Chain Meister

boreality

boreality

New member
Location
boreal forest
I'm liking my new Chain Meister chain mount and tensioner. I hand file them with a guide and it works great. Not much to say about it because it's so simple but it does it's job well. Tree Stuff treated me good with cheaper shipping to Canada via US Post which also allowed it to be delivered to my rural post box.

Not dissing Sherrill I'll still order from them as well because they have a close distributor. I like them both. I like to spread my business around.

http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=229&item=1392

I also ordered the Granberg File-N-Joint. I got the guide but after tearing the packaging apart and I couldn't find the joint anywhere. Border guys must of smoked it.
 
Not sure I understand as there is only one way to mount it. I place the bar in a bench vice and put the chainmeister on instead of the saw motor. It's quicker when you've got to do a bunch of chains which is how I do it. No field sharpening just a box full of sharp chains.
 
Well 20 chains later and I appreciate the ChainMeister even more. I started doing the climbing saw's smaller chains and I was having trouble advancing them. I could release the tension and retighten really tight in a split second for each tooth with no tools.... Sold.
 
Why don't you just use an electric grinder? This purchase would get you closer to the price of an Oregon Grinder.

Not to be ignorant... If the chain is off already, a bench grinder would be the fastest way to get the job done and be the most consistent.
 
I've never used one. If I was sharpening for more than my two man crew I'd have to use a grinder. I figured the round file put that nice hook on the tooth that a grinder coudn't do and made for better cutting. It's certainly not that I enjoy filing but the ChainMeister made it way easier. I was even afraid the grinder could change the temper of the metal by over heating it.
 
That's what I thought and being harder also means more brittle (that could be part of the crew leader thread). But a new chain has been grinder sharpened and they're hard to beat. What kind of a grinder would Oregon use when they manufacture chains and is there a home grinder that does as good of a job?
 
Grinding can overheat...files don't always sharpen correctly. Both of them are operated by humans who need to know how to use either tool.

I had a Foley chain grinder. It took me a long time to understand how to dress the wheel and adjust the turntable in order to get a good edge. Then I had to find an employee who could take over the job. It isn't easy to run the grinder AND put a good edge on the chain. Too often inexperienced people hog off too much and heat the tooth which changes the temper.
 
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That's what I thought and being harder also means more brittle (that could be part of the crew leader thread). But a new chain has been grinder sharpened and they're hard to beat. What kind of a grinder would Oregon use when they manufacture chains and is there a home grinder that does as good of a job?

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Don't they use a cooling fluid at the factory to keep the cutter form overheating?
 
I would assume that the factory is using coolant as well as a diamond tip/similar grinding wheel.

What I learned from the Foley rep was to use candle wax on my grinding wheels. Teh stub of a scented candle was pressed into the wheel which melts wax into the voids in the abrasive. This serves many purposes.

-The nicest is that the sweet smell of the candle masks the burnt metal smell :)
-As the wax melts it cools the wheel and the chain.
-The wax 'supports' the abrasive particles so they don't break off. This reduced redressing a LOT!!! Dressing the wheel is the hardest thing to do and the most critical!

After spending many hours looking at the wheel profile as it sharpened I came up with an offset profile for the wheels. Its hard to describe...I'll try.

the factory says to have a uniform radius like an inner tube. This lead to a deep gullet and too much hook.

My profile kept that profile on the 'top' of the wheel. It radius equaled half the wheel thickness. This is the part that grinds the cutting edge and sets the hook.

Now the tricky part. The lower radius was offset and equal to about 1/3 to 1/4 of the thickness of the wheel. By having this smaller radius I eliminated the deep gullet and cutting into the side strap.

All of this went away once I found the Pferd filing guide. After using them for a few weeks we stopped grinding chain. After a while I traded the Foley to the guy who sharpened my chipper knives and circle saw blades. He used it as a mate to his other Foley so that he didn't have to change wheels for different size chain.

Back to the OP...I can't see the advantage of the Chain Meister. Why take off the chain to sharpen it? This seems like a replicate tool. I'm not saying that it isn't a great looking tool though. It's clever and well executed.
 
Tom, Boreality says he has to sharpen more than one chain so he has spares for in the field, therefore not having to sharpen while on the job. Therefore this tool makes sense, eliminating having to mount each chain on the saw. In my opinion no grinder can sharpen like a round file, people are always amazed at how my chains destroy the hardwoods that exist around here, just my opinion though. Personally I enjoy sharpening by hand, find it quite meditating once I am in the mood, love inspecting and comparing the links and teeth. I love my saws and tools in general. Swing.
 
I find that the file does the best job of all. There are times that I can touch up a chain quicker than taking it off and replacing with a sharp one. I may get one of these devices, and save the grinder for the chains that get damaged to a point that the teeth ruin the file when trying to sharpen.
 
I always carried at least two sharp chains in for each bar size in the fleet. One the Foley was gone the only time a chain would come off the saw was if it got 'rocked-out' and had a LOT of tooth dull. then it would go to my sharpener guy who would get off the worst but let me do the finish sharpen with the file. He knew what I wanted and was never offended that I didn't want his/my machine to do the final sharpen.

Even with a long bar it doesn't take long to sharpen by hand. It was rare that a dull chain ever stopped the progress of a job. Even if one person was sharpening there was always other work to do.

I can see the value of just changing out chains, I did that for years. Some crews that I had weren't skilled enough to sharpen. Lots of variables.
 
On another note chains are expensive down here so I don't have many spares that is why I had to be proficient with my sharpening skills. I have a dremel ( when a lot of material needs to be removed ) with sharpening attachment stones which I use if accidentally hitting a nail or some other foreign matter which in urban settings with tree houses etc is a PITA, but that is it's only use I prefer hand filing. A round file as Tom and Eric have said gives that fine tuned sharpness. I had to teach myself and have never used a guide, metal shop class was one of my favs in high school and sharp lathe cutters were a must. Funny how things you learn that seem mundane come to help you later in life. I bet you there are many tree workers that don't take the time to learn about the tools they work with, which I think is such a shame. Swing.
 
All of my treeworkers got at least 2 sharp chains... It makes it really easier when you are in the middle of nowhere or when it's raining... They just have to change the chain...
By the end of the day, the tree workers put the chains at our workshop where there is only one person who sharps them. We got a grinder, but it's also important to check the depth gauge.
We just put some nails on the wall, so all the chains are hanging sorted by size. The wall is divided in 3 parts :
Sharp chains (we got 5 different sizes)
Chains to sharp (teeth or gauge, but sharpener guy has to check both)
Chains for hard work (when we expect some wire in the tree for example, or when we have some mud on the wood, and so on). This chains are already part used, but could still cut).
This way, we make just sure the chains are good for a good job at customers' places... Ain't look very professionnal on a tree job that a guy is trying to deal with sharping on site...

Does anyone use this same method? What about bigger company?

I just apologize for my poor English!
 
Welcome to TreeBuzz! You don't need to apologize for your English.

Before I changed over to using the Pferd file guide I followed your procedure. After...when a chain is dull it gets sharpened. There were always extra chains along on the job just in case too.
 
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