BULK chain sharpening options?

[species8472]

Hi folks.
I have a mate who owns a tree service company.
He buys 3/8 84 DL Stihl chains in bulk and gets them as cheap as I can buy Chinese chain.
He also budgets them into the job and only uses them once. Once dull they come off and go in a bucket.
There are many buckets.
There are many many chains.
Several hundred, bordering on 4 figures....... LOTS

We were talking this arvo about what is best to do with them.
I said the options are I could sharpen them but it would have to be a speedy process to make it even slightly profitable for me due to the low price he pays for them new.
Next option is to bundle them up in lots of 5 or 10 and sell them and once used chains keeping in mind an 84DL Stihl chain is worth %70 to $80 in Australia. Chinese chains are $20ish a loop
Other option is to just ditch them.

He dont want to part with them and I suggested buying a Simington square grinder to mount in my garage. Can only hope.

He is happy to buy hardware to sharpen them but I am thinking I would need a grinder set up for the cutters and something separate set up to do the rakers.

What would people recommend for high volume high speed chain grinding of teeth and rakers?

$70 to $80 sounds a bit steep to me. They are $45 to $50 here in Tassie.

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

Maybe Greg at Dinasaw has a demo model or one he can hire to you? With their cyclone ABN wheel. Given the loops are the same DL count and almost new, should be tailor-made for an auto-grinder like the Dinasaw.
http://www.dinasaw.com.au/chain-sharpeners/

I've heard less than positive feedback about the grinders but that was many years ago and I never met the person giving me that feedback so couldn't asses his muppet-level.

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

You need a grinder Brews....for yourself if not for these chains in question. I love hand filing, round files, raker ones, triangle ones, single bevel, double bevel you name it I got them by the dozen. My file stash is back breaking to lift . My life changed when I got a grinder, no longer was I eating dinner in the basement after work hand filing work chains for the next day for an hour or two. I gotta good idea... how bout I send you a grinder so you can sharpen chains and you send us some Stihl chains when ya sorted. I need some 3/8 063 semi. PM us ya details if u want. Colin.

Onya

 

[jb-chainsaws]

I want to know how the hell the guy is getting anything cheap from stihl, seems that no matter what bulk you buy there's rarely any major discount round here, certainly not the amount your guy is getting.

Might I suggest he buys a load more and ships them to me??

 

[Khntr85]

I am thinking a good Oregon round grinder will be the go.

What would be good option to do the rakers on any that may need it down the track?

You can profile a grinding wheel to make whatever angle you want in the rakers....you can grind them flat or you can keep them angled

 

[Al Smith]

Every one of my Stihl branded chains with the exception of the 200T's came from the tool boxes of my friends bucket truck .If they trash a chain he just installs another and I get the discards which I repair ,cut down or add sections to .
Silvery I'm told is probably the best grinder if they are still made but they are not cheap .Keep in mind though those buckets full of chain could be more than just dull cutters .With a tree service they might have cut wire fence,rocks you name it .Drivers bent and broken .broken cutters etc .It could very well be that the time you spend with purchasing presets ,tie straps etc.plus the labor it might not be a money making situation .

 

[Brewz]

Yeah, some of them have been abused apparently but he said 95% of them have just been used in timber till dull and changed out for something that cut faster.

Plan was to go through them and fish out most of the obvious ones that will be good to re-sharpen.
I'm thinking the idea of good grinder for cutters and a cheap one for rakers is the go.

Just spoke to him and my estimates were a bit high. Probably about 400 chains.

 

[Khntr85]

Once you get the grinder and get "caught up" with the chains, you won't have to worry about getting such a huge build up of chains....you will be able to get in a rhythm and it will go pretty quick....

If I was you I would get a CBN wheel right off the bar....that way when you are doing cutters you don't have to do any adjustments to the wheel...


Sometimes if I get 8-12 chains at a time I will sharpen all the teeth, when all the teeth are sharpened I will do the depth gauges last....that way I don't have to change wheels back and forth....I know that this saves me time, so I know it would probably save you a lot of time, considering the volume of chain you have...

