Automatic Chain Sharpener - Under $300

[CR888]

I agree. That's $75 pledged so far. Perhaps we might get lucky and Gun will discount it a little to get the party started, if we get enough $ pledged. Worth a shot anyway.

Yup I'm in for $25. That's $100, who's next? 2 huna to-go. I reckon after Philbert dissects this grinder & does a 24 photo 5 page original post they'll sell a few grinders off that alone!

 

[angelo c]

Yup I'm in for $25. That's $100, who's next? 2 huna to-go. I reckon after Philbert dissects this grinder & does a 24 photo 5 page original post they'll sell a few grinders off that alone!

ill go $25 . Pm me with details.
and Ill add the idea of collecting a bit over the ask price so we can ship it to the "donators" for a sample run after Philbert chews it up some.

 

[CR888]

I think we'll strive to get ALL the funding & then send it 2 Philbert? Good 1 for jumping on board!! Ultimately it will be Phils grinder, as for passing it around I think thats his call & would be up to him but its a cool idea. It would be great to raise shipping. Philberts auto-grinder @$175 to go!

 

[RI Chevy]

I'd like to see a comparison between a hand filed chain and a chain ground from this automatic grinder.
Not sure if I missed it, but is there a close up of the cutter after being ground?

 

[GunTemco]

Hello everyone - I'm back from the holiday break. Hope everyone here had a great break. Who here cut down their own Christmas tree? Show of hands?

I think the square grinders are much more complex and involved than the round grind machines.
With fresh ground chains, round and square, square will be faster every time. There are a lot of positive attributes to a good square ground/filed chain.
I use both square and round filed chains. Primarily full comp, full chisel chains.

We'll have to do some extra market research on this. It looks like several other people here want it, especially at this price point. As a business, though, I have to consider how many people want it, and whether that interest will cover research, engineering, planning, tooling, etc.

@GunTemco Gun, this is not your "average" saw guys forum, what you have here assembled is a borderline obsessive group of fanatics who for some reason cherish their "tools" ( ie saws, chains, grinders ect) you may not find a tougher, more scrutinizing group of consumers if you tried. You will get feedback from a very diverse group, some whom are professionals and some who are "professional" whacks ( present body included) . Bear in mind this can be a tough group but it cares, if your product can pass this muster well by golly, you will have a loyal consumer. The average guy in the woods has NO idea what "square" chain is, or "semi" or "full" compliment. We do. There are plenty of us that have spent $1000's of dollars to purchase "square" grinders in search of chain nirvana...some have found it. A square grinder that is automatic for $3-400 USD is a Unicorn...Let me be the first to suggest @Philbert to test your product as he is our resident chain guy. But there would be a long list of candidates willing to offer our "service" to your product testing team... Best of luck with your product and please be patient with this group as you will hear some "real" opinions.

Thank you for the welcome, and I'm glad I'm among people who are truly passionate about chains. Looks like I'm among like-minded people - most the guys here at TEMCo are also pretty obsessive and scrutinizing about tools and equipment. Just the other day we were discussing the nuances of cutting teeth profiles on conduit knock out punches. That's why the most valuable thing to us is technical criticism - it really helps us work on the product and work out the nuances. So long as there is interest, there will always be new versions of this product, and what fuels that progress are communities like this.

I've noticed that a lot of people are interested in demoing the product, and I can be transparent about this point: that price is currently at a demo price. The FP1000 is sort of in a "beta" phase. What does that mean? First, we have a limited run of them. Second, we have it set at slightly lower price point. We're doing this to test the market: Do people even want them? What do they like or dislike? What do they wanted added or taken away? Are there any technical issues? I'm personally calling customers and asking how it's going, logging their responses, and also resolving any technical issues they might be having. I'm tracking common user errors and seeing how design changes might prevent them. Also, if there are hardware issues, I ship out parts at no cost to the customer. Because we're a small company, this process allows us to work from the ground up, instead of investing way too much money into machinery and selling everyone an over-engineered and therefore over-priced unit. We want to hit a sweet spot for what you guys need and want at a low price point.

