Chainsaw bar cleaner handle

[madhatte]

Oiler cover plate works too.

[jumpinmp]

...do you guys pump some grease into the end bearing on the tip?...

The two schools of thought I have heard on this both make sense to me.

Thought 1:

...I have never nor will I ever grease a bar tip.IMO the problem is that the grease only helps for about 10 minutes and by then it has spun out of the bearings and just becomes a dirt trap around the tip sprocket.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Thought 2:  
If you are going to grease it do it all the time so you keep the grease as fresh as possible.

I personally grease mine all the time now, mostly because I'm using my saws as demo saws while teaching chainsaw safety and maintenance to people who otherwise would not even know the sprocket was greaseable (or cleanable or even present some times for that matter).  I have run  bars happily without greasing them for their entire life and have never once regretted it.

Your choice, I'd just avoid greasing infrequently.

I agree completely.  You either grease it religiously, or not at all.

[bandmiller2]

I usally just blow out the groove with pressed air as I blow off the dust.Usally every outher time I file I clean out the groove.Has anyone ever experimented how long it takes for sawdust to fill a clean groove.??Frank C.

[nc/sc]

I always have my Leatherman Surge on me..
The little bitty eyeglass screw sized driver inserts on it are the perfect size for cleaning the bar groove in my case ;)

[lumberjack48]

The groove is a oil reservoir to keep a steady flow of oil to the chain, rail, roller nose and sprocket. When it gets full of dirt, the oil doesn't get in all the right place's. I new loggers that had no clue you were supposed to clean the bar rail out. I used a hack saw blade most the time, then i had a old table knife that worked better, it didn't bend and it had a handle. Greasing a roller nose, here's my thought, take that little grease gun and throw it in the woods. When you grease it , the grease is gone or burnt up in 2 or 3 cuts do to chain speed, then the grease forms a film out side the roller nose bearing  so bar & chain oil can't get in to the bearing. I learned this back in the early 70'ds

[Al_Smith]

It may sound dumb but I use the end of a drywall saw to clean out the bar groove .One of those little bitty ones about 8 inches long .

[SawTroll]

Anything that fit into the bar groove can be used for that purpose, and I do it pretty often.

My tool of choise is a Stihl raker guide, that is useless for rakers, but do a good job at cleaning bar grooves (it has an extension on it for that purpose).

[HolmenTree]

I got a Oregon hook cleaner like Lorens, but my favorite is a Sandvik 146 hook. The Sandvik's hook is not as concave as the Oregons making it a little easier to use. Another job these little tools does is used as a shim to tighten up or resize your bar rail's kerf. This doesn't work on laminated bars though.
All my hooks and bars are .050 so when I need to tighten up the rails, I lay the hook tool inside the groove starting at the bar tip joint. Have the hook tip outside the groove to hold it in place and pull it along with your finger. With the bar laying on a heavy anvil or what have you, with a 2lb hammer, hammer the rails lightly where the tool is. Move the tool along as you hammer to the tail of the bar. Flip the bar over and go back again hammering the other rail. When you finish at the nose, put the hook tool in the opposite side rail groove and do the same as the first.
I've been doing this for over 35 years, works like a charm.
Willard.

[LorenB]

Willard,

I wish I had heard of that technique before I bought one of those bar rail closer tools with the two rollers.  I like your idea.  Thanks for posting it. 

Loren

[HolmenTree]

Your welcome Loren.
Bar rails and its body seem to have a "memory"in their structure and proper hammering works the best to get them back to where they were.
Also bent solid body bars can be hammered back to straight perfectly, hammer the bend area of the bar only on the "hump up" side.
Be carefull not to hit the rails.
Willard.

[rbtree]

bump this old thread.

I use a combo bar groove cleaner/depth gauge tool. easy to hold.

And haven't greased a bar tip in 30 years......bar oil does the job just fine. Rocky's right, if you grease them yopu must continue to do so.

Some modern bar tips lack grease holes, as well.

[sawbob011]

Ive been useing a tapered round scraper that I never used for my carpentry to clean the grove. Its a perfect fit and gets it cleaned very nicely. Of course the other day I started a project where I actually needed a good scraper and now mines too crummy from cleaning my saw with. Oh well, Ill just have to buy some new tools :-) The toothpick on my pocket knife is finally getting use cleaning the oiler hole.