my experience skip works wonderfully on southern Live Oak as well. Hardest, densest wood east of the Mississippi.

 

[HolmenTree]

In my experience skip works wonderfully on southern Live Oak as well. Hardest, densest wood east of the Mississippi.

I'm sure it will, but hit a little dirt, sand or gravel and that full skip cutter chain will dull real fast.
Well guys I'm off on a 2 day road trip, will talk to you in a bit.

 

[sawinredneck]

As long as the raker is the correct height to its tooth it does not matter if the cutters are the same length. Personally I use the ABN wheels for rocked chain and have had no issues with burning the teeth.

Here, you are both right, and wrong. I have to disagree on a technicality! What you are saying is right, to a point, if you have a lot of shorter cutters on one side of the chain and not the other, it will start to try and cut at an angle or circle.
I've had a few chains actually do that to me, hit them with the grinder to true the cutter length up, file them to finish and good to go again.
I know it's hard to imagine, but I've seen it several times myself and hear about it a lot from other people.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The short cutters are a little narrow than the long cutters, less tall too. So, each short cutter takes out a little less wood than the average cutter, at the front and the side of the kerf. It's like they leave a small bit of wood on the kerf's side. The long cutter after the short one has more wood to pick to follow the cut's advance. It's harder for it and the chain is pushed slightly toward the "cleaner" side and the straight cut becomes a nice circle.

It's like a chain only partially rocked, the baddest side will push sideway the chain and the cut turns.

 

[woodworkingboy]

When pushing wood through a tablesaw, having even length cutters is critical for the desired smooth and as much as possible vibration free cut. I think that can be extrapolated to chains as well, but the need is way lessoned because you are not having to deal with the left surface of the wood after cutting, as a rule. Less vibration and resistance would be nice, but who lives in an ideal world besides Squish?

 

[Al Smith]

Normally if you just have a cutter which is slightly shorter than the others you won't even notice it .If however it bothers you just take a teeny bit more off the raker .It'll cut just fine .

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Only place I notice uneven cutters is in really big wood.

 

[Al Smith]

If you hammer them up bad enough they won't cut right it's just as simple to get a new chain .When you can get say a 20" loop for 12-14 bucks it doesn't hardly pay to get repair parts for a chain . If nothing else hang it on a nail or cut it down for a shorter chain unless it's all trashed .