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How to Sharpen a Chainsaw Fast and Well
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Feb 22, 2024
I used to sharpen my chainsaws with a file, but now I use an electric sharpener for much faster and better results. Watch this tutorial to see. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/BLRchannel WATCH MY POPULAR VIDEO: How to Cut Perfect Miter Joints https://youtu.be/0wnjJ-Xi5FU WATCH MORE BAILEY LINE ROAD: Winter Tips - https://bit.ly/2rpnUcm Product Tours - https://bit.ly/2L2H54Q Woodworking - https://bit.ly/2RN83jC Real Rural Life - https://bit.ly/2RI5dvY CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE: https://baileylineroad.com/ My Cabin Building Course: https://baileylineroad.com/cozy-cabin/ How-To & DIY eBooks: https://baileylineroad.com/shop/ SOCIAL MEDIA: http://bit.ly/STEVEMyoutube
View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video I want to show you how I use a sharpening machine like this to sharpen saw chains
0:07
I'm going to go into a lot of detail, and this is an instructional video
0:11
so you'll be able to set up the machine and use it to get great results like I do
0:17
I've sharpened saw chains for years with a file and a guide, and the results are good
0:22
They're even great, but they take a long time. And the results aren't as good as with a machine like this
0:29
You can get consistency and sharp edges, and you'll end up with a saw chain that actually cuts better than new
0:35
for at least the first little while. So, I'm going to be working on this saw here
0:40
And the chain has got to come off the saw for this sort of sharpening
0:46
I have a couple of chains for each of my saws, and I'll sharpen both of them
0:53
And then when I'm cutting, I will take the dull one off and put the fresh one on
0:58
I have to set up the machine as little as possible, so it's very efficient
1:02
But before I take the saw chain off, I want to check something
1:07
See, if you look closely here, this is a cutter right here
1:11
This actually chews some of the wood, and this is a cutter too, this other one
1:16
But between, there's this other little thing here. It limits the amount of bite that each chain tooth can take
1:26
If the chain tried to take its full bite, right down to the depth, it just wouldn't be able to do it
1:33
The chain would stick in the wood. So there's this thing here, and it rides in front of the cutter
1:41
and it stops the cutter from biting off more than it can chew
1:45
And this gauge here is how you measure whether this is sticking up too much
1:53
And I say too much because as you sharpen a saw chain
1:59
the effective edge, the cutting edge, actually starts to go down a little bit
2:05
That's because the chain tooth is sloped backwards. So the more you sharpen it, the further down it goes
2:12
and the higher this little nub in here gets in relation to the cutting edges
2:18
So this gauge here rests over the cutters. It sits on top of these cutters, and it's got a depressed center section
2:28
And it's depressed 25 one-thousandths of an inch. And so if this relationship between the cutters and this little limiting nub in here is correct
2:41
when I put the gauge on, I won't be able to feel the nubbin sticking up above the side of the gauge
2:49
If it is sticking up, then I can file that down by hand with a flat file
2:56
or I can use the sharpening machine for that too. It's faster and more consistent, and I'll show you how all that works
3:05
when we get the saw chain off and put it onto the machine
3:10
So taking off a chain is the same for any kind of saw. You're going to need some kind of a socket wrench to loosen off the two anchor nuts
3:19
There's always two of them on these things. And just to make the job easier, I like to loosen the chain tension a bit too
3:30
So take these nuts and come right off. And then this cover here can come off
3:47
And it gets quite dirty in there. I'll show you a little bit about cleaning that out later
3:53
So now we just push the bar in, and we can lift the chain off
3:59
I like to take it off the nose of the saw bar first
4:06
Just get it off there, and then come back here, and then wiggle it around and out, and get it off there
4:17
Now, before I do anything else, I'm going to take the bar off
4:24
I'm going to clean this, and then I'm going to flip the bar over
4:28
Because bars get worn as the chain slides on them. Most cuts are done on the bottom side of the bar, so that's where the wear is greatest
4:39
But if you flip it over, you're going to get the most wear out of your bar
4:43
And the wear you're concerned about causes these surfaces here to become dished
