Tuesday, August 20, 2013

60 Is The New 40

Took down 3 walnut trees yesterday, reduced them to manageable sizes, loaded then onto a friends pickup, and waved them good bye.

My back is explaining to me about how the title of this post is the biggest bald-faced lie ever to come down the pike.

I did learn, however, that chainsaw chains are generic except for length so you can put a Brand X chain on a Brand Z saw. One advisory: A 14" saw might use any of 3 different lengths of chain. The one you need will be the one not commonly stocked.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not quite ALL chainsaw chains are interchangeable. There are some special ones for lightweight saws, like the low-end Stihl, and the chainsaw on a pole, and there are different pitches (number of links per foot) that need to match the driving sprocket and the gear on the end of the bar of your saw.

Get the wrong one, and you could end up with expensive repairs.

Stihl brand chain is the best - way better than the Oregon Chain brand the everyone else pretty much uses. They used to make it for any brand of saw at the hardware store from large spools of chain. They have done a lot of testing and engineering to get metals, angles, tempering just right.

If you want to chainsaw through nails and such, the very expensive carbide chain will do it, but it was $150 ten years ago; who knows how much now.

Brad K. said...

Note that chain saw chains need to be sharpened. This is something most anyone familiar with edged tools can master.

Problem is, that changing from chain X to chain Z -- keep track of the details of the cut of the chain. You might need to change sets of sharpening tools when you change types of chain, even if you get the length right.

Billll said...

Home Despot carries the Power Care brand of chain which according to the label, fits at least 75 different saws. I have a Wen, which is sold by Sears and Wal-Mart although my particular model seems to be obsolete. It's not listed on the label, but fits anyway.

The little round file I bought ages ago seems to work just fine on the new chain.