I just wanted to make all of that clear so that there's no confusion about what we're doing.

Jeff, that's a pretty cheap way to try out this machine for @GunTemco . you mail him a chain and keep another for a comparison. Costs shipping and time only. I guess you gotta tell him what kind of wood will be used to "test" . Im sure we would have fun using one at a GTG some time soon.

I'd like to see a comparison between a hand filed chain and a chain ground from this automatic grinder.
Not sure if I missed it, but is there a close up of the cutter after being ground?

This is an interesting idea, but maybe this is something we can show in a video we can make for you guys? That way, everyone can just see how it works. Hmm, might be something I can quickly story board, shoot, edit, and post. Would you guys even care about a demo video, or would you just think it's marketing BS?

On that note, is there any in the videos or listing you guys want to see made about the product?

this is good. a manufacture that wants some real feedback from real people.that want a tool that we want.

Welcome Gun !

Really great to have Gun come answer questions & talk about this new product! We got to get one of these grinders on Philberts bench, I'd chip in.

Glad to be here! Thanks for the warm welcome.

Count me in. That said, I doubt the % of the market that even knows about square filing/grinding is anything but small. There must be some statistics somewhere detailing the types of chains sold in USA - what % is full chisel compared to semi chisel, etc.

But if you wanted to target the end of the market that is going to build your brand a reputation for performance in the chainsaw grinder world, square ground chisel chain users like many in here is a pretty darn good way to do it in my opinion. The use will then trickle down to Joe Schmo and because that 'nut job OCD chainsaw freak' down the road from them uses Temco auto grinders, they'll know it's a brand worth buying.

You make a convincing business/marketing point. You guys have really got us thinking about this, because what's at contention with this concept is basically whether the cost of tooling up to make an automatic square grind sharpener justifies the PR for Joe Schmo to buy the round grind sharpener. What I'll need to look into is the spin up cost for this. This takes time - please allow me to carefully look into this.

Welcome to OPE @GunTemco

Question #1:
Is Your no-questions-asked warranty & return policy valid internationally?
OPE has members and potential customers outside of the US, myself being one of them.

Question #2:
Does Your grinder clamp the chain somehow prior to grinding the advanced tooth, or is the chain holding itself through the drive link anchoring in the grinders groove?

Compared to other forum members I buck fairly small amounts of firewood logs for my own heating purposes, and occasionally firewood logs from acquaintances and family members.
Since the firewood tends to be skidded beech and oak logs they are usually dirt infested which causes the chains to dull much more often.
To say the least, I am intrigued by Your grinder.

Thanks for the welcome and your interest in our grinder. We're glad see to a range of interest in this unit, from people who use it several times a day, to people who only occasionally use it. It makes us happy to see it doing so much work for you guys.

Reply #1: Our no-questions-asked warranty and return policy applies to everyone, including our international customers! How was you Christmas in Croatia, sir?

Reply #2: There is a clamping mechanism in the tracks.

 

[GunTemco]

Good idea. Count me in too. Perhaps if enough of us pitch in it could be an OPE Forum-members owned travelling demo auto grinder, shuffling between USA members keen to pay the shipping in order to try it out?
Lets start a USD tally. I'm in for $50. Who else and how much?

Send it to Philbert first and I would be in for $25. His reviews are so thorough he answers questions I didn’t know I had.

I agree. That's $75 pledged so far. Perhaps we might get lucky and Gun will discount it a little to get the party started, if we get enough $ pledged. Worth a shot anyway.

Yup I'm in for $25. That's $100, who's next? 2 huna to-go. I reckon after Philbert dissects this grinder & does a 24 photo 5 page original post they'll sell a few grinders off that alone!

ill go $25 . Pm me with details.
and Ill add the idea of collecting a bit over the ask price so we can ship it to the "donators" for a sample run after Philbert chews it up some.

