Why Is My Chainsaw Cutting Uneven on a Curve?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- If your chainsaw won't cut straight, watch this video to find out why. James explains why your chainsaw is cutting on a curve. He'll take you through the main causes of this issue so you can get your chainsaw cutting straight again!
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Excellent video. I spent time running a saw for a living and bar warping was never mentioned as a potential cause of uneven cutting. This was made clear to me when my brand new chain for my saw immediately cut uneven.
An experienced logger will eventually become aware that the drivers on a chain come in different gauges also. There is a number stamped on the drivers. On a Stihl chain the number is 51. On a wore bar you should be using a "52". The thicker drivers will assist in the chain staying straighter in the chain groove which will help the saw cut straighter.
Well explained, been using and sharpening chains forever, just ordered new bars and chains for my saws, many thanks for your input,
When I sharpen the chain, I check the bar rails with an engineers square. If needed I will put the bar on the table of the disc sander and sand it so both rails are the same height. Far more accurate than filing by hand.
When I was learning chainsaw maintenance as a student with the Forestry Commission we used vernier callipers to make sure all the teeth were the same length and then ran over the rakers with a depth gauge and flat file and tickled the bar taking any burrs or uneven wear off with a flat file, using a square to make sure they were flat and even as part of your weekly maintenance, notwithstanding your regular ‘in the woods sharpening’. Needless to say this is a bit of a ball ache and as an infrequent chainsaw user now this is rarely, if ever gets done. On another note, I have found that turning the chainsaw upside down for the opposite cut (if your vice is high enough) makes the sharpening position a bit less awkward. I actually sharpen mine on a Workmate with a couple of blocks to hold the bar and allow the chain to be pushed along. Being a shortarse this is much easier as my bench vice is a little on the high side for me.
I thought of buying a spare 'gear' and some 3D printed or just steel parts, to get some contraption for tension and essentially to completly eliminate the chainsaw while sharpening.
Cheers
Brilliant James! I did get nervous watching you stroke the bar with your thumb. Bar Slivers are nasty!
Cheers Ken, my skin is too thick for it to penetrate haha.
in my experience, when it's cutting curved it's also pushing the chain into the side of the bar, result is the bar is getting hot.
also, even though the bar and chain might be in fine shape, it might be the wrong gauge chain, either incorrectly boxed, or the wrong size was purchased (or given to you), and therefore acting as though the guide bar rails were splayed out. Thanks for the video.
The drive links wear faster than the bar, yet the groove in the bar does wear. You can get a straighter cut, by squeezing / pinching the groove shut a bit, I use vice grips, inch by inch, till the drive links are as tight as possible. It's sort of a temp fix, sometimes lasts quite a while, even on old chains, sharpened evenly, but worn drive links, worn contact area on the chain , are just part of getting to the end of life for the chain. The bar needs to be ground properly too , to extend the life of it. After 10 or so hurricanes here, we( local tree guys) were clearing more and more trees around houses, hitting less and less nails, as the years went by. Cutters on the chain, were outlasting the bar, and drive links. A new chain, on an older , worn bar , will prob . cut good for a while . A new bar and old chain, will cut good for a while. These expensive items( and sprocket) do wear out and need replacing. Lots of variables involved, sorta gotta know a little history of the bar / chain combo sometimes. After a chain breaks twice( worn rivets and straps) I usually throw the chain away. But, I make a living with them, not much time to mess with worn out stuff.
Very informative video , James. Nothing worse than a poorly cutting chain.
Cheers Al 👍🏼
A chinese re-education camp would definitely be worse.
Great explanation and entertaining at the same time. You are a natural teacher. All the best.
Thanks dude just looked at the underside of my bar I'm ashamed to say how crap it was 😮 flat and square now. Brilliant. I'm cutting square again without buying a new bar woohoo...
Not sure if its been mentioned already but a really effective hack is to flip the bar when it's worn out on the bottom. If you're just bucking using the bottom of the bar you'll get another 50 percent life out of the bar. An old west coast logger taught me that and it works like a charm.
