Hand-Filing Husqvarna X-Cut Chain

[Squish9]

I just treat my x-cut just like any other round filed chain because I hand file.
I did wack a good chunk of earth with my 32" loop of lgx a few months ago ( doesn't happen often but always with a bar longer than 20"!), and I was experimenting with the goofy file to see if I could mimic the x-cut profile? The round side is a little too small but it did under cut the top plate to the corner like a razor, it was very fast! But only for 6 trees.
The x-cut is just a fantastic out of the box chain, but I can hand file some pretty good stuff too.

It's a great chain and cuts really smooth. For my use it would be nice if it came with a more normal profile when new because it was a bit of a pain to make it round and it sure isn't slower that way for me.

Huskies pricing of it in Australia could use a tweak as well. It should be made of gold with the price they are charging

 

[Stump Shot]

Steve you would think if a fella was going to
speak from such a place of knowledgeable authority on a chain they would want some more experience. Calling something race chain without having actual experience with race chain seems pretty naive. At a recent gtg Stihl rspro was beating up on some square ground chain a little bit. Maybe we should start calling that factory race chain now too.

I was trying to elude to saying that, without actually saying it.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Steve you would think if a fella was going to
speak from such a place of knowledgeable authority on a chain they would want some more experience. Calling something race chain without having actual experience with race chain seems pretty naive. At a recent gtg Stihl rspro was beating up on some square ground chain a little bit. Maybe we should start calling that factory race chain now too.

Up front I asked, and nobody answered. I used Search, and read as much as I could, which I still do. I sat down and figured out how to file it, and asked someone to confirm it, and then documented and shared it. In my book that's a lot better than critisizing those who put in effort to both learn and help others, especially when that critisism doesn't add something constructive/knowlegeable to the conversation.

 

[davidwyby]

Might call Xcut racy round, maybe a touch more durable than round and easy to change the angle for more durability

Ain’t square, just flat faced

IME it has chip clearing problems full comp bar buried in fibrous stuff. I think because it’s wide open straight across so it doesn’t shuttle the chips to one side or the other. Maybe. Offset base ground stihl seems like it would.

I have a theory…

XCut and round, the top plate has to grab a chip and wedge/pull it up a bit before the side plate can sever the chip. This requires hp, force, time. Square, the side cutter is even with the top plate, so the chips are immediately severed.

Working corner is also more supported. Cutter is also more hollowed for chip flow.

 

[davidwyby]

I don’t think Brad needed to run race chain to know the difference tween flat face and square, prolly just see the pics Kevin beat me to posting…

 

[davidwyby]

@Squish9 I think the Xcut/round filed wedge action is why one can feel a strong saw pull into the wood more than square filed @huskihl

I also think Euc is hard to split/separate fibers but brittle and easy to break. Squish’s round filed profile breaks the chip off sooner than the Xcut wedging it off

 

[Squish9]

@Squish9 I think the Xcut/round filed wedge action is why one can feel a strong saw pull into the wood more than square filed @huskihl

I also think Euc is hard to split/separate fibers but brittle and easy to break. Squish’s round filed profile breaks the chip off sooner than the Xcut wedging it off

Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. It's definitely not going to pull big long chips out of that wood no matter what shape it is.

It's a nice smooth cutting chain so I'll keep trying different angles on it to see what works best

 

[Squareground3691]

C83 , Race chain

 

[Seachaser]

I can’t get the first attachment in post #1 to load.

 

[Woodpecker]

Up front I asked, and nobody answered. I used Search, and read as much as I could, which I still do. I sat down and figured out how to file it, and asked someone to confirm it, and then documented and shared it. In my book that's a lot better than critisizing those who put in effort to both learn and help others, especially when that critisism doesn't add something constructive/knowlegeable to the conversation.

You think I’m here just to criticize you? Dude I have far better things to do with my life. I made my point and others with more experience than you agreed. Yet you didn’t listen and doubled down in labeling something “race chain” with zero experience with race chain. It isn’t like race chain which you’d know if you had any knowledgeable experience with race chain. It is some of the best out of the box chain right now.

This has been where you have run into problems on here repeatedly. You spout off about something you don’t have as much experience with as others on here and then get chippy when you get called out and then everyone piles on.