I think we'll strive to get ALL the funding & then send it 2 Philbert? Good 1 for jumping on board!! Ultimately it will be Phils grinder, as for passing it around I think thats his call & would be up to him but its a cool idea. It would be great to raise shipping. Philberts auto-grinder @$175 to go!

You guys are pretty awesome.

I've noted this to Philbert and want to note this here: every customer that has bought our FP1000 also gets our support. That means no matter what he thinks, bad or good, we'll do what it takes to make sure he's happy with it. If that means sending replacement parts, a replacement, or a full refund, we'll take care of him until he's happy with it. I'm mentioning that now because I don't want anyone thinking we're giving him special treatment because of his presence here - everyone gets this level of customer service.

I noted before that TEMCo is full of people who use tools of various kinds all the time. We hate crappy tools, and worse, we hate crappy companies who don't back them up. So many people depend on our products to help them with work around the house, work on their hobbies, or work on their profession. We think that when a tool fails to meet those obligations, those responsibilities to our families, jobs, and others, heaven and earth should be moved to make that right again.

 

[Woodpecker]

Tl;dr

welcome to the nut house!

I figured a single response would be neater than an individual post per comment. Please feel free to only read the questions that interested you.

Your good Gun it's kind of an ope inside joke. Glad to have you here!

 

[Wilhelm]

Hello everyone - I'm back from the holiday break. Hope everyone here had a great break. Who here cut down their own Christmas tree? Show of hands.

I have, and my own tree too as my dad planted them for this purpose all ower our property.

Thanks for the welcome and your interest in our grinder. We're glad see to a range of interest in this unit, from people who use it several times a day, to people who only occasionally use it. It makes us happy to see it doing so much work for you guys.

Reply #1: Our no-questions-asked warranty and return policy applies to everyone, including our international customers! How was you Christmas in Croatia, sir?

Reply #2: There is a clamping mechanism in the tracks.

Thank You very much for Your reply.
I had a good Christmas spent with family members and lots of food.

So, is it the clamping mechanism that is preventing this grinder to take .058" gauge?
That should be an easy fix.
I know that the other OPEForum members couldn't care less, but I do because .058" gauge is my main chain setup.

I am going to have some fun with my saws today, in order to maximize daylight I won't be sharpening any chains but rather swap saws and chains to keep cutting (it is NOT firewood for this winter).
That been said, I am certain I will have more than one dull chain at the end of the day.

If I weren't running .058" I would most likely be the first of this crazy bunch to purchase one of Your grinders, not because I don't know how to file a chain free hand but because I generally don't consider chain filing enjoyable.
Who knows, I might still pull the trigger - late Christmas gift from me to me.

 

[jakethesnake]

If you could make any square grinder under say 6 700 dollars. Not an automatic they will sell I don’t know if you’d sell the volume of them though. I don’t square grind anything. It’s more for the loggers There’s likely more money to be made making this grinder affordable If you could make a square grinder affordable I’d think you could sell plenty. Used square grinders bring big bucks because no one is making them except simmington.

 

[jakethesnake]

What about a chain that suffered heavy damage? In the video I saw the wheel just sorta kissing the tooth. Can it be set to clean this sorta thing up? How much power does it have? Is it a touch up machine or a grinder?

 

[jakethesnake]

Definitely gonna have to get it fixed to be able to do .063 guage Also if you could teach it how to sharpen skip chains. Most long chains are gonna be some skip sequence. Most people are willing to file to an extent. Or run a grinder for several teeth. If it could handle skip sequences. That’s almost as important as the guage.

 

[RI Chevy]

Don't get lazy on us here Jake. Lol
I reslly do not see how this auto grinder can do anything except full comp chains.

 

[1990Husky262]

I know my self i am really interested especially for the price i would be willing to take a chance but the only thing holding me back is the fact it does not do .058 and .063

 

[jakethesnake]

Don't get lazy on us here Jake. Lol
I reslly do not see how this auto grinder can do anything except full comp chains.

