Chain grinding tip

[Tom Dunlap]

Graeme's thread reminded me of the days of grinding seemingly endless loops of chain. It took be a while to learn how to dress the radius on the wheel. Once I did it was better but...oh...so stinky!

Foley Manufacturing used to be here in Minneapolis. Nice to be able to buy factory direct and learn from their techs.

On one trip in I mentioned how nasty the smell of ground chain was and that I gat tired of having to redress the wheel to the correct radius. The tech smiled and solved both issues.

He told me to find the stub end of a scented candle. Make sure that the radius was right. Fire up the grinder and press the candle into the wheel. Make sure it warms and melts into the pores of the abrasive. It doesn't take much actually.

He told me that the was does three things.

Masks the burnt metal smell
Lubricates the grinding face of the stone.
Fills in the pores with wax so that the grit doesn't break off loosing the right radius

That sure made grinding chain much more pleasant.

Raspberry banana was my fav!

 

[27RMT0N]

Good tip, I'll have to try it out sometime.

I've got a grinder but I still hand-file 95% of the time. Unless the chain is absolutely thrashed from a serious rock or metal hit, I can probably hand-file in a quarter of the time it takes to run it on the grinder. A lot of customers ask me about them and seem to think they are a tool that requires no skill and just magically makes perfect chains. I've always found running them to be just as much of a skill and art as hand filing.

If anyone knows of any good videos on grinder tips/advice, I'd love to check them out and improve my own knowledge.

 

[Reach]

Good tip, I'll have to try it out sometime.

I've got a grinder but I still hand-file 95% of the time. Unless the chain is absolutely thrashed from a serious rock or metal hit, I can probably hand-file in a quarter of the time it takes to run it on the grinder. A lot of customers ask me about them and seem to think they are a tool that requires no skill and just magically makes perfect chains. I've always found running them to be just as much of a skill and art as hand filing.

If anyone knows of any good videos on grinder tips/advice, I'd love to check them out and improve my own knowledge.

I’ll second that. Grinders are a challenge to use correctly - I’m the only one here who can consistently make sharp chains that cut straight. One of my employees has tried, but he doesn’t have it yet. And my father shows up with a mountain of rocked chains about once a month or so and has at them - I’m not sure some of them cut better after he’s done than before he started, and he’s been sharpening his own for years.