Saw sharpening trouble

braggscowboy · #1 01/15/08, 07:11 AM

Good morning! I have not been on here for a while. Been busy since retirement. I am still cleaning up from the ice storm from last Janurary here in Eastern Oklahoma. Missed the last one. Was a few miles west of me. I have a question on saw. I have a Sthil and Husky. I also sharpen my own chains. I do this with a Foley-Belsaw sharpener and have had good luck with sharpening and I follow the order in sharpening ( I think, in most cases) I have sharpened the chain for my 28 wood boss and find that it cuts crooked after some time on big wood. I know that this has to be with sharpening. It is suppose to be sharpened too much on one side. I always try to sharpen the short side first and try to kee the same. Could there be another reason that it is cutting crooked? Or do I just try to work it out when sharpening? Any ideas or recommendatinons would be appreciated. I know there are some woodcutters out there that will have the answer.
Thanks! braggscowboy

**Cabin Fever** · #2 01/15/08, 07:36 AM

You can answer your own question for about $20 by simply buying a new chain and see if you get the same results.

TNHermit · #3 01/15/08, 07:49 AM

I've sharpened my own chains since I don't know when. I use a file. I have never had a chain cut crooked because of one side being shorter than another. If its cutting crooked then I would say the rakers are different height or somehow your getting different angles when you sharpen. Don't know if thats possible with a grinder set up. Check your bar. It could be worn out and the chain is "tipping" when you saw or its not tight. CHeck that your chain si tight. Sometimes when you tighten the chain if the bar is drooping it will seem tight but won't be and when you cut it will tip up and then go crooked.

Sometimes I get in a hurry don't pay good attention and have a problem

manfred · #4 01/15/08, 08:37 AM

It can also cut crooked with a worn out bar.

Hooligan · #5 01/15/08, 09:05 AM

You should flip your bar every once in a while.

Try flipping it and see what happens.

The bar could be worn out allowing the chain to "lean" to far to one side.

Also make sure one side of the chain hasn't been dinged on a rock. Once the teeth get bent a bit it is very hard to get the same bite on both sides.

When I first started sharpening saws I would often get the crooked cut thing going. I think it was because I would tend to sharpen one side better then the the other. As I gained experience my saws begain to cut much better and straighter.

At first I used a Dremel with a saw sharpening guide. Now I just find it just as effective to use the round file.

raymilosh · #6 01/15/08, 11:36 AM

When a chain cuts crooked, either the bar is worn, like already mentioned, or the teeth and the rakers aren't the same on both sides of the chain.

In order for a chain to cut straight, the depth of "bite" that the teeth get must be roughly the same on both sides of the chain.

There are plenty of ways for that to get out of whack.

The best trick I have learned to diagnose what's going on with a chain is to set the saw down and sight down the top of the bar with my eye at the tip of the bar looking straight at the cutting edges of the teeth. With my eye there, I can see what the wood sees... sharp teeth and rakers coming straight at me. From there I can see how much of a "bite" each tooth can take (based on the difference between it's cutting surface and the top of its raker). The height of the raker in front of each tooth determines the depth to which that tooth will be able to cut. The difference between the top of a raker and the cutting surface of a tooth on the saws with strong engines can be, i dunno, 1/8 inch. For smaller engines, it's more like 1/16 inch.
From there, it's easy to know what needs to be done to fix the problem. Compare the depth of bite for the teeth on e one side to the teeth of the other side. For me, I usually see that I was sloppy when I filed down the rakers and one side has a deeper bite than the other. I fix it by filing down the rakers on the other side until they're roughly even If they got filed unevenly, well, then file them evenly.

One of the most common ways that causes a chain to cut crooked happens after hitting a rock and needing to sharpen the teeth way back to get a good edge, but only needing to do it on one side. The cutting surface of each tooth gets lower each time the chain is sharpened. (Sight down the blade to see what I mean.) In that case, the rakers on that side would need to be filed down a bit.

Basically what I'm saying is that in order for a chain to cut straight, the depth of the bite must be roughly the same for the teeth on both sides and to do whatever it takes to make that the case. There, I said it.

Final word of caution...the deeper the bite the teeth can take, the faster the saw will cut...BUT, if the engine isn't strong enough to handle bites that are so deep, it will react either by "chattering" (the teeth will jump off the wood) or by the teeth constantly getting stuck and stopping the chain. Either condition is dangerous because trying to cut with a chain like that is difficult and annoying. If that happens, the only way to fix it is to file the teeth way back to lower their cutting surfaces. If the rakers are filed too far down, sometimes, the chain can't be repaired....so be conservative when filing rakers..

To get an idea of the proper depth of a bite is for your saw, sight down a new chain so you know the standard depth. If you have a saw with a strong engine and want a bit more performance and if you wanna push it to see if you can speed up the rate at which it cuts, file down the rakers a tiny bit over the standard and see if the saw can handle it.

canfossi · #7 01/15/08, 11:40 AM

Get a new bar and chain, I had the same problem while cutting. It solved my problem. Chris

Country Lady · #8 01/15/08, 02:33 PM

This is Bubba Can Dance, Country Lady wanted me to read this thread. We were having this same type problem with a new saw and I thought the bar was bent. It was cutting but not straight. When I took it to the repair shop, they told me the chain was getting dull. They said a dull chain will cut on a slant most of the time. Maybe try sharpening the chain again and see what happens.

Ken Scharabok · #9 01/15/08, 07:17 PM

I also suspect tightness is a factor. You need to check the tension every so often.

tyusclan · #10 01/16/08, 05:30 AM

The MOST common problem with a chain cutting to one side is uneven sharpening. The others mentioned will also cause the problem, but USUALLY it is the teeth.

The easiest way to correct the problem is the add a stroke to the teeth on the opposite side from the way the chain is cutting. For example, if the chain is cutting to the right, when you sharpen the chain file two strokes each on the right teeth, and then three strokes each on the left. If it's way out it may take a couple of sharpenings to bring it back completely straight, but you'll see a marked difference after the first sharpening.