It needs to be taught Chevy. Why would he try to sharpen a tooth if one isn’t there.

 

[GunTemco]

Your good Gun it's kind of an ope inside joke. Glad to have you here!

Oh good - I was seriously considering writing shorter responses. Thanks for the welcome!

I have, and my own tree too as my dad planted them for this purpose all ower our property.


Thank You very much for Your reply.
I had a good Christmas spent with family members and lots of food.

So, is it the clamping mechanism that is preventing this grinder to take .058" gauge?
That should be an easy fix.
I know that the other OPEForum members couldn't care less, but I do because .058" gauge is my main chain setup.

I am going to have some fun with my saws today, in order to maximize daylight I won't be sharpening any chains but rather swap saws and chains to keep cutting (it is NOT firewood for this winter).
That been said, I am certain I will have more than one dull chain at the end of the day.

If I weren't running .058" I would most likely be the first of this crazy bunch to purchase one of Your grinders, not because I don't know how to file a chain free hand but because I generally don't consider chain filing enjoyable.
Who knows, I might still pull the trigger - late Christmas gift from me to me.

I'm glad you had a wonderful Christmas. You're correct - it's the clamp and the channel groove that's not large enough to accommodate it, and it is a relatively simple fix.

You should definitely give it a try. I think you'll like it. I think there's definitely a satisfaction of using years of practice and skill to manually sharpen a chain, but I also think that's not for everyone. If you're very particular about having a crisp sharp chain every time, what's nice about going automatic with the FP1000 is that you can bring this out to the field with you. Just hook it up to a battery. You can be working with one chain and have another sharp and ready to swap out.

If you could make any square grinder under say 6 700 dollars. Not an automatic they will sell I don’t know if you’d sell the volume of them though. I don’t square grind anything. It’s more for the loggers There’s likely more money to be made making this grinder affordable If you could make a square grinder affordable I’d think you could sell plenty. Used square grinders bring big bucks because no one is making them except simmington.

It does worry me that so few companies are doing any square grinders. It might mean that there was an attempt to sell a bunch of them, but the market just wasn't there to purchase. As a business, as much as we enjoy providing awesome products, we still have to pay our employees. If we spend a bunch of money to get this going and only sell a few to the people who even know what a square grind is, that wouldn't be very good. I'd have to do more research to see if there were previous attempts at this, what features they had, and whether or not they were successful and why. I hope I'm understood about this - I really do see why people want a square grind on their chains, but I have to weigh all of that against the costs of providing something that can do that well.

View attachment 156605 What about a chain that suffered heavy damage? In the video I saw the wheel just sorta kissing the tooth. Can it be set to clean this sorta thing up? How much power does it have? Is it a touch up machine or a grinder?

For the photograph you provided, the FP1000 can touch it up after multiple passes, which is what we recommend for normal grinds, too. The heat from a single pass with deep and heavy grind can change the temper of the cutter edge. Whether one or more cutters are damaged, or you have no damage at all, you want all your cutters to be the same length anyways. The solution is to lightly grind all the cutters down to a uniform length, thereby solving this sort of damage and returning uniformity to the entire chain length.

Definitely gonna have to get it fixed to be able to do .063 guage Also if you could teach it how to sharpen skip chains. Most long chains are gonna be some skip sequence. Most people are willing to file to an extent. Or run a grinder for several teeth. If it could handle skip sequences. That’s almost as important as the guage.

Agreed!

Don't get lazy on us here Jake. Lol
I reslly do not see how this auto grinder can do anything except full comp chains.

It needs to be taught Chevy. Why would he try to sharpen a tooth if one isn’t there.

We might have a few ideas...

I know my self i am really interested especially for the price i would be willing to take a chance but the only thing holding me back is the fact it does not do .058 and .063

Roger that. This is something I've discussed with our engineers.

 

[Big1066ih]

I too would be interested at that price if it did .058

 

[RI Chevy]

Is it possible to get some nice closeup photos of the cutters on a auto grinder sharpened chain please.