You should flip the bar every other chain sharpen so it gets even wear 👍🏼
As a BC logger myself, I found the best way to make sure the bar wore uniformly was to flip the bar every time I put on a new chain. Also when buying a chain for a used bar, I would go to the next gauge thickness of the drivers. On a Stihl chain I would go from a "51" to a "52."
Great vid, simple diagnosis, simple fix, love it
The most common reason a chainsaw cuts crooked is a dull chain. Probably because the operator hit dirt or something other than wood. I keep old chains for cutting roots and other stuff that I know will ruin a chain.
i agree with Ken i grinched when you rubbed your thumb down the bar, but thank you that was a good video James i think my bar is shot as it always cuts on a curve 👍
Cheers Nev, its a common compliant when people come in our shop so thought it would make a good vid 👍🏼
Great advice, gonna check and file my bar today, cheers
Very cool, I never knew that. Another thing is just bad habits like rocking the saw or repositioning the saw several times per cut
Nice light filing, each and every hour or so,
Achieving 2 things, you learn the art of edging, and you can remedy curve , while you're aware, and fresh in your mind, what you might have done wrong to create the curve cut.
Buying a new bar, may have been a bit drastic, learn the art of edging your chain, you might as well learn first, than last.
Excellent tutorial
The stuff I’ve been cutting you don’t get an hours worth of cutting before the chain needs a sharpening
Bar dressing tools like the one Stihl make are great for keeping bar in good condition.
Usually it's three reasons:
1. Loose chain.
2.Uneven sharpness of chain.
3. Worn out Bar.
Exactly that 👍🏼
Thanks Man, was cutting for years in banana stile, I knew it is from my bad sharpening but didnt know exactly what I am doing wrong
Amen, I broke a tooth on my chain but used it anyway and I couldn’t figure out why I can’t cut straight…gonna check bar and throw that chain out.
I have cut for quite a while, on chains with a missing tooth or 2, not as relevant as the other factors.
I got a two chain pack , new chains and one cut at an angle NEW ! As Ricky Ricardo said Lucy you got some esplanin' to do ! Oregon .
Interesting bill. Was it is an old bar or new bar also?
Use a feeler guage on a new bar, and on older used bar. You will be amazed at the difference. Older bars can sometimes be " pinched " closed a bit, to accomodate used or new chains, it's just a gamble on how well/ long it holds.
I’m sharpening this chain…really poorly lol.
Since I’m a home owner…I’m just a parts changer. Sharpening and flipping bars ain’t for me! Great video!
😂😂😂
Sharpening is very easy. If you just change the chain after first use, you water a ton of money.
If you sharpen your chainsaw chain regularly and never go more then 2 strokes per side and keep the correct angle your chansaw will cut straight
Also make sure you have the correct chain file size
Yeah but you probably also will still have a blunt chain. I find some of my files/chain need like 7 or 10 strokes
Best raker (depth gauge) tool is Husqvarna progressive gauge.
Good info here. Now let's see if I can put it to good use!
That’s Jeffrey, I wish you luck 👍🏼
From experience working in forestry, there are two main reasons why you are cutting on a curve: 1) Pushing on the chainsaw (due to a blunt chain or poor posture) and 2) Shifting the position of your hand on the front handle as you cut.
Wery good explained. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for watching and subscribing 👍🏼
A disc sander , or " bar rail grinder" are the best to square the bar .
Excellent explanation
Thanks. Very informative.❤
Also,
1) Some newbies just hold it wrong and they cut on angles and even bananas.
2) A loose chain.
You must cut straight like a Ninja ...watch the cut and keep it straight down the middle of your groove. Dont let the weight of the cainsaw pull it down on the left side.!
Is there any difference when using a Tungsten chain instead of steel❓ I have swapped as I am cutting Australian hardwood… much better for the customer to burn but a lot mor difficult to cut 😢
So after my nephew's have destroyed my bar and chain I may as well just replace them.
Ricky repass calls it free money 💰
a real showy guy
Very good vid - well explained...
