ISO Instructional Video converting round to Square.

[junkman]

Look how i am holding the file in the pic i posted ,the edge of the file is in where the square corner should be

 

[quietfly]

Well i think ive destroyedthis chain...

 

[quietfly]

Is this closer to what i should have

 

[quietfly]

So this is how i tried to get the majority of them, ill try more in the morning.

 

[mdavlee]

Some of those are a little better. You trying it on 325 chain?

 

[quietfly]

3/8 low profile

 

[mdavlee]

Hard to file that stuff. Full size 3/8" or 404 is way easier

 

[Wolverine]

Are you using a double bevel file?

 

[junkman]

Yes ,does your file have 6 sides ? or 4 ?
Should look like this one

 

[Magic_Man]

If he's using the Grandberg then he should be using the triangle aka hexagon files. I am getting ready to do the same thing here in a few minutes.

 

[concretegrazer]

Some can work with the flat type.

 

[junkman]

To the op
If you mail me a chain ,i will convert it to square for you with my grinder ,needs to be full size 3/8 though ,then you can study the angles and try to duplicate them ,will be easier to touch up a chain that is square already .
pm me if want to do this .

 

[old guy]

That looks like semi chisel chain that will never work, you need full chisel. I have a hard time with .325, I have never tried 3/8lp.

John

 

[Magic_Man]

@quietfly , if you are still using your Grandberg it looks like something is loose and moving around. Here is a pic of a new loop of lpx I am converting to square using a Grandberg as you described with a triangle file. I'm not going full square from the get go, no sense in wasting a bunch of tooth. I just hit it enough to shape the top plate, corner, and just the very top of the side plate.

 

[concretegrazer]

That looks like semi chisel chain that will never work, you need full chisel. I have a hard time with .325, I have never tried 3/8lp.

John

I missed the fact that it's lp. Carlton doesn't make a chisel 3/8 lp that I'm aware of.

 

[dbittle]

OP

The way that I started was by getting from Ebay one of the old Granberg or Nygran File-n-Joint units that had the ends with the triangle opening like was shown earlier in the thread, but with notches towards the top of the opening to hold a double bevel file. I couldn't use the six sided file on my .325 chains because there just wasn't enough room to get it to fit in the cutter tooth the way I wanted it to. That problem is probably even worse on the 3/8 lp chain.

A word of caution, though. Most of those antique file guides are pretty worn out, so you may end up having to buy one just for the end pieces and then swap parts around to get a unit that doesn't have a lot of slop in it.

One other thought is to get a loop of the Stihl (is it 63PS3, somebody help me on which exact one it is) chain. As someone mentioned, the chain you are trying to convert may not show a lot of improvement even if it is filed perfectly.

 

[Moparmyway]

Chris,
You are putting yourself out there, I give you a lot of credit.

As stated, make sure you are using a file for square filing, not a file that is square, and you can only square up full chisel chain. It can be done to semi-chisel, but it wont look good because there is no corner on semi

When using a file that is intended for square filing, you need to pay attention to the details. Keeping pressure towards the gullet to begin filing, allowing you to get the file and the corner aligned, then keeping pressure in the corner to sharpen both the top plate and side plate.

I clean the gullets out before I do anything else, the files for square filing are ALOT more expensive than the regular round files

 

[quietfly]

So it looks like im using the wrong file and wrong chain, lol... so im going to order the right file and order a square ground chain, and try again....

 

[dbittle]

So it looks like im using the wrong file and wrong chain, lol... so im going to order the right file and order a square ground chain, and try again....

Yes. Order a double bevel chainsaw file, a loop of the 63PS chain, and go forward again. I use a Granberg but that's mostly because I'm just not that good at free hand filing. The cutters that Moparmyway showed you look beautiful and are what you are shooting for. One thing that helps me is filing the gullets back into a half moon shape before I start working with the chisel file. Moparmyway's cutters show that detail as well, with no shelf at all in the gullet area. You will probably find that your round filing will get a lot more precise as well after you have square filed for a little while.

Good Luck!

 

[Wolverine]

Them files ain't cheap either! This is what their profile looks like:

The large flat face surface files the top plate and the edge where it angles needs to be @ the corner like this:

You need to be able to create that defined line as seen @ the corner of the top plate to the under side.