Tips and tricks for uniform rakers

[bikemike]

If you do a lot of bore cuts like I do you learn to keep your rakers angled. Vertical bore cuts will test how well your chain is tuned, I use them when cutting jack seats.. Also keep your gullets clean as your teeth get shorter. I also will thin rakers at the top from the side to reduce drag. Seems to help when when running 60cc and below saws with 3/8ths. If you run them at .030 or shorter be extra careful from kick back. Dangerous and hard on the main bearings and sprocket tip.

Fullskip

I angle mine with a grinder or flat file and bring back the leading edge of a rakers makes for a wild ride if you don't know what to expect but it works great in the bore cuts and project wood work like pockets for benches. But kick back is to be expected if the bar is burried.
I still have all my body parts so it's all good

 

[ZERO]

I use this and round the profile after finished.
View attachment 60731

Sometimes use the file guide too.

I have used the 2nd progressive depth gauge with good results.
What is the exact name of the first depth gauge and any good places to buy them? Nothing came up when I searched just with the initials.

 

[Wolverine]

I have used the 2nd progressive depth gauge with good results.
What is the exact name of the first depth gauge and any good places to buy them? Nothing came up when I searched just with the initials.

http://www.husqvarna.com/us/accesso...rs-filing-equipment/file-gauge-3-8/505698101/

 

[RI Chevy]

I use the Pferd 2 in 1 system to file the rakers. It seems to do OK. Good enough for me at least. LOL

I have one for .325 and 1 for 3/8".

http://www.pferdusa.com/products/201b/201b01/201b010503P.html

 

[Moparmyway]

 

[RI Chevy]

Nice Kevin. What are they set at? 35*

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[Philbert]

In another thread we discussed using cheap ($7) digital tire gauges off of eBay for measuring depth gauges on chains. Photos are from member MarkEagleUSA:


http://opeforum.com/threads/custom-depth-gauge.2936/

Philbert

 

[RI Chevy]

Cool idea Phil.

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[KiwiBro (deleted)]

Why measure depths and not angles, as per BobL's method? Once you focus on a consistent angle from raker tip to cutter edge, actual depth becomes irrelevant. To a certain degree so does cutter length. Digital angle finders are cheap. I bought a few from this seller:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LCD-Dig...less-Models-/391343510025?hash=item5b1de41209

 

[junkman]

View attachment 76098

That looks a lot more precise than my 2 swipe method .

 

[Moparmyway]

Why measure depths and not angles, as per BobL's method? Once you focus on a consistent angle from raker tip to cutter edge, actual depth becomes irrelevant. To a certain degree so does cutter length.

For felling and firewooding, I agree

For playing .............. angles dont mean spit

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

For felling and firewooding, I agree

For playing .............. angles dont mean spit

Can you explain please? Keen to learn.

 

[Moparmyway]

Nice Kevin. What are they set at? 35*

I'm pretty sure, in that picture they were getting set for .028-.030
I dont like running a short raker, I'd rather bite harder through the angles of the cutters. I rarely go over .028-.030 anymore

Can you explain please? Keen to learn.

Sure thing Sir,
1. Once you have used the angle doohickey, and the wood youre cutting doesnt self feed well with hard, but chatters with soft ........... whaddya do ?

2. When setting up someone elses chain, or playing with one that youre having fun with, filing away .003 makes a difference. If you use the angle doohickey, how would one go about getting just a slight bit more bite to load the saw just enough to put it in its power curve ?

3. Suppose the saw had more than enough power and needs more than soft ................. whaddya gunna do ?

4. Once the chain is about 75% spent, that angle gauge doesnt allow the chain to self feed well at all. Dont get me wrong, it will self feed, but not like it does with a new chain. After I'm down beyond 75%, I just filed away a little more untill it fed well, then measured .......... and now have my target, that easily repeatable for a smoothe cutting self feeding chain every time.


Now, for woods working or firewood duties, that hard/soft gauge works ............ its when someone is anal enough to square file a chain, and tries to match it to the saw........... that measuring rakers with a caliper rises above the rest of the ways of checking rakers.

This is all just my stupid opinion, and others may have found ways to check rakers that suite their desires. There is no wrong way, just different ways to get someone what they are looking for.

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

I'm pretty sure, in that picture they were getting set for .028-.030
I dont like running a short raker, I'd rather bite harder through the angles of the cutters. I rarely go over .028-.030 anymore


Sure thing Sir,
1. Once you have used the angle doohickey, and the wood youre cutting doesnt self feed well with hard, but chatters with soft ........... whaddya do ?

2. When setting up someone elses chain, or playing with one that youre having fun with, filing away .003 makes a difference. If you use the angle doohickey, how would one go about getting just a slight bit more bite to load the saw just enough to put it in its power curve ?

