Harbor Freight chain saw blade sharpener ?

[mmcmdl]

Anyone ever use one of these ? I've had one un-boxed in my garage for about 20 years now . Is it even worth trying or does it mess your expensive chains up ?

 

[Barncat]

Out of the box don’t expect great results. Mine had tons of slop in every mechanism. I have heard of some people drilling, reaming, and bushing hinge point to remove the slop, but I opted to throw it away.

 

[Cadillac]

Ive seen electric sharpeners in use and don’t care for them. Have to maintain a radius on the end of the wheel or it doesn’t give you that nice dish in the tooth. I don’t think they grind the flat that controls tooth depth of cut.
I personally love hand sharpening a chain. nothing like a new file like shredding parmesan cheese.

 

[Barncat]

You can get a wider wheel to do the rakers. About $45 for an Oregon brand wheel.

 

[mmcmdl]

Thanks guys , exactly what I figured and needed hear . I'll stick to my files .

 

[NCjeeper]

It works okay for what it is.

 

[mmcmdl]

It works okay for what it is.

Which isn't much ! I just took this thing out of the box . Mostly all plastic . I may just try it out on some of the cheap Poulan blades I have hanging around . If it works somewhat , I'll keep it . If not , it'll go out to the trash man .

 

[NCjeeper]

I mounted a piece of angle iron to the bottom of mine and hold it in a bench vise.

 

[matthewsx]

I had one when I started out in the power equipment business

Hand filing is just as good and faster most times. Also uses up less material on the chain.

We did hundreds of chains every year and didn’t have any complaints.

John

 

[projectnut]

Earlier this year we had an arborist come to remove several trees. We've used him over the years and have become friends. I ask him about using an electric sharpener and he had to chuckle. He replied it's a skill most arborists learn in their apprenticeship years, just like a machinist learns to sharpen drills.

He did say that while they do work it's much easier and faster to sharpen them on the saw with a file. As I watched he sharpened a blade on a 16" saw in short order. He said that once you learn the technique it takes between 8 and 12 strokes to sharpen each cutting edge. He had the chain resharpened and up and cutting wood before I' would have been able to remove it.