 

[GunTemco]

Hey guys, I've got some good news for the member of OPE:

What I'd like to do is give an FP1000 to you guys, the members of OPE, starting with @Philbert. It's clear a lot of you are interested in seeing this thing work and want to do comparison tests, and I should facilitate that. Here's how this is going to work and some things I want to make clear:

1. I'm going to ship one to Philbert, since it's really clear you guys want one in his hands first.
2. After he's done, I'll leave it up to you guys to come up with the rules for how to best pass it around. You guys can come up with a method for this. (That means figuring out how long each member is allowed to have it for, shipping it to each other, making sure no one walks off with it, maybe coming up with a West to East coast path of efficiency to cut down on shipping costs between members, etc.)
3. At the 6 month mark, we'll send a shipping label to the last person who has it to ship it to a small group or organization that could best use this machine to do some good. I can talk to you guys about where it should go and how it can do some good, like maybe a local volunteer group that does trimming and cutting to prevent wildfire spread.
4. During this time, TEMCo will be providing our usual technical and customer service: if it breaks or parts are needed on someone's turn, we'll ship that person those parts.

I also want to make clear that TEMCo is doing this because we think you guys are more than capable of providing us technical feedback. We've heard you guys loud and clear about skip teeth, 058 and 063, square grinds, and some other features you would like added. Having the current version in your hands will allow you to make more insightful criticisms about the particulars of the current design. Ideally, everyone who gets the demo will provide TEMCo and more importantly the rest of the forum feedback about their own unique experience with the FP1000. I also think this process, including donating it at the end, will dissuade you guys from thinking any one review is a shill.

That being said, I'm really excited to try this out with you guys. Please let me know once you guys have agreed upon rules and a system that would best facilitate the demo of the FP1000 between members. If this is agreeable to everyone, and when I see that a reasonable system is in place, I will ship one out to @Philbert.

 

[jakethesnake]

Hey guys, I've got some good news for the member of OPE:

What I'd like to do is give an FP1000 to you guys, the members of OPE, starting with @Philbert. It's clear a lot of you are interested in seeing this thing work and want to do comparison tests, and I should facilitate that. Here's how this is going to work and some things I want to make clear:

1. I'm going to ship one to Philbert, since it's really clear you guys want one in his hands first.
2. After he's done, I'll leave it up to you guys to come up with the rules for how to best pass it around. You guys can come up with a method for this. (That means figuring out how long each member is allowed to have it for, shipping it to each other, making sure no one walks off with it, maybe coming up with a West to East coast path of efficiency to cut down on shipping costs between members, etc.)
3. At the 6 month mark, we'll send a shipping label to the last person who has it to ship it to a small group or organization that could best use this machine to do some good. I can talk to you guys about where it should go and how it can do some good, like maybe a local volunteer group that does trimming and cutting to prevent wildfire spread.
4. During this time, TEMCo will be providing our usual technical and customer service: if it breaks or parts are needed on someone's turn, we'll ship that person those parts.

I also want to make clear that TEMCo is doing this because we think you guys are more than capable of providing us technical feedback. We've heard you guys loud and clear about skip teeth, 058 and 063, square grinds, and some other features you would like added. Having the current version in your hands will allow you to make more insightful criticisms about the particulars of the current design. Ideally, everyone who gets the demo will provide TEMCo and more importantly the rest of the forum feedback about their own unique experience with the FP1000. I also think this process, including donating it at the end, will dissuade you guys from thinking any one review is a shill.

That being said, I'm really excited to try this out with you guys. Please let me know once you guys have agreed upon rules and a system that would best facilitate the demo of the FP1000 between members. If this is agreeable to everyone, and when I see that a reasonable system is in place, I will ship one out to @Philbert.

Philbert could likely be the one who keeps it at the end. He is a volunteer. But I personally think it could almost all be left up to him as far as I’m concerned. You boys can pan out the fines. I’m just interested in the real feedback myself

 

[jakethesnake]

Good deal gun