At this point guy I’m wondering how long it’s going to take you to wear out that fancy new screen name of yours like you did with the last one, and I’m tired of listening to good friends complain about you.

You realize you’re arguing with a mod right now right? Do you think I suddenly thought to myself last night that it would be fun to randomly “criticize” you? Don’t flatter yourself I have better things to do with my free time, but I am tired of fielding complaints about you so I’m heading the mob off at the pass! I absolutely fúcking hate throwing the mod card on the table, but here we are in my free time from using a chainsaw every day, and you have learned nothing from your previous troubles!

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

You think I’m here just to criticize you? Dude I have far better things to do with my life. I made my point and others with more experience than you agreed. Yet you didn’t listen and doubled down in labeling something “race chain” with zero experience with race chain. It isn’t like race chain which you’d know if you had any knowledgeable experience with race chain. It is some of the best out of the box chain right now.

This has been where you have run into problems on here repeatedly. You spout off about something you don’t have as much experience with as others on here and then get chippy when you get called out and then everyone piles on.

At this point guy I’m wondering how long it’s going to take you to wear out that fancy new screen name of yours like you did with the last one, and I’m tired of listening to good friends complain about you.

You realize you’re arguing with a mod right now right? Do you think I suddenly thought to myself last night that it would be fun to randomly “criticize” you? Don’t flatter yourself I have better things to do with my free time, but I am tired of fielding complaints about you so I’m heading the mob off at the pass! I absolutely fúcking hate throwing the mod card on the table, but here we are in my free time from using a chainsaw every day, and you have learned nothing from your previous troubles!

You're the kind of guy that I picture going to an airport and telling a stewardess she doesn't know what a plane is because she's never piloted one.

X-Cut has a lot of qualities found in race chain, as I enumerated, and while I didn't call it "race chain" I could call it "race chain" because of those similarities. It's definitely not to the extremes seen from Art Martin, but that's not what I claimed, I said it's like old-school race chain.

I know you're a mod, and I also know you're putting words in my mouth and then claiming they're mine and ripping me for them, which in this case makes you a troll. I also know you've not added anything constructive to help educate members, even though I called you out on it, which means you got bested by a noob.

Here's the thing, I set out to learn how to file chain and did. Then I set out to learn more and read quite a bit here from other members, so if you have a beef with me learning from the Internet, well, this is the Internet.

I have a lot to learn, thankfully other members have sent a private message or walked up at a GTG and said, "Hey, you might want to do [this]." I don't mind finding out I'm wrong, or there's a better way to do something, that's what I'm here for. I try to mention people who gave me advice because I'm thankful for it, and if I misunderstood what they said or didn't catch it all maybe they'll explain it again or differently.

With that said, I do go to extremes and am not always precise; sometimes that's good, sometimes not. I have room for improvement, I'll work on it.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I can’t get the first attachment in post #1 to load.

The attachment is a PDF detailing the process used in finding how to get "close" to the factory profile by round-filing. In summary, and for C83K chain (which is 3/8" pitch, 0.050" gauge):
- To hand file the top plate, use a 5/32" (4.0mm) file at 25° swing and 5° tilt, pull up slightly.
- To hand file the lower part of the side cutter, file at 30° swing and 10° tilt, push down slightly. File the lower part of the side cutter to be in-line with the top part of the side cutter.
- Set the depth gauges to 0.018”.

The PDF has pictures and an explanation of each step because there's room for improvement (like putting the depth micrometer against an angle plate, which I didn't have at the time, which would result in more accurate readings). Hopefully sharing "how" and "why" helps others to understand what was done and share improvements/corrections.

In my opinion round files are more common, easier to use, and more affordable than square files, and they can help get "reasonably close" to the original profile. From my testing "close" is slightly slower than factory, and I'm guessing Husqvarna uses a flat faced cutter on the top plate for good reason. I *think* with some reasonable changes round filing could match the speed of OEM, and that's what I'm working toward, but please beat me to it.

I'll PM you and maybe we can find a way for you to get the information in the PDF.

 

[Stump Shot]

You think I’m here just to criticize you? Dude I have far better things to do with my life. I made my point and others with more experience than you agreed. Yet you didn’t listen and doubled down in labeling something “race chain” with zero experience with race chain. It isn’t like race chain which you’d know if you had any knowledgeable experience with race chain. It is some of the best out of the box chain right now.