4:51
So the very sides of the bar, a thin section of metal will stick up
4:57
And the more the bar wears, the higher that little ridge of metal gets
5:02
And it kind of makes the chain slide wonky, and eventually it's a big problem
5:06
What I do, actually, as soon as I feel any kind of a ridge forming on these edges
5:12
I just take the bar over to my woodworking edge sander, and I just give them a quick little clean-up sanding along the whole length of it
5:21
And it completely gets rid of any issues like that. So it's fast and simple, and the bar stays in excellent condition
5:28
So I will install it this way around when the time comes
5:34
But for now, let's just put the saw chain, bring it over to the machine here
5:41
and I'll show you how the chain fits in. So you have to think of these machines like a miniature chop saw
5:47
except it spins a grinding wheel like this. There are different widths of grinding wheels for different sizes of chains
5:57
This is what they look like. They last quite a while. Eventually they get too small to use
6:02
But that's what they look like, and that's what's in here. And so, with the chain held in this little clamping device, like so
6:17
clamped in there, and with the motor running, you kind of chop down
6:23
and the grinding wheel grinds the leading edge of the tooth. That's the theory. That's how it works
6:31
And it works really well and quickly, but you've got to set up the machine properly
6:38
You've got to make some pretty precise adjustments for how far the grinding wheel chops down
6:45
how much of the tooth is going into the grinding wheel, and also there are different angle settings here
6:55
This sounds more complicated than it is, but you do need to get all these things right
6:59
in order for this machine to work. That's kind of what takes the time, and once it's all set up, you're ready to go
7:06
So, with the device angled this way, I can sharpen every second tooth
7:14
So I can sharpen this one, I can sharpen this one, I can sharpen this one
7:18
And I'm going to show you how the action works without turning it on
7:22
So I put this chain in here, I pull it back until this cog here stops it from going any further
7:31
That regulates the position of the cutter in relation to the rest of the machine
7:37
And then I just lock it down with this little clamp here
7:42
So now that the chain is firmly supported, it doesn't wiggle, it doesn't move, nothing
7:47
and I'm going to chop down here, and I'm going to grind
7:51
It's the leading edge of the tooth that I'm concerned about. I'm not concerned for anything down here
7:58
It's this leading edge of the tooth here, and especially the point
8:03
That's where most of the cutting happens, is this point. And when this is adjusted, when the machine is adjusted properly
8:10
it's going to produce a chain that actually produces ribbons of wood, not just sawdust
8:15
And that's why this is so good. So now I'm going to show you how to make the necessary adjustments
8:21
If you've had any experience at all sharpening chains, you know that the main issue is the relative angle of the cutters
8:30
compared with the thing that's sharpening them. So we've got two angles going here
8:35
We've got this angle here, and then we've also got a kind of a tipping down angle
8:43
And you can see both of these on the front. So when I loosen this part of the machine, there's a knob under here
8:51
now I'm free to do two things. I'm free to swivel this around
8:56
See now, as you can see, that would of course be no good
9:00
I need to match the angle of the cutter there. So I can swivel this around in different angles this way
9:11
and I can also swivel it in this plane too. So it goes this way, and it rotates this way
9:21
So I have to get those angles right. And what I like to do is to take a fairly fresh chain
9:28
that's maybe a little bit dull, and sharpen it perhaps a little sooner than I normally would
9:33
and I follow the angles of the cutter. I let that be my guide
9:38
It's important to know that this chain has a horizontal angle of a smidge more than 30 degrees
9:47
So that number right there, you can see the mark, it lines up a little bit past 30
10:00
And I also know that when we're sharpening this chain, these teeth here, we want things to tip back by 10 degrees
10:15
Now if you notice here, you can see how it slides, how this thing slides
10:24
It rolls, I guess you could say, like this. So we want a little more than 30 in this direction
10:31
and we want to have this position over here for these teeth that I'm doing on the side
10:38
So when I have that in place, I can do up the knob and lock everything into position
