Bent the bar a little on my Echo 590 today. One of those trees that leans one way, then curves another and then limbs and foliage go another.
Took bar off and most of crook was near the tip. Had a splitting maul and flat stump nearby. Got it suprisinly straight but need to pry the bar rails apart in a couple of places. Bought new bar but was wondering about keeping this one as a spare. Tip is a little tight but think I can loosen.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
LMF, it will probably never be right but can be made usable for rough work along with old chains. Frank C.
Sort of what I figured. Might let me finish the day or something till I get a spare bar to carry. Echo are proud of their bars. May try and find an Oregon that will cross reference.
Solid body bars with replaceable noses can be straightened by hammering with the bend peak up on a flat anvil.
Laminated bars need a piece of rubberized belting of approximate 1/4" thickness between bar and anvil to properly hammer straighten .
If the rails are pinched, I'd use the flathead portion of a scrench. I found one last year that had been on a piece of concrete then a Cat 330 rolled over it. It took several hours, but I got it opened up.
We use a hydraulic press for the big bars. 3/8 & .404 bars are hard to fix if really tweaked. Baileys sells a rail tool, has 4 different blades you insert in the handle, and smack with a hammer. Does a pretty good job on opening the rails.
Didn't set out with the intent of trying to straighten the bar. When I stuck the bar of the Echo I removed powerhead and tried to wedge loose. Then went up hill to truck and got spare saw. After getting the bar out I had to carry two saws, wedges, big hammer etc. back up hill.
On the way up I stopped at a stump and noticed how flat my face cut was so just decided to hammer around on the bar a little while I caught my wind.
Today, as I was going in to woods I went by shop and took the straighten bar in and laid it on the cast iron tablesaw top. About 3/32" out of being flat the length of a 20" inch bar. Didn't think that too bad for a hammering on a stump. Side to side was good.
If you tinker with it long enough usually you can get them pretty straight .An arbor press is handy for this stuff as well as a big vise and a 24" pipe wrench in some cases .A 4 pound dead blow hammer works too and unlike a 4 pound ball peen thumper will not dent the metal .
They have to be pretty beat up like backing over them with a D6 Cat or something not to be salvagable .Moral of that story is do not place your saw behind a large bulldozer ;)
Quote from: clww on September 18, 2014, 07:54:29 PM
If the rails are pinched, I'd use the flathead portion of a scrench.
I've done that but ended up prying on the scrench and breaking the tip of it off in the rail, that sucks.
Quote from: HolmenTree on September 18, 2014, 11:56:33 AM
Solid body bars with replaceable noses can be straightened by hammering with the bend peak up on a flat anvil.
Laminated bars need a piece of rubberized belting of approximate 1/4" thickness between bar and anvil to properly hammer straighten .
A photo says a thousand words and I should have posted this earlier. To prevent pinching the bar rails while hammering a bend out or to tighten up the rails I put my bar cleaner hook tool between the rails and pull it along with my thumb while I'm hammering with my copper hammer.
Most of my bars are .050 so my Sandvik hook is perfect to not over tighten the rail groove, brings the bar groove back perfect to .050. For my .058 and .063 bars I have 2 other shims that I use for that purpose.
I always have the hook tool in my work pants pocket, in the woods I have hammered bars on top of the skidder's blade, on a chunk of railway track we had in the lunch shack or the anvil back at the shop.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21589/20141001_144700.jpg)
I have to add to my last post about the bar in the photo I posted.
That bar which is a Stihl 28" is 22 years old that came originally with my 1992 Stihl 066 Mag Red light.
Today it's still in great shape besides the paint wore off from years of tapping my file on it to clean the file of filings. Original sprocket nose and have retightened the rail groove many times over with the method I just described.
I never 8 hour a day logged with it but it does have thousands of hours of use with my tree service work.
I guess my amazement was with getting it so straight on a stump. Probably a once in a life time thing.
Had an Oregon laminated bar one time and the roller on the end locked up. Light bulb came on to just take it to the shop and drill the rivets out and use it with out the roller. Started cutting a bigger cherry while I had a D-6 doing some work for me. Somehow sucked the chain up between the laminations and stuck the bar. Had the D-6 come over and picked up the tree with the blade and shake it. Would not budge. Finally had to get another saw and cut off portions of the log until it finally came loose.
Lesson learned. Never again. Have about 50/50 experience in what works and what don't work. Learn it the hard way and you never forget it.
Yes its true we do learn best the hard way :D
You can thump them straight .Just takes a little practice .BTW I have a rawhide insert hammer about like that myself .
Quote from: Al_Smith on October 01, 2014, 06:59:58 PM
You can thump them straight .Just takes a little practice .BTW I have a rawhide insert hammer about like that myself .
Al, it's about 5 lbs of solid copper and doesn't need to be swung hard to straighten a bar.
Quote from: HolmenTree on October 01, 2014, 05:00:10 PM
To prevent pinching the bar rails while hammering a bend out or to tighten up the rails I put my bar cleaner hook tool between the rails and pull it along with my thumb while I'm hammering with my copper hammer.
Most of my bars are .050 so my Sandvik hook is perfect to not over tighten the rail groove, brings the bar groove back perfect to .050. For my .058 and .063 bars I have 2 other shims that I use for that purpose.
