Damaged Chain?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rfwoody
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woodworkingboy said:
LOL on over the cliff.

The only time I've ever thrown a saw more that a foot or so, was when it was on fire. Yeah dumb, but I thought it might blow up.
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The guy that threw the saw over the cliff was Jason Wilding. One of my best buds older brother. He also raced his '66 Beaumont from here to Vancouver(about 300 miles) for pinks once and lost and came home carless, stole a ambulance from the hospital emergency and tragically died in a paragliding accident as a beginner running a competition chute. He was truly a wild man.

Another great story of Jason's was bringing his new little car into a drive in camp once and completely destroying it rally racing and letting anyone drive it. After thoroughly beating it he took it to the camp 'boneyard' and bricked the gas pedal until the motor blew. It was being repoed. Lol.

RIP Jason.
 
Jason sounds like the kind of kid parents don't want their child to play with. Y'know, the ones that are the most fun.
 
he was one of those guys with true charisma. Infectious smile, indomitable spirit. Very likeable guy.
 
I had a good friend like that, just like Jason, named Flint, but with shocking red hair. Never forget what my mom said to me when she first laid eyes on him at our front door. :lol:

He repairs gas pumps in Arizona now.
 
With the 440, I cut too much of the hinge on a black locust and it sat on the bar before falling.
With the 150T, it was a splitted limb of a big Leylandii ( an hedge turning back on the wild side). I didn't plan the cut well enough and part of the splitted wood inside the limb closed the kerf. In both cases, it was only a partial pinch of the rails, the groove was still there but just not enough wide to let the chain ride in. By eyeballing, I saw that there will be enough rail left on the damaged point to hold the chain after my rough machining.
 
I have pinched rails several times over the years. Usually happens when you cut a corner off. When it happens, roll the chain off, then grab your bar wrench and tap it into the pinched portion lightly with a wedge as a hammer. May take a couple tries to get the chain so it will spin freely.

Just how I do it, and any other cutter Ive ever known. :)
 
I hang the bent driver,broken cutter chains on a nail and if I'm in the mood use them later for repairs .I haven't been in the mood for quite a while .
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #36
Thanks Brian, Willie, squisher, woodworkingboy, Marc-Antoine!

All this is great information.

Do any of y'all ever shorten chains or repair them by removing/replacing the rivets and links?
 
rfwoody said:
Thanks Brian, Willie, squisher, woodworkingboy, Marc-Antoine!

All this is great information.

Do any of y'all ever shorten chains or repair them by removing/replacing the rivets and links?
Click to expand...
No. After about 20 years of 'saving chains to fix later' I finally gave up. Chains saved for later become solid rusted chunks of metal in the bottom of the tool box or shop ornaments hanging on nails. Every single time you need a chain it is faster and easier to just put a new chain on the saw instead of trying to figure out what is wrong with the chain hanging on the nail and trying to fix it.

The only scrap chains I save now are the short ends off the 100' rolls. When I get enough pieces I'll splice them together and make another new chain.
 
Breaking and spinning chain isn't hard, but isn't really necessary, unless it's bent. If pop out / replace bent tie straps over replacing a whole chain you need the number of drivers listed on the bar. You might be able to remove one link, but you would just replace it.


13 years ago, cutting invasive tamarisk in the Sandy dessert would result in stretched chains with new cutters. The National Park Service Exotic Plant Management Team would shorter 28"chains by one link so they could continue to tighten them after the sand wore all the rivet holes and the chain was extended to the end of the tightening mechanism, but still slack. Lots of little whippy stems ready to pull a loose chain.
 
So was it damage to the drive links when you shed the chain ?

That was my first thought when I read your post. I have tried to file them flat if burred but it is a tricky, fiddly job.

I prefer the method of reseating the chain and running the saw to sort them out. If it is bent, I tend to chuck them as I have never really managed to straighten one properly.
 
Skwerl2 said:
No. After about 20 years of 'saving chains to fix later' I finally gave up. Chains saved for later become solid rusted chunks of metal in the bottom of the tool box or shop ornaments hanging on nails. Every single time you need a chain it is faster and easier to just put a new chain on the saw instead of trying to figure out what is wrong with the chain hanging on the nail and trying to fix it.

The only scrap chains I save now are the short ends off the 100' rolls. When I get enough pieces I'll splice them together and make another new chain.
Click to expand...


Different work environments make for different solutions.

Our logging outfit probably go through more chains in a season than you'll go through in a lifetime.

So we look at it a bit differently.

Kinked chains get saved if they are newish, and when we have our annually " The weather is really too crappy for us to go to the woods" day, and make chains for the next year, we take all those out, take the bad part out and replace with new links.
Those chains get put on top of the stacks of newly made, boxed chains in the different lengths that we use, so they'll be used first.

A dollar saved.............................................!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #41
Somehow I missed 2 pages of posts when I posted a few hours ago...

Some of these posts are over my head at this point
...but I think Mark-Antoine hit on it with the burrs on the drive link (I need to go check).

That's funny, Brian... "...or shop ornaments hanging on nails. Every single time you need a chain it is faster and easier to just put a new chain on the saw instead of trying to figure out what is wrong with the chain hanging on the nail and trying to fix it."

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

ALONG THE SAME LINES.....

Do you guys replace your spockets whenever it shows the kind of wear the manual says you are supposed to replace it at?

Thanks!
 
Different strokes for different folks they say .I don't use a saw daily or weekly ,might be two months some times I don't fire one up .I just save them because you never know if I need a 32" loop or a 36" and I have some screwed up 20"s hanging on the nail .Twenty minutes or so I can have that longer loop .Come to think about it I do have a 32" needing repair .
Stuff here doesn't rust as fast as say Florida because of less humidity .
 
For awhile someone was giving me chains from a rental place, they throw on a new one after every return, never bother to sharpen up a chain and use it again. Seldom were they ever bent up, but I don't think I ever received one that wasn't seriously rocked bad. Pretty amazing how folks use those rentals.
 
Do you guys replace your spockets whenever it shows the kind of wear the manual says you are supposed to replace it at?
Click to expand...
No, it would be just broken in. :D
It's like the disk brakes on the cars.
I change the clutch sprocket when the chain runs roughly and it becomes difficult to find a good setting for the tension. That gives a beat-like movement, alternating loose and thigh chain at each drive link (hand moving).

On the 20 " + bars, I had only one worn out nose sprocket. It was a low cost bar. Usually, the rails are dead before.

It's a little different for the ms 150T : the nose sprocket is very fragile and gives up too quickly. I don't even try to dress the rails when I see that the aluminum rivet begins to lift its edges. After that, it doesn't take long for the ball bearing inside to fall apart.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #48
Marc-Antoine said:
....I change the clutch sprocket when the chain runs roughly and it becomes difficult to find a good setting for the tension. That gives a beat-like movement, alternating loose and thigh chain at each drive link (hand moving)....
Click to expand...

That is great info. That was happening to me once and I couldn't figure out the cause.
I don't remember how or if it got fixed, but if it did I must have replaced the sprocket with trial and error and was in too much of a rush to make the cause/effect connection.
 
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