3. Suppose the saw had more than enough power and needs more than soft ................. whaddya gunna do ?

4. Once the chain is about 75% spent, that angle gauge doesnt allow the chain to self feed well at all. Dont get me wrong, it will self feed, but not like it does with a new chain. After I'm down beyond 75%, I just filed away a little more untill it fed well, then measured .......... and now have my target, that easily repeatable for a smoothe cutting self feeding chain every time.


Now, for woods working or firewood duties, that hard/soft gauge works ............ its when someone is anal enough to square file a chain, and tries to match it to the saw........... that measuring rakers with a caliper rises above the rest of the ways of checking rakers.

This is all just my stupid opinion, and others may have found ways to check rakers that suite their desires. There is no wrong way, just different ways to get someone what they are looking for.

Thanks for the reply. Are you aware the angle doohickey just measures, not sets, the angle to (thus depth of) the raker? So it can be any angle the filer chooses? If so, then I'm still a bit confused. For all the questions you raised, are we assuming everything else is set well and we are still concentrating on rakers here? If so, then:
1. adjust angle
2. .003, or any change in raker depth for that matter, adjusts the angle. take a bigger bite (increase the angle) to load the saw more.
3. there's certainly a limit to how deep the rakers can be set before the chain looses it's smoothness. I'm still learning how to get more bite without abusing bearings. But in the context of raker depths and maximising bite, increase the angle. I can to about 9-9.5 degrees in soft wood before smoothness goes out the window. That's back to about 6 degrees in really dense timber. But we are just talking rakers here, right? Not tweaking other parts of the chain to eek more smoothness for a given bite.
4. That's actually counter to my experience. I found the depth gauges resulted in a progressively worse cutting chain as the cutters wore. Setting and maintaining the same or a similar angle throughout the chains life was a far better outcome. I actually prefer those 75% worn chains.

Not trying to wind you up but I think you may have your wires crossed and perhaps you are thinking the angle doohickey keeps a set depth. It doesn't. In fact, quite the opposite and more in line with what I think you are advocating about changing the depths beyond what those hard/soft raker depth gauges result in. By keeping a similar/constant angle from cutter edge to raker, the rakers actually end up lower than what the aforementioned gauges would deliver as the cutters wear down and the gullet length increases. So in effect, I wonder if we are talking the same thing, but I get there hunting a reasonably consistent angle from utter edge to raker over the chains life whether that be new to 3/4 worn, and you get there by taking a wee bit more off than those metal gauges would allow as the cutters wear.

 

[Philbert]

There may be some confusion here between the digital angle finder (DAF) method described by Bob L on A.S., and the fixed angle 'progressive' gauges used by Husqvarna, the Carlton File-O-Plates, etc.

Philbert

 

[Moparmyway]

Here is the angle gauge that I'm referring to, maybe it would be better if you could post pictures of what you're talking about so I can follow what you're saying

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

Here is the angle gauge that I'm referring to, maybe it would be better if you could post pictures of what you're talking about so I can follow what you're saying View attachment 76291

Thanks for that. Maybe it's our respective accents that made it harder to understand each other. Down here we tend to call what you have in your hand a raker setter, raker depth setter, depth gauge etc. A bit like the file-o-plates and the like. They are the items I have moved away from because they don't allow enough raker reduction in the last half of a chains life.

I was questioning why not use a digital angle finder, instead, much like Bob does in his video here:

The link I posted a while back is where I got my very cheap DAF's from that still haven't died. I don't know how this law ever came to be but it seems like the cheaper i go with such tools the less likelihood I'll ever lose or break one.

What you advocate for your raker depths appears to me to be what a DAF helps achieve. The more a cutter is worn down, the wider the gullet becomes, and the more (than those file-o-plates or the like seem to achieve) raker depth is needed to achieve a consistent angle from cutter tip to raker. Put another way, I haven't found (but to be honest haven't really looked into it with this in mind) the actual angle from cutter tip to raker needs to change to produce the optimum cut as the chain wears down. Well, apart from experimenting with that on my favourite chain - low pro in but one attempt to understand the chip-clearance limitations of this wee chain.

 

[Moparmyway]

They are the items I have moved away from because they don't allow enough raker reduction in the last half of a chains life.

Exactly





I'm going to be trying this out. I've used these to set driveshaft angle on ladder bar and 4 link cars that I've put together

 

[paragonbuilder]

Exactly
I'm going to be trying this out. I've used these to set driveshaft angle on ladder bar and 4 link cars that I've put together View attachment 76341

My iPhone does that!


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[Philbert]

'Alexa!' 'Adjust my rakers!'

Philbert