 

[jb-chainsaws]

Once you get the grinder and get "caught up" with the chains, you won't have to worry about getting such a huge build up of chains....you will be able to get in a rhythm and it will go pretty quick....

If I was you I would get a CBN wheel right off the bar....that way when you are doing cutters you don't have to do any adjustments to the wheel...


Sometimes if I get 8-12 chains at a time I will sharpen all the teeth, when all the teeth are sharpened I will do the depth gauges last....that way I don't have to change wheels back and forth....I know that this saves me time, so I know it would probably save you a lot of time, considering the volume of chain you have...

Totally agree on this post, get a CBN/ABN wheel and a stihl USG, then set yourself a batch of say 20 chains, blast through all the cutters then change the wheel once for the depth gauges, one thing I hate having to do is swap backwards and forwards between wheels - thats where most of my profit time gets wasted

 

[Khntr85]

Some chains I have done with my Oregon 520 grinder...I use CBN and stone wheels, just depends on chain and my mood LOL......i know some of you have seen some of my pics in the chain section in the thread called "grinder questions, tips, tricks, and pics thread".....I am just showing the OP @Brewz you can get great cutting chains with a grinder if you put in the time/effort to learn them....

Stihl RS



Can't remember what brand this is, but it's full chisel


Stihl RM



Oregon vanguard chain that I brought back from the dead....rakers are a problem to a lot of people on these chains....they have to be taken down or they will not "bite"...




This was a hard pic to take....I had one hand on phone, one holing chain and the file LOl....I am just trying to show here that if you grind correctly you can still easily sharpen/touch up your chains with a file.....grind as you file, file as you grind!!!!!

 

[Khntr85]

I seen you are in Australia.....do you guys use semi-chisel chain only?????

I figured you may use more semi-chisel so I will put a few more pics of semi-chisel up.....

Also here are some pics of the chains my customers bring me....this will show you that you can get them back into shape without burning the cutters.....you just have to use light taps and make a couple passes around the chain.....


Bad chains



Ok here are some semi-chisel chains

 

[Wilhelm]

Oregon 'Auto Saw Grinders'
https://www.oregonproducts.com/pro/products/accessories/700-SeriesAutoChainGrinders.htm
http://content.yudu.com/web/y5b2/0A1k7eb/OregonBigCatalog2017/flash/resources/1372.htm
View attachment 63587

http://home.markusson.se/triplematic/?lang=en

Philbert

Loops sharpened twice, teeth gone?
The grinders in the videos are sure set up to take off a lot of metal!

 

[Brewz]

Good mix of semi and full
The timber here is often rotten up the middle and the bark can be like sandpaper that's 2" thick so semi has its place.
When in clean or green timber, I break out the full chisel

 

[David Boyd]

Agree with Wilhelm 100%. With the amount of metal that grinder in the video is taking off , looks like the tooth would be gone on 2-3 sharpenings!

 

[Brewz]

A took it the grinder in the video was set up to leave a lump in the gullet to demonstrate how it cleans the gullet

 

[Wilhelm]

The grinders in the second video are taking off just as much metal.

I realize that the grinders might have been set up just for demonstrational purposes , but having them set up more precisely would have made for better videos.
That's how I see it anyways.

 

[Khntr85]

Wow @Philbert i just watched those videos, absolutely crazy, never seen such a thing!!!

My first thought when I see that is, wow what kind of wheels are those LMAO!!!

 

[Philbert]

Wow . . . what kind of fri sing wheels are those LMAO!!!

Description says that they use either ceramic or CBN wheels. More info if you follow the links. Have not seen any pricing information - would be interested if anyone knows.

Philbert

 

[Khntr85]

Description says that they use either ceramic or CBN wheels. More info if you follow the links. Have not seen any pricing information - would be interested if anyone knows.

Philbert

yes very interesting......hard to believe that doesn't burn the cutter really bad....that blue looking wheel must be ceramic.....

 

[Dub11]

Description says that they use either ceramic or CBN wheels. More info if you follow the links. Have not seen any pricing information - would be interested if anyone knows.

Philbert

Its probably elevendy thousand