Correct Way To Sharpen A Chainsaw - Video

well Steve's back again this is the small end saloon thanks for tuning in again guys and girls today I am going to drink some Rolling Rock extra pale and sharpen a chainsaw I'm going to try to make this the clearest most informative thorough video that you've ever seen on this subject because of that it might run on a little longer than maybe you think it should I'm gonna try to cover everything in this video let's get to it right now I've chosen the three most common chains that you could have on your chainsaw this is a full size 3/8 chain to chisel chain that has the biggest teeth on it then you go down to your three to five chain which has smaller cutter teeth on it then down to this one here is also a 3/8 chain but it's a picot chain or a low-profile chain and it has tiny little cutter teeth on it now you have to match a file that fits the size of the chain that you have on your chainsaw the three different sizes of chain that I showed you they're three different files different ones there if you have a look that big 3/8 chain is a 7/32 file the 3 to 5 chain is a 3/2 is a 3/16 file and that little small chain that I showed you there is a 5/32 file and yes I keep my files in a little old fuel line like that throw them in the bottom of your tool box it helps them protect them it helps prolong the life of your file by doing that drinking straws great idea next time you go to McDonald's keep your straw slip that right on your file it protects it when it's rolling around so why is it so important that we match the right size file with the chain that you have on your chainsaw it's all about this it's called the hook this is a brand new cutter tooth right here that's never been touched with a file you see that little round edge it kind of looks like almost like a little fishhook it's rounded right there that's what you want to try to make your teeth look like after you sharpen them have a nice little hook in it like that this is the picot chain the low-profile chain if you use a file that's too big for this chain it could end up looking like this now you see that there's no hook in that anymore that tooth goes straight up and down worse and then that here's one that the tooth is actually the opposite of a hook it's actually sloped backwards a little bit you sharpen your chainsaw like that you might as well have your chain on backwards it's not gonna cut at all like that so choose your proper file size next thing you got to do is get a file handle unless you don't mind ramming that point the end of the file right there afraid through the meat of your hand use something file handles are cheap also you're gonna need a guide a file guide then don't ask me why I have so many of these things but the file guides come in all different manufacturers they come in different styles they look different some of them are kind of gimmicky and some aren't this is the favorite one that I have it is a simple inexpensive guide it does everything that you need a file guide to do which is what number one thing that a file guide helps you to do is controls the depth of how far your file is digging down into that chain tooth I'll take you back to this sample right here there's that one that has the cutter tooth slope backwards if you use a even if you're using the right size file if it's riding too high on that tooth it's just going to take the top off and it's still going to be sloped backwards like that on the opposite end of that here's too deep you can have a tooth that looks like this where your file is going down into the tooth way too deep and then you have such a drastic hook on that sometimes it'll it'll actually grab so hard it'll break those teeth right off the other thing that those file guides help you to do is maintain a uniform angle on each tooth so it's the same angle I'm going to show you that in a second first of all we're gonna get this chain saw set up so we can actually start sharpening it number one thing you want to do with this is tighten the chain to the proper tension that it needs to be if you're unsure of how to do that I do have another video on my channel if you go back to my channel that's called how to tension the chain on a chain saw properly the point of this is if your chain is really super loose or even just actually a tiny bit loose when you go to file it and you push back on that tooth like that to file it the whole tooth tips backwards just like that and it's on it's impossible to actually sharpen a chain saw accurately if your tooth is tipping backwards like that so tension it up to where it should be now we need some way to hold the chain saw securely so we can actually sharpen it now you can actually hold the bar with one hand and try to sharpen with one hand like this obviously if you're not holding it at all and you try to push on that tooth while you're sharpening it it just moves your chance far out you have to hold it somehow can you hold it with one hand and do that with one hand yes you can extremely awkward it's way easier to hold that file with two hands so you can get some pressure on there to actually peel the metal off of those teeth easiest way to hold this thing is in a bench vise most people I think that are watching this video probably have that bench vise pitch it right in the middle and just make sure that your chain freely spins around like that so you have a proper size file now you have a file guide and you have a file handle we're ready to start sharpening this thing now oh gotta tell you wear some gloves especially if you're a beginner if you're new to doing this believe it or not I protection put some goggles on and now we're going to talk about those angles there's two different angles that you have to worry about be concerned about on your chainsaw when you're using this file guide here's the first one when you put that file flat on your on your bar like this you want this to be a 90 degree angle with the bar like that you don't want it pitch down 10 degrees like this or up 10 degrees like this you want it flat on that bar the other angle that we're worried about is when you're looking straight down at your chain is obviously the angle of the top of those teeth now your file guide is probably going to say is probably gonna give you three options it's gonna be 25 degrees 30 degrees or 35 degrees it doesn't matter which one of those you choose the key is if you choose let's say 30 degrees make them all 30 degrees don't make 125 another 130 and the other 135 that's what these lines on your file guide are if you look if you rest that that file down as if you're going to start sharpening it there's your 30 degree line right there you line up that line right there with the line of the bar now that is 30 degrees that is incorrect that is in correct line up that line with your bar and you know that that's 30 degrees now if you don't have a file guide all you have is just a file and a handle a lot of chains out there have this little mark on the back of the tooth it's a little laser-cut mark in there most chains do not all of them do but you probably are gonna see this little mark on here that is a guide right on the tooth itself to help you follow the proper angle you can use just a straight file on that but you get a really take your time and keep looking at that hook and making sure that you're not going too deep and not going too high on that you can do that guides make it way easier I've been sharpening chainsaws for thirty years I still use one of these simple guides because it's way easier and way faster to do that next point you need to be aware of is the direction that you file some people will say file in the forward direction they're not really clear on what that means filing in the forward Direction means that