A dime works pretty well for an .050" gauge bar shim
A penny works for .058"
A quarter works for .063"
*Holmen Tree* Off subject but that hammer reminded me of this big copper pot my mother had when I grew up. About 35 gallons, pure copper, and a three legged stand it sat into. Used to make applebutter in it. Build a fire under it, and cook slow all day long stirring with a wooden paddle type thing with a long handle. Very heavy duty.
Those rawhide insert thumpers were also made with a two piece cast iron head which is what I have .My usual thumper is a 4 pound high impact plastic contraption .
I have a regular swedging hammer used on circle saw blades but having neither a circle saw nor a blade and I have no idea how to use it .I don't think it would made a very good choice for repairing a chainsaw bar .
Quote from: luvmexfood on October 02, 2014, 01:38:04 AM
*Holmen Tree* Off subject but that hammer reminded me of this big copper pot my mother had when I grew up. About 35 gallons, pure copper, and a three legged stand it sat into. Used to make applebutter in it. Build a fire under it, and cook slow all day long stirring with a wooden paddle type thing with a long handle. Very heavy duty.
When my Grandfather left Norway and landed on Ellis Island in 1905 he carried all his possessions on his shoulder in a large trunk. One of those possessions was a 5 gallon copper kettle that he basically survived with on his journey to South Dakota, where he then met Grandmother then on to homestead in Saskatchewan.
If I remember the history correctly meals , tea etc was cooked in it. It's still in the family possession.
Quote from: bandmiller2 on September 17, 2014, 07:47:03 PM
LMF, it will probably never be right but can be made usable for rough work along with old chains. Frank C.
I disagree... I've bent a couple 20" bars pritty bad, jammed them in the skidder blade to straighten them out and used them for months after that and they cut great.
:D I get rocked chains and bent bars from a tree trimmer bud that I repair .One was a 14" bar from a Stihl 020T they backed a chipper over .Looked kind of like a horse shoe with a twist in it .
I got it straight and untwisted but it took me several hours with the help of a big vise,4 pound thumper, arbor press and a 36" pipe wrench .Never say never . ;)
I have straightened bars that were bent slightly by sticking them between my tailgate and body of my pickup and prying them and keep checking with a straight edge
Quote from: Maine logger88 on October 02, 2014, 10:10:03 PM
I have straightened bars that were bent slightly by sticking them between my tailgate and body of my pickup and prying them and keep checking with a straight edge
I have done that too with a few mild bends but when you get a twist or a kink making a bend only hammering can successfully get the bar's "flat memory" back and keep it straight.
You can pull a bar straight again but most times after some use it can sometimes start to go back to that bend again because it's structure memory hasn't been restored.
I hope I explained that easy enough to understand :laugh:
Yeh I understand what you are saying its just a temporary fix whatever it takes to get going again. Now I keep 3 or 4 spare bars behind the seat in the pickup. But back when I first started out I didn't have the money haha
Quote from: Maine logger88 on October 02, 2014, 10:52:01 PM
Yeh I understand what you are saying its just a temporary fix whatever it takes to get going again. Now I keep 3 or 4 spare bars behind the seat in the pickup. But back when I first started out I didn't have the money haha
yeh when I was a young 26 year old logger I didn't have alot of money either, always had guaranteed good paying work but spent it as fast as I made it. Timber sports was where I blew alot of money.
Bars chains etc were more expensive too back in 1984 , a 18" bar went for around $60 not including tax back then......in our area anyways. Can get them cheaper now.
Had my neighbor/tenant pick me up a Stihl chain the other day while she was out. She used to work at a John Deere dealership that sold Stihl and still gets a discount. Just under $10 bucks for a 16 inch chain for my 170. Long story but I lost it. Went by myself and got a replacement. $18 bucks. Must be a big mark-up on them.
I wonder if some heat would get a bent bar to go back to original shape? As I understand it, when large steel girders get bent they can usually be heated in up/down lines with a torch and will bring them back to their original shape. Not sure if it would work with smaller shapes like a saw bar though.
I've had success with heat on laminated consumer bars which are darn near impossible to properly straighten. If the center laminent plate is cracked forget it. Being flimsy from side to side tells you if it's broken.
Solid body replaceable nose bars heat applied is not a good idea. These bars have complex tempering properties. Soft in the middle and hard in the rails, any change of tempering can actually deform these bars more .
I suppose that would make some sense. The type of beam I'm thinking of is the type you'd see holding up a bridge deck or something, so not quite the same. Lot more material there.
Quote from: JohnG28 on October 03, 2014, 11:09:59 AM
I suppose that would make some sense. The type of beam I'm thinking of is the type you'd see holding up a bridge deck or something, so not quite the same. Lot more material there.
With steel prices that they are today that big beam would be worth in the thousands of $
Best they straighten it up the best they can :D
That you're not kidding! Those beams can be 70, 80, 120 lbs or much more per linear foot! But it depends on how bad they're damaged. There's a bridge north of me on the way to my camp that was hit about a year and a half ago by a guy with a feller butcher or something of the sort that was too high passing under. Stopped the truck from 55 mph in about 10 feet! And destroyed the first 2 or 3 girders from the north side. That bridge is still 1 lane today as the funds to replace are likely being used elsewhere in the great state of NY! :D