10:46
Now, have I got this right? Well, we need to take a look and see
10:52
How does that line up? I think it looks pretty good there
10:59
There is a big problem though, and that's that the tooth is nowhere near far enough
11:05
in that direction in order to encounter the wheel. Can you see that gap there
11:14
That's no good, because we want the leading edge of the cutter
11:19
to encounter the grinding wheel. So we're going to loosen this off
11:24
and I'm going to use this adjustment mechanism over here. This is the thing that allows me to cause the chain
11:32
to move forward a little bit. So I'm going to try that
11:36
I've moved it forward a bit with this knob. This pushes the cutter forward
11:40
I'm going to pull it back against the dog here and clamp it in
11:44
Let's see what it looks like. Okay, now that's probably too much
11:49
I've overdone it. I'm going to be grinding away more tooth than I need to
11:54
You see, at this stage, what you want to do is you want to look at the leading edge of the tooth
12:01
and any damage that might be there. The damage is going to be fairly consistent
12:05
damage from hitting a rock or a nail in some wood or even just regular wear and tear
12:10
The damage and the wear is going to extend pretty much the same along all the teeth
12:15
So I want to remove just enough tooth to get rid of the damage and then no more
12:21
So I've got this adjusted to take off too much. So I'm going to draw this back a little bit
12:29
pull it back, and let's give it another try. That's probably pretty good
12:37
I think it's just encountering the leading edge of this tooth. Now it's time to actually turn the thing on
12:43
and to give it a try and to see how we're grinding this tooth
12:47
and whether it looks good or not. We're going to make our adjustments here
12:51
and then we're just going to run through all the teeth on this side using that one consistent adjustment
12:57
So with all these teeth here, I want to make sure I know at which tooth I start
13:03
so that I don't over-sharpen, I don't go over some previously sharpened teeth
13:08
So I just use a marker to turn one of them black
13:12
Now I'm going to turn the things on here. I'm going to turn on the motor
13:18
and it's important that the stone be clean, be not glazed. After sharpening, you know
13:28
maybe half a big chain like this or certainly a full big chain
13:32
there's going to be a kind of a glazing of metal that builds up on the grinding wheel
13:39
and that's going to stop that wheel from aggressively and cleanly grinding
13:45
the steel of the teeth, the cutting teeth. So what you have to do is you have to dress the wheel
13:51
every so often and this is a very hard wheel dressing block
13:55
and it removes, it kind of grinds away the grinding stone essentially
14:00
It cleans it up and I want to make sure I always produce a rounded edge
14:06
because that's the profile I want to get into the tooth. So I'm going to switch on now
14:12
and I'm just going to dress the wheel. So that wheel is nice and clean
14:26
I know it's going to cut well but I don't know if the adjustments are perfect yet
14:32
So I'm just going to gingerly try this one tooth and let's see what happens here
14:38
That's just about perfect. I'm removing some material from the front of the tooth
14:48
but not too much. I'm also not sitting here for a long period of time
14:55
with the grinding wheel in contact with the tooth because I don't want the tooth to get red hot or anything like that
15:01
It can get warm and it will get warm but I just want to grind it kind of impulsive like that
15:09
Now I like that. That's actually looking great and we can take a closer look at that
15:17
but there's one other adjustment that I want to tell you about. So I've adjusted for angle, the two angles
15:23
the angle this way and then the sideways angle that you can see on the scale here
15:29
I've adjusted the position of the tooth relative to the grinding wheel, so forwards and backwards
15:35
That's regulated by this device here. But there's one other adjustment and it's up on top here
15:41
It's this knob and this controls how far down the wheel chops
15:47
I mean if I go too far down I'm going to start grinding parts of the chain that I don't want to grind
15:52
I only want to grind the tooth and no more so the depth of cut has to be regulated as well
15:57
As it turns out, the depth of cut is pretty good here
16:01
It's just about where I want it. It goes down, it's contacting everything on the tooth
16:07
but it's not going too far. So I would consider this to be kind of the ideal tooth grind
16:17