when you're filing a tooth your file is always pointed away from the chainsaw itself from the from the engine of the chainsaw you're filing this way for your right hand teeth it's pointed away from the chainsaw you go to your left hand tooth you file it this way because now that's also pointed away from your saw you're gonna know if you're filing it the wrong way here's the wrong way right here I'm filing the left-hand tooth right here and now I'm pointing my my file back towards the engine if you do that here's what happens you see you see how that just skips and chatters pretty much your file is going to tell you if you're filing it the wrong direction on that tooth because it's good to do that if you're filing at the right direction and you file you're going to just hear and feel that metal just peeling off so always have your file pointed away from the engine as you're filing another thing that you need to be aware of is how a file actually works a file only cuts in the forward direction it doesn't cut coming backwards so I see a lot of people file when they're beginners and they rub they actually just rub the file back and forth like that like this now what that's doing every time you pull that file backwards and rubbing it backwards it's actually damaging your file a little bit because they are not made to cut backwards what you want to do is only put pressure on your tooth when you're filing forward like this and then lift your file off put it back down and then file forward again lift your file off and go forward again like that that's going to actually probe prolong the life of your file drastically if you remember to do that now keep filing every tooth until you don't see any more damage on the tooth I'm going to show you right here what a damaged tooth looks like or I shouldn't say damaged but extremely dull if you could see that tooth right there that is a very very dull tooth you can see the difference between that tooth and that tooth right there this one here just looks razor sharp and there's a fine point on it so what you want to do is just keep filing and keep filing each tooth until it looks like a new chain again there's some mechanics out there there's some videos out there that are quite adamant on telling you that take the same amount of strokes off of every tooth if you take six strokes off of this tooth take six strokes off of we tooth I disagree with that more times than not if you do that you're still going to have some dull teeth theoretically it'll keep the length of your teeth the same length not always though but I find that it's way more important tap each individual tooth razor-sharp rather than having them the same length now if you can do both if you can keep all of them very close to the same length and have them all razor sharp then that's even better so I say keep sharpening each tooth on your zip file all the right hand teeth till they're sharp like this and then what you want to do with the other side of teeth you want to sharpen the left-hand side of the teeth now you just take it out of your vise and you flip the whole chainsaw around clap it back in your vise and then do the same thing on the left side teeth keep going all the way around till you know that they're all sharp we're not done yet I know you have a nice sharp chainsaw now all your teeth are sharp razor sharp there is another critical component to sharpening your chainsaw that a lot of people don't even discuss that is the depth gauge the rakers that is the little piece that's right in front of your tooth right in front of the short part of your tooth that you just sharpened what that raker does is it controls how much of a bite that tooth is trying to scrape under that wood if you have it too high it's going to just be kind of taking powder off like little tiny little bits of chips off of there if it's too low it's going to be trying to take out too much of a bite where if your chainsaw is not powerful enough your chain will literally just stall in the wood you're trying to cut because it's trying to take out more wood than the chain can the chainsaw can actually pull out of there so we want to have those rakers also now at the proper height that's why we have a flat file now a raker file like this to take those rakers down if we need to now you can get these little inexpensive raker gauges right here for filing your rakers down how these things work is you just lay it on top of your chain like that and if there's some of the rake or protruding past that guide right there then you can just file it off with your flat file like this I don't use one of those never have never will because there's an easier way to do this your rakers need to be at a different height whether you're whether you're cutting hardwood or softwood the easiest way to know if your breakers are at the right depth is simply from this analyze your chips you go you just cut a log in half you got a big pile of wood chips down in your feet pick those wood chips up in your hand and look at them you see nice big chips coming off like this this is what you should see coming off of a piece of wood when you cut with a properly sharpened chain saw if they're more like this you see the difference between these if it's more like this or even worse I've seen pretty much half this size of chips over the end this it's just powder coming off you know that you have a nice sharp chain saw you just sharpened it and you're still getting powder like that coming off always you have to do is take it back in your shop put it in your bench vise take your flat file and take two strokes three strokes maybe start with two take two strokes off of that raker like this and this is also you can only do this one way you have to sharpen away if you're doing the right hand teeth like this you sharpen it like this and you take two strokes off like that if you sharpen the left hand teeth also going that direction that's gonna skip and Chater again like that so you sharpen from the inside out I would say is a good description for which way you're going left-hand teeth you've got to flip it around in your vise again and go this direction you take two strokes off of each raker like that if you're getting power coming off and take it back outside cut another piece of wood and I'll bet you anything you're gonna have way bigger chips coming off you can also go too low don't go too low on those rakers because it's just gonna stall your chainsaw though than that piece of wood that's how I judge how far my breakers need to go down you don't have to take your rakers down every time you sharpen your chainsaw only take those breakers down when you start cutting little bits of powder coming off of there or they're not proper wood chips coming off of it what so I hope that was clear enough thorough enough informative enough for you that was my whole goal for this video I hope you liked it give me that thumbs up button there if you liked it subscribe to my channel if you haven't already until the next episode guys coming up soon cheers from Canada Stevo

Channel: Steve's Small Engine Saloon

Views: 547,076

Rating: 4.9645987 out of 5

Keywords: how, to, do, diy, lawn, replace, cut, tutorial, help, broken, stroke, two, garden, small, engine, repair, fix, learn, hedge, start, simple, basic, easy, generator, blower, chain, saw, weed, eater, grass, install, blade, bar, properly, tips, tricks, efficiently, google, stihl, husqvarna, husky, echo, honda, shindiawa, pressure, washer, hand, held, wont, dull, not, direction, diagnose, save, money, tech, clogged, bogging, idle, up, weedeater, outdoor, power, equipment, leaf blower, lawnmower, file, guide, How Do I Sharpen my Chainsaw?, sharpen, depth, raker, tooth

Id: -GIxowey6IQ

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2017