Stihl make a fool proof gauge that also does the rakers at the same time. Trying to sharpen a chain without a gauge , will lead to many problems. 🍀
Thanks for that great video. Most helpful. I've noticed on my chainsaw that it only cuts a curve on very hard wood. We have Osage Apple (AKA horse apple) and my chainsaw only cuts curved on that hard wood. Any ideas what might cause that? I'm going to try a new chain but I think the saw has done this since new.
I thought i knew what the root of a bananna cut was before your education , last week new chain before starting a new project no history of bananna , first cut was a right hand bananna...so prounced that it was actually bogging and the radius was so short bar was hard to take out ... when the chain was factory new and the correct size one i couldn't believe there could be such an imbalance and operator error well i changed nothing ... thanks here to demo showing the draw can be the bar , its gap , its un-evenness , its height/wear , burr all are involved in a true cut....mad thing it that it was the first chain chain change where i cleaned out the bar grove completely , seemed parallel didnt measure to see if it was sloppy .... i did see heat like some comment , wasnt loose , wasnt uneven or dull ... sthl chisel Adrian
so with all that being said, if it cuts to one side or the other disregarding the bar as an issue, do you simply sharpen the opposite side teeth to get it to center up? say if the chain cuts a J to the left, do you sharpen the right hand teeth to compensate?
All depend how bad it is, if it’s a new bar you will find the chain will wear the new bar in the same way as where the chain sits this may have also worn. But yes you can file the chain even on both side to compensate if you have a new bar or have dressed accordingly 👍🏼
@@MachineryNation my bar is in good condition. I think I determined that on my non-dominant filing hand I had inadvertently misshapen the tooth.
@@MegaMarclar you should start filling the shorter teeth to a good sharpness and eyeball then the length and try to get the other side teeth to the same length while sharpening then. Don't let the shorter side dull. It's not in the thousands, with a good eye you can get them back to center cut.
If you turned the chainsaw upside down to sharpen the other side would this correct the I balance ?
Very nice indeed
Cheers Stuart 👍🏼
Bars wear out fairly rapidly, one thing to look for if you can’t cut straight
Flip your bar , and.... cut left handed if you are right handed, and vise versa, ( switch hands from time to time) as much as you can, to keep even wear on the bar and chain.
Nice video mate nice to see you again
Aww thank you Henry. I hope you are doing well my friend 👍🏼
Thank you!!
Good video.
The stihl chainsaw my mom has used that model stihl chainsaw
Excellent
How to know what size file for a stihl16 and 20” saws?
Always cuts to sharpest side!!
That is what I was hoping this video would tell, but I think it cuts away from the sharp side. The sharp side cuts faster so it goes around the corner where the dull side can't keep up.
NEVER HEARD OF THAT
Makes sense. What doesn't make sense is, I finally just put on a new chain and new bar, and still cut an "L". Must be me. I'll find out someday if I get a new saw.
Is your chain tension correct?
@@WG1807 yes. It's probably the way I use the saw. When I started out, I wasn't familiar with the dynamics of sawing, and if I went through the log and the end dropped, I didn't want my feed down there. If it kicked back, I didn't want my face close. So I stand as far away from the work as I can, and work with arms out forward. That's probably it, I started that way and it's now habit. I took it to the saw shop and they though the saw was OK, but we didn't have any really think logs to test it on there.
Need a top down view for better chain perspective
Cutter bar needs cleaning.scrap inside chain track oil holes.file lip of ctter bar sides.sharpen chain try again.
I put a brand new Oregon chain on my chainsaw, could not cut straight- it’s definitely the chain, as the previous chain cut straight. Definitely mis-sharpened at the manufacturer. Last time I buy Oregon. Poor quality control.
Check the specs on the chain: .56, .62 , or whatever the thickness of the drive links are.Very important.
One leg shorter then the other ?
Will is pretty good with the tripod, did you think it look wonky? 😂
@@MachineryNation lol
Hello, my chainsaw bar is 18" bar 325" with 74 link. What is the better? To have 36 cutters with connector or 37? i think that is another one reason to chainsaw cutting uneven.
