Bar Maintenance

Larry · December 22, 2007, 04:53:09 PM

Doing a little bar maintenance today and thought I would ask for advise. Dressed my bar rails down...just a little knife edge. The sprocket tips had quite a bit more wear as they appear to possibly be softer or perhaps it is my cutting technique...I bore a lot. Don't know if brand makes much difference as my Cannon and Sandvik bars show the same wear patterns.

Maybe ya can see what I'm talking about in the pics.

So...what do you pros do with the tips when they start wearing? Guess I have just been ignoring the wear.

beenthere · December 22, 2007, 05:21:14 PM

Larry
I think I see what you are concerned about.
Made me go look at my old Stihl 041 saw with the Windsor bar/tip, that has been on the saw since new in 1975.
A lot of firewood, plunge cutting, and bucking with the top of the bar near the tip.

I don't see a lot of wear (some knife edge on the sides) on mine in this image, but did notice a number of the sprocket teeth are worn on the tips. Not all, but not sharp like yours.

sawguy21 · December 22, 2007, 05:48:37 PM

Larry, time to replace the tip. As beenthere said, the sprocket teeth are worn and I see a pronounced groove in the rail directly in front. You will likely need to dress the new tip after installation to match the bar.

Corley5 · December 22, 2007, 07:40:00 PM

I grind the shoulders off the bar and tips so are equal when dressing and run tips until they fail. The most common failure involves the tip splitting and the bearings and sprocket come out. The sprocket may or may not be whole

. Or they begin to get hot from bearing failure and drag the saw down.

Reddog · December 22, 2007, 07:50:07 PM

Ever since I bought a chain grinder, I rotate between five or six chains. I have not had to touch up the rails near as much. It seems to even out the wear pattern.

Larry · December 23, 2007, 07:32:48 AM

I file so I'm doing good to keep two chains in rotation.

Added couple of tips to my Baileys part list...looks like something to keep me occupied on the next snow day.

Thanks for the advice guys.

rebocardo · December 23, 2007, 06:46:51 PM

My rails wear the fastest, maybe from running the chain too tight, the noses hardly at all. I do not do a lot of boring though. I clean the rails with that file holder blue thing that Baileys sells to clean up burrs and take down the rails. Once they reach a bit below the nose piece, I junk the bar.