You can see it from that side. Let's come around from the other side
16:21
and you can learn a lot by looking at it from the operator's side as well
16:27
So, do you see how this part of the tooth is shiny
16:35
It's freshly ground. It's freshly ground right down to the bottom and that fresh grind, it circles around
16:42
and comes up here to a nice point. That is a nicely sharpened tooth
16:47
In fact, it's so sharp I could easily cut myself on the point
16:51
It's very sharp. And that's what I want for all the other teeth on that side of the chain
16:59
So my machine is set up. I'm ready to start using it in an automated way
17:04
and I want to show you the rhythm of what that looks like as I get going
17:09
So I've got my safety glasses on and I'm ready to start using this adjustment
17:15
So this is the tooth I've already done. Even when a tooth is already done
17:20
you can always get a few more sparks out of it if you kind of lean on the machine on the handle one way or the other
17:26
There's just some flexing on the machine. It's not a big deal. You don't keep grinding until there's no more sparks
17:32
You just keep grinding until most of them are over. So grind, loosen, forward, pull back, clamp
17:41
and then grind again. So I'll just continue on here
17:55
This is what the rhythm looks like when I don't stop to explain how it works
18:17
So I've got my tooth here. I'm going to start grinding. I'm going to start grinding
18:27
I'm going to start grinding. I'm going to start grinding. I'm going to start grinding
18:36
I'm going to start grinding. I'm going to start grinding. I'm going to start grinding
18:44
I'm going to start grinding. Now, I'm pulsing this
19:09
I'm not laying on a pole for more than a second or two
19:14
because I don't want to overheat the cutter. But if you hit a bar or resin or anything on these cutters
19:22
they are going to get smoking hot. It's not like you can keep it perfectly cool
19:29
but you certainly can minimize heat loss and that's what I like to do
19:36
This is an exceptionally long chain. It's a greatly long bottom. It's longer than I need for the logs I'm cutting
19:46
But the longer the chain is, the longer it stays sharp all things considered
19:53
All things being equal. Just because there are more teeth to carry on the cutting
20:02
So I get longer chain life. I have more teeth to sharpen when it comes time to sharpen the longer chain
20:08
But with a machine like this, it's not really an issue. You see we're back here to our magic marker tooth
20:15
So you just saw what it took to sharpen half of this great big long chain
20:22
Now, I need to adjust the sharpener to change its angle to sharpen all the teeth on the other side of the chain
20:31
So I'm kind of half done. What I like to do though is I have multiple chains for each of my saws
20:37
and I dull them all before I get out the sharpening equipment. So I don't have to keep changing these angles back and forth
20:45
Normally I would just take this chain off and I would put another dull chain on and I would sharpen that same side of the dull chain
20:52
and then I would make the adjustment, sharpen the other side and then put the first chain back on
20:58
So I'm minimizing the adjustments I need to make here. But that's the idea. So now let's reconfigure this sharpener
21:06
to go out the other side of the chain. So my job now is to reverse all of the adjustments on this carriage here
21:14
So I'm going to loosen off a knob and it was 30 degrees on one side
21:19
Now I'm going to swivel it over and make it a little bit past 30 degrees on the other side
21:28
Now the whole chain carriage is sloped 10 degrees this way. I need to reverse that as well
21:35
So that should... There we go. So the reason for all this
21:42
is to adjust the chain, the angles so that I can start doing every other cutter now
21:52
So this one's sharp but of course this one and all the cutters on this side are not sharp
21:57
So I'm going to line everything up tighten it up and then
22:05
and then take a look and see how how well this is coming down
22:11
Now I can see Oh, I don't have it adjusted here. There we go
22:16
There's a problem. It's not a problem. It's something you have to be aware of
22:21
You see, before when this carriage was flipped over this way with this dog
22:27
engaging the back of the cutters I already cut the position of it from side to side was fine
22:34
But you see there's a problem there now. First of all, the dog is hardly catching this tooth on this side of the chain
22:41
And if I were to chop down if you can see in there, I would be grinding
22:46
I would be grinding that stop dog there. So they've solved this problem
