Sprocket locking up problem

[livemusic]

I am bucking large oaks, 20" to 34" DBH and I am having trouble with the sprocket locking up. It's a new bar and chain. Oregon 25 inch, full chisel chain. Oiler seems to be working fine. On a ported Stihl ms362. I've not had this problem where it happened quite a bit, time after time. Happened several times in my six hours of cutting today. I finally figured out to just free it up by pushing the saw bar nose hard along the log until it started revolving.

[sawguy21]

Try greasing it to force any debris out of the bearing. Are you keeping the nose out of the dirt?

[stavebuyer]

If you pinched the bar; you could have closed the rails. Also bucking trees with pressure can force chips into the rail and bind. 

When it binds do you have stuff packed under the chain keeping it from going around the bar tip or is the bar grove clean and the issue within the tip?

Take the bar and chain off. Clean the bar groove and sight down the bar rail to check for a pinched spot. While you have the chain off see if the sprocket turns freely by hand.

Getting chips and dust clogging the bar every now and then when bucking just happens. If you can clear it by pulling the chain across the end of the log, I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe double check the chain tension and oil adjust. 25" is the max bar for that saw and none of the new stuff is known to over oil either.

[beenthere]

I clear it by dragging across the log too, but also make a habit to keep the rpm up when coming out of a cut for just a short second or two. Never have to drag it on a log when I do that. 

A pic or two of the chips when packed in the chain will confirm if that it is a similar problem. 

[livemusic]

These trees have been a challenge for me because they all have root balls, they were pushed over by excavators, so, there has been some weird stresses/pressure within. So, maybe part of it because this new bar did get pinched more than once when I had a bad day the first day. Yesterday was much better regarding "weird," lol. Also, I have not ran the saw high rpm when exiting the cut every time, I will do that. There has also been some dirt on the trunks, I have tried to stay away from it and have cleaned it best I could when I could not, but some dirt probably got in there.

I am vigilant to keep my bar out of the dirt; I did make a few buck cuts when I had to cut part of a trunk down to the ground.