This has been where you have run into problems on here repeatedly. You spout off about something you don’t have as much experience with as others on here and then get chippy when you get called out and then everyone piles on.

At this point guy I’m wondering how long it’s going to take you to wear out that fancy new screen name of yours like you did with the last one, and I’m tired of listening to good friends complain about you.

You realize you’re arguing with a mod right now right? Do you think I suddenly thought to myself last night that it would be fun to randomly “criticize” you? Don’t flatter yourself I have better things to do with my free time, but I am tired of fielding complaints about you so I’m heading the mob off at the pass! I absolutely fúcking hate throwing the mod card on the table, but here we are in my free time from using a chainsaw every day, and you have learned nothing from your previous troubles!

That gives me an idea, thanks, pure genius!

 

[Woodpecker]

You're the kind of guy that I picture going to an airport and telling a stewardess she doesn't know what a plane is because she's never piloted one.

X-Cut has a lot of qualities found in race chain, as I enumerated, and while I didn't call it "race chain" I could call it "race chain" because of those similarities. It's definitely not to the extremes seen from Art Martin, but that's not what I claimed, I said it's like old-school race chain.

I know you're a mod, and I also know you're putting words in my mouth and then claiming they're mine and ripping me for them, which in this case makes you a troll. I also know you've not added anything constructive to help educate members, even though I called you out on it, which means you got bested by a noob.

Here's the thing, I set out to learn how to file chain and did. Then I set out to learn more and read quite a bit here from other members, so if you have a beef with me learning from the Internet, well, this is the Internet.

I have a lot to learn, thankfully other members have sent a private message or walked up at a GTG and said, "Hey, you might want to do [this]." I don't mind finding out I'm wrong, or there's a better way to do something, that's what I'm here for. I try to mention people who gave me advice because I'm thankful for it, and if I misunderstood what they said or didn't catch it all maybe they'll explain it again or differently.

With that said, I do go to extremes and am not always precise; sometimes that's good, sometimes not. I have room for improvement, I'll work on it.

Wow well I hope you had fun getting that all off your chest. As far as I know we have never met. You have no idea what kind of guy I am. I am the guy who begrudgingly agreed to do this mod thing because I saw that a friend was suffering and could use the help. I’m the kind of guy who is here voluntarily doing an often times thankless job. I’m the kind of guy who passes the hat around for donations at the gtg to help offset the hosts costs. I’m the kind of guy that just spent a bunch of time giving you the tools to fit in here better, and you threw it in my face.

When you sign back up with your new, new, new screen name pay close attention to the terms and rules before you hit that agree button. Use the feedback you’ve been given and be better.

 

[Woodpecker]

That gives me an idea, thanks, pure genius!

Steve if you’re able to salvage something positive out of this sorry mess that’s great. I’d love to hear about it.

 

[Stump Shot]

Steve if you’re able to salvage something positive out of this sorry mess that’s great. I’d love to hear about it.

Have your machine pm my machine.

 

[dall]

Wow well I hope you had fun getting that all off your chest. As far as I know we have never met. You have no idea what kind of guy I am. I am the guy who begrudgingly agreed to do this mod thing because I saw that a friend was suffering and could use the help. I’m the kind of guy who is here voluntarily doing an often times thankless job. I’m the kind of guy who passes the hat around for donations at the gtg to help offset the hosts costs. I’m the kind of guy that just spent a bunch of time giving you the tools to fit in here better, and you threw it in my face.

When you sign back up with your new, new, new screen name pay close attention to the terms and rules before you hit that agree button. Use the feedback you’ve been given and be better.

 

[Woodpecker]

You know I don’t care what @sawmikaze says about you you’re all right for a tranny

 

[Stump Shot]

You know I don’t care what @sawmikaze says about you you’re all right for a tranny

... and one with a blown out fluid pump no less.

 

[dall]

You know I don’t care what @sawmikaze says about you you’re all right for a tranny

I’m the one volunteered you for the job
Because you have experience and more of a people person than most here

I’m just surprised that Brad says you don’t know anything about saw work and sharp chains
He’s a new guy that’s only been to one or two gtgs and now he’s a pro at race chain

I have yet to see chain sharpened by Brad
And that’s ok I don’t need to
I just feel he’s overstepping right now