22:52
by making the dog allowing it to be able to move from side to side
22:59
So I'm going to be loosening this knob. I'm not changing the position of the dog relative to anything else
23:05
but all it's allowing to happen is for the dog to slide sideways. And if you see here, there's this little spring in here
23:12
That's to make sure that the dog slides over when you loosen this knob
23:18
So I'm putting it into the position for the other cutters. I'll lock it in place here
23:31
Now I'm not going to turn it on, I'm just going to see. How are we doing
23:36
Well, it's just about perfect. We're just encountering the leading edge of the tooth
23:41
If you see, the angle is perfect. The angle of the grinding wheel matches the angle of the cutter perfectly
23:48
And it's just going to rub up against the front. That's pretty perfect
23:53
Sometimes I have to fool around with it. But theoretically, the depth of chop
24:00
and the degree of forward and backwardness of the tooth of the cutter
24:06
should be the same from one side to the other. I shouldn't have to make extra adjustments. And in this case, I didn't
24:12
So I'm ready to go now. I'm going to put on my safety glasses
24:16
Now, while we're at it, before I switch on, you see this stone, this grinding wheel is still pretty clean
24:22
But if you look at places like that, for instance, it's starting to get dark and glazed over
24:29
So just so this wheel cuts aggressively and cleanly and as coolly as possible
24:35
I'm going to dress that again once I fire it up. So I've just finished
25:16
all the teeth on this chain, this long chain. And I would be ready to put this back on the saw right now
25:24
But I want to cut the depth guides down a little bit
25:29
so that this chain can take a bigger bite. It doesn't really need it, but as I explained before
25:34
these little bumps here limit the bite that each tooth can take
25:40
This is going on a big, powerful saw. It can take a bigger bite than it's going to now
25:46
So I'm just going to reconfigure this grinder to make that happen. So adjusting the depth guides, the depth gauges
25:53
this isn't something you have to do all the time, maybe only two or three times in the course of the life of a chain
25:58
before all the cutters are ground off. But I've reconfigured the sharpening machine to do that
26:03
So come and take a look. I've changed the angle of this
26:10
so it's coming more or less straight down. It's a little bit off from perpendicular
26:14
It doesn't really matter because my aim right now is to grind off the top of this depth guide a little bit
26:24
with the grinding wheel. So I just want to make it shorter
26:29
It doesn't have to be sharp, and it doesn't have to be angled in a certain direction. Now I could take this wheel off
26:35
and I could put on a wider wheel, something like this, that would make the job a little bit easier
26:41
but I don't want to invest the time in taking the wheel off and replacing it again for such a job
26:47
So what I've done is I've adjusted the stop dog so that the depth gauge is immediately under the wheel
26:56
when it comes down. Now I've adjusted the depth knob on the back of the machine
27:04
so that it only goes down the amount I want. And the amount I want, if you recall
27:10
is determined by this gauge. This gauge sets the depth gauges down 25 one thousandths of an inch
27:23
below the tips of the cutters. That's a kind of a factory setting. Sometimes I like to take it a little bit lower than that
27:29
as I said, but let's just see how this looks. I'm testing the adjustment here. So we'll just clamp it in place
27:37
put that on top, and yeah, I can't feel that sticking up
27:42
It's pretty much flush. Pretty much flush with the gauge. So I'll show you how this works
27:50
I'm just doing it on the one side because the depth guide here
27:55
is in a little bit different position, so I will adjust the tool to do these properly later
28:01
But for now, I'll just do a couple of these and show you what they look like. Okay, so that's it
28:12
Now, just before I move it on to the next one, I'm going to take this flat file here. Because these depth guides
28:18
they're actually encountering the wood as they slide along, I'm going to take this flat file here
28:24
and I'm going to take this flat file here and I'm going to take this flat file here and I'm going to take this flat file here
28:30
and I'm going to take this flat file here and I'm going to take this flat file here and I'm going to take this flat file here
28:36
and I'm going to take this flat file here and I want to round this a bit. And it just takes a couple of..
