anybody use say .020 on rakers

[tony_marks]

 im toying with the idea of bringing my rakers to .020 instead of 25.
 especially on smaller engines . just seems the smaller bite may put less drag on the saw and keep the chain speed faster.any opinions or experience in this area appreciated. tm

[Kevin]

Tony;
The only problem I see is it will be more wear and tear on the bar and chain because your chain will be in the cut for longer periods of time taking smaller chips.
It won't be as efficient.

[tony_marks]

  well mabe but if the chainspeed is up does this not possibly make the cut as fast ,with less drag on the motor. now in the case of 372 etc u got power to spare but my thinking is the smaller motors mite benefit . again jmo. ill be checking the theory in the future . but was looking for input regardless of agree or not.
 later now

[Crofter]

Hi Tony. On my 260 Stihl with 3/8 chisel it is definitely easier to work without bogging the saw when the rakers are less than 25 thou. On the 365 Husky with same chain it seems to be not really working untill I drop them to 25- 30 thou. You have seen the discussions about the teeth cutting in a series of interrupted nibbles. I feel that with lesser raker clearance that the tooth takes a shallower but longer shaving at each bite and puts less strain and concentrated pressure on the rear of the tooth and tie strap and of course on the bar. With more raker clearance the saw definitley pulls harder and grunts louder, but if you actually time the cuts and keep the chain sharp you'll find less is better. If you are into maple and oak and especially dry stuff, it definitely is better with a small saw to keep the rakers high. That is the direction I have been moving anyway.

Frank

[tony_marks]

 yep your line of thinking is pretty much what im leaning to..
  

[IndyIan]

Not to be contrary but I've read in the yahoo milling group that some hotsaw competitors run a high raker...  Of course I can't find the post I'm sure I read that in :
I'm trying to visualize what's going on inside a cut that would make a higher raker better but not having any luck...   Cutting a really really hard hardwood where the raker couldn't be forced into the wood at all it seems to me that only one tooth would be cutting at a time... unless you were rotating the saw...   ???   I dunno, I'm sure somebody at oregon has it all figured out!

Now in my experience I let my rakers get high on my 372 and I did need to use more pressure to cut frozen sugar maple, otherwise the saw wouldn't really be working, just revving.  Filing them down to .025 again put things back to normal.

[Crofter]

Indylan: I don't think you are disagreeing too much with anything here. A 372 is a fair sized saw and can stand a bit lower raker than a 3 cu. inch saw. I believe a saw will make the fastest cut when it is loaded down to the rpm where it produces its maximum horsepower. This will vary with the size and porting characteristics of the particular saw as well as the bar length, log size, and operator pressure. I have dabbled with some timed cuts enough to know that cutting technique makes a big difference in times from one cut to another. On another forum I suggested that some of the competition cutters give us some tips on cutting techniques. We know these boys aren't shy but not a one spoke up. I guess you just have to experiment to see what works best for you.

[John_Boisselier]

Raker depth has a very significant effect on saw efficiency and the timing between sharpenings.  I rarely run my smaller saws, because my favorite saw is a stihl 084.  You have to look at the number of teeth that are in a log at the same time (log diameter) as well as wood hardness and, in the case of cottonwood and other similar timber, the amount of fiber 'fuzziness' which increases chain drag.  I have found that leaving depth gauges high definitely decreases the amount of time between necessary sharpenings, probably because of the larger number of passes needed to accomplish the same amount of work.  Maximizing the amount of depth to the chain speed of your saws highest torque can be pretty close to an art, but minimizes the wear on the saw, bar, and chain  and increases the work done, which is the reason that we use these saws in the first place.  If the torque of a saw is too low to pull the chain through your average log smoothly at a decent depth of tooth, then you might try a skip tooth or semi skip tooth chain to decrease the number of teeth providing drag in the cut (makes it easier or at least quicker to sharpen too  :).  running high depth gauges also causes the bars to peen over further reducing efficiency in a cut and bar life because of the extra pressure needed to make the wimpy thing cut in the first place.   If all else fails, get a bigger saw and just file the dickens out of those pesky depth gauges.   ;D