How to Properly Sharpen a Chain Saw

Signs of need for sharpening

The first sign that a conventional saw needs to be wired and sharpened is going away from the cut line or clamping it in the material. A sharp chain saw allows you to make cuts without effort, strong heating in combination with getting too small chips signals the need to make adjustments. Experienced professionals can determine the need for sharpening by changing the sound.

Circular saws are also heated, soot forms, it becomes more difficult to move them.

The chain saw dies extremely quickly after falling into the ground. Its further use leads not only to increase muscle effort, but also increases the load on the nodes of a gasoline or electric saw.

How to Properly Sharpen a Chain Saw

The circuit may begin to vibrate, fuel consumption will increase, overall efficiency per unit of time will decrease significantly. Detachable shavings in size will resemble flour.

The appearance of smoke during the operation of a circular or circular saw and the heating of the protective casing, chips and irregularities along the edges of the cut indicate the need to sharpen.

Deformation of the teeth can be determined visually. Thus, the urgency of the operation will indicate a general decrease in labor productivity, a decrease in accuracy, a change in the nature of sound, rounding of the tips of the teeth, removal of the tool from the cut line and the use of great physical effort.

What tools are needed?

Different types of saws make their adjustments to the list of tools used for sharpening. For a regular hacksaw, a trihedral file is needed, files are also used.

In addition, you will need a clamping device, for example, a vice, or you will have to make a special device with your own hands. In this case, bonded plywood sheets are used, between which the web is clamped. In this case, the teeth should protrude slightly above the surface.

For a circular saw you will need a pair of wooden bars, screws, a marker, a screwdriver, a jigsaw or a hacksaw, a ruler.

An industrially manufactured machine is used if the process is more complicated, for example, when sharpening chain, frame cutting surfaces or if there are several saws. As a working tool, a grindstone is used.

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Nozzles for chain saws are used together with a special tire, which is used to be able to sharpen during rotation. A sharpener, a rhombic stone, a circle, a disk. these are the forms and types of grinding tools.

Machines, in turn, are divided into electrical and mechanical, the latter are driven only by muscle power. The most complex and expensive options with an electric drive allow you to carry out the operation automatically, turning the grinder into a regular machine operator.

How to sharpen?

The tool sharpening process is quite simple. The canvas is clamped in a vice, and the teeth are sharpened one by one. First, this is done on one side, and then, turning the canvas over, the manipulations are repeated. Movements should be extremely accurate and monotonous.

Sharpen the saw from the inside towards the wiring. Naturally, it is necessary to observe safety precautions when wearing special gloves. The result is recommended to evaluate using "control sawing." The difference "before and after" should be significant: the resulting slice is more even, the effort is much less.

Each tooth of the saw can be considered as a small knife, and in the case of a chainsaw. as a small planer, which enters the material at different angles depending on the technological purpose of the tool.

The teeth can be straight and oblique, in the form of a trapezoid or cone. Oblique. the most common, conical, as a rule, perform auxiliary functions, in particular, are used for cutting laminate.

In any case, the result should be the same: the hand tool at each point moves with equal effort the same number of times. The barbs are cleaned with a very fine notch. For suburban construction or major repairs at home, you can use compact machines.

Before sharpening round discs that are used for work on aerated concrete, you need to clearly understand what kind of alloy is involved. Not every abrasive material will do the job well: the harder the metal, the harder it is to sharpen.

The wear of the stone and the purity of processing depend on the correspondence of the abrasive material to the metal, including the size of the grain. When using machines, the grinding speed is also affected by the rotational speed.

The cutting tool can be with victorious and carbide taps. In this case, experts recommend using abrasive wheels with diamond chips or products made from elbor and silicon carbide. Circular saws are sharpened from the rear working surface, which is in contact with the material.

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An electric or gasoline chain saw uses a chain as a contact cutting surface. It is sharpened in workshops using industrial equipment or do it yourself using a template.. In the latter case, round (cylindrical) files with a small diameter are used, which are selected depending on the marking of the sharpened product.

In particular, a chain of the Stihl MS brand from 180 to 250 will require a file with a diameter of 4 millimeters, for the MS 290 and further up to 440 you need a tool with a diameter of 5.2 millimeters.

A round file moves only forward and nothing else. The direction is perpendicular to the plane of the chain. In addition, when sharpening the chains, a flat file and a template are also used, after installing the template on the tooth, the cutting surface is sharpened.

Before starting work, the tire is clamped in a vice. However, the use of the machine in this case is still preferable, although there are conflicting opinions. If the wear is small, the matter can be corrected in manual mode, but we must not forget about the geometry of the cutting part.

With heavy wear, machine tools are necessary. Sophisticated equipment has a tuning system that allows you to work automatically.