28:43
And then that's sufficiently rounded. So, I'll just move on to the next one here
29:02
And the file. And the file. So, the chain's all sharp
29:33
The cutting gauges are ready to go and I want to put the chain back on in the saw. and I want to put the chain back on in the saw
29:38
This is the housing that holds the chain on This is the housing that holds the chain on and it gets really dirty
29:44
So, you should clean it a bit before you put it back on. You don't have to be really surgical about it
29:50
You just sort of want to scrape out the dirt from this band here. That's the chain break
29:56
That's the thing that will grip the outside of the clutch if the chainsaw kicks back and my arm triggers this mechanism
30:03
You can clean out some of the other areas too. The thing is, it's going to get very dirty very quickly
30:11
so don't get too obsessive about knocking out a bunch of stuff
30:17
Just the loose stuff. And also, in here, because this is where the nuts seat down
30:29
so you want them to seat against something solid and not just a bunch of old
30:34
oily sawdust. So, I'm going to put the bar back on. It just fits over these two studs
30:44
I'm going to push it all the way in and then take my chain
30:51
and get it in around the clutch. I want to make sure it's properly engaged
30:59
with the clutch housing and then just get it in and get it around
31:12
and place. That seems to be right. Sometimes the chains cannot properly engage
31:21
with the clutch so they're not actually where they're supposed to be. If that's the case
31:27
you won't be able to turn it over very easily like this. So, it looks good
31:32
I'm always a little leery though because it is possible for these things to go together improperly
31:39
So, I'm putting this on. Now that happens to fit on quite nicely but
31:45
if it doesn't go on, if for some reason it doesn't seem to want to go all the way in
31:51
it's probably because your chain adjuster which has a little finger inside is in the wrong position
31:57
Maybe you've taken off another chain and you're replacing it with a chain that's tighter and so this finger here
32:02
you see this thing moves back and forth as you tighten or loosen the chain and it engages
32:08
with these holes here. So, if this pin is in the wrong position
32:13
it's not going to go in the hole and this will go partly on
32:18
but not on as far as it should. So, that feels like it's on as far as it should
32:24
It should not be. That feels like it's on as far as it should. It should be
32:29
Now I say feels like because sometimes as I said, these things can go together improperly so you don't want to just
32:35
torque everything up and fire up the engine and go and start cutting without
32:41
doing some testing. So, the first part of the testing is to
32:48
is to snug this up. Not really tight but enough to hold things
32:57
Now, you'll see here on the chain we've got a lot of slack. The chain should be tight enough
33:03
that there's no gap there. So, that's where the chain adjuster comes in. On this Akko saw it's nice and handy
33:10
on the outside and so I'm just I'm just tightening it and as I tighten it you'll see that that slack
33:16
starts to go away. Just a smidge past a closed gap situation
33:23
Now, yeah, that's still that chain still rotates. It still slides along
33:31
and in good shape. I know I can finish tightening up these nuts here now
33:38
And this saw should be ready to go. When I fire it up
33:45
I'm going to make sure that the chain does rotate freely and even though this is not a new chain
33:51
I know from experience that in the first half dozen cuts or so it's entirely likely that
33:57
extra slack will develop. So, I'm going to need to loosen these nuts off give it a little more chain tension
34:03
do the the nuts back up again and then I should be okay for a while
34:09
as far as chain tension goes. And I'm ready to go
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