Thank you!
The number of teeth does not have a bearing on curved cuts. When bucking, I would use a "skip tooth" chain. Reason being, less teeth to sharpen between drags especially if you "rock" your chain. A "skip tooth" chain will cut slightly slower than a "full house" but makes no difference in uneven cutting. I also found that having one more cutting tooth in one direction on one side of the chain also makes no difference.
Good as it gets, the advice. However, chain saw sharpening and bar maintenance isn’t a high tech skill as he wants you to believe. A bit of practice and some practice is all that is necessary.
I put a brand new var and chain on a 450 rancher and it still cuts to the left ,did an experiment, but a 16 inch bar and chain from another husqvarna and it did the same thing ,the stud that holds the bar seems to to be a bit tilted forward .do you think the stud is the problem
Perhaps let someone else use the saw and see if it does the same with them?
You're wrong.
Crooked cuts come from (besides unsharp) rakers not set to each cutter
Watch the video again as I also mention this 👍🏼
@@MachineryNation my apologies.
You should make this #1 fault of crooked cuts, everything else is minor, and general maintenance/sharpening.
Buckin Billy Ray, and others here on YT (along with myself and others in person, not videos) gave purposely messed up chains, everything from only filing one side excessively, to skipping cutters and excessively filing others to create uneven cutters, to prove the theory/importance of cutter/raker relation.
I've even only dressed one side rail of bar to shoe the bar does not have much affect to cutting crooked.
Again, my apologies, I'll try and watch again
@@Imageloading... no worries, thank you for the info 👍🏼
@@MachineryNation the 2-in-1 file is now my first go-to, sometimes I touch up by hand after (mostly if I'm sure I'm not in gritty/dirty bark
The 2-in-1 always hits rakers at an even "height per cutter"
How much is a new 20 inch sthile bar
Check his website out or call the store?
God bless
I've been using chainsaws on and off for years and wierdly, just as I thought I was learning the correct sharpening technique, my cuts are becoming more and more curved. Even after having my bar reground I'm cutting curves. I've had lessons from several older hands but I'm about to give up, buy a new chain and one of those sharpening devices with the pawl and a handle to turn. Anybody else used one? Are they worth having?
The very same with me. It's driving me nuts and yes I'm on the point of buying one of those devices.
Why does it cut on a curve 1 way but if I flip the bar it goes the other side
I would just charge the bar and chain and start again 👍🏼
9 minutes to explain something which you don't actually explain! Very clever!
Thanks, luckily others have found it useful 👍🏼
Ive replaced bars and chains thinking it was that 😓
Just don't crimp your chainsaw onto your sprocket, and you will need to use the right size file.
The length of the tooth makes no difference if they are all sharpened to the same profile...
That’s exactly true, it’s all in the sharpness of the tooth and that tooth’s raker height to that tooth.
Why do it manually FFS😅
Because I was dumb enough to drop all my chains off at my local Stihl shop to be sharpened and they f_cked my rakers
Only a handful of people know how to sharpen a chain correctly?? Lol
Banana 😂
Why is any single person nowadays using a file ? Get a powered sharpener and a proper bar dresser .
God doesn’t “need” Trump or you nor me. Our country is in need of God.
Too much waste of words. At 1:36 I'm gone with a dislike.
Thank you so much for your feedback James. Apologies it is not perfect for you. 👌🏽
You miss the point if you think I am looking for the perfect clip. Your video is only 8 moths old. We are well into the second generation of TH-cam clips and you should know that people no longer want unnecessarily long videos. They want less muck around to get straight to the point.
@@jamespython5147 Thank you for your advice 👍🏼
@@MachineryNation He means - 'I have the attention span of a goldfish'.
Good video I thought though I did know the information already but the title alone will attract people who may not find the information elsewhere.
Wrong
Would you like to expand on this Robert?
You talk too much. Just get to the point.
Don’t watch then 👍🏼
@@MachineryNation i didn't