If you want to perform cutting tasks efficiently and without any obstacles, you have to maintain your chainsaw regularly. You need to sharpen the chain teeth, oil the needed parts and store it in a suitable place and circumstances. But in any case the component can be worn out, so you should understand when to replace chainsaw chains to be able to apply your chainsaw effectively.
We have decided to gather all the necessary information concerning the procedure of chainsaw chain replacement so you won’t need to buy a brand new chainsaw and will just have to choose a new one.
- How Long A Usual Chainsaw Chain Can Be Applied
- What Can Reduce The Time Of The Chainsaw Chain Operation
- Bumping Into Rocks
- Meeting A Nail
- Cutting Through Ice
- The Incorrect Choice And Amount Of Oil
- Rust
- Useful Tips: How Long Does a Chainsaw Chain Last?
- How To Understand Whether It Is Time To Replace A Chainsaw Chain
- Searching The Dents On The Power Cutter Blade
- Looking For Rust On The Chain
- Bad Cutting Activity
- Bouncing And Rattles
- The Safety Lines On The Chain
- Uneven Cutting
- Smoke
- Saw Dust Becomes Not Typical
- Your Chain Is Losing Teeth
- What Else You Should Know About The Chain Replacement
- How Often You Should Sharpen Your Chainsaw
- How Many Times The Chainsaw Chain Can Be Sharpened
- How You Can Sharpen Your Chain
- How To Prevent Rust On Your Chainsaw Chain
- Why Chains Become Dull Rapidly
- Is The Replacement Of The Chainsaw Guide Bar Needed
- How To Make Sure You Have Placed Your Chainsaw Chain Right
- In Closing
How Long A Usual Chainsaw Chain Can Be Applied
All chainsaws get worn out after some period of use, but this period is different for each kind of a chainsaw.Typically high quality chains can serve for a decade when they are used regularly and about 5 years if they are extensively implemented. In addition to this, the level of their maintenance plays an important role.
What Can Reduce The Time Of The Chainsaw Chain Operation
We are going to name four features which can cause serious damage to your tool quickly. In order to prolong the life of the tool you have to avoid them. Besides, you should follow the safety precautions concerning working with chainsaws.
Bumping Into Rocks
When you cut somewhere close to the ground, it can easily happen that the blade of your chainsaw pulls into dirt or rocks. If this happens, it can make the cutters worn out too fast and lead to kickback scenarios and increased vibration, so you won’t be able to use the instrument correctly.
Meeting A Nail
Usually trees are applied for creating fences around houses. Therefore, it can often happen that we find some metallic objects like nails on the trees you are going to cut. You should do your cutting tasks really carefully in order to avoid bumping into an embedded nail on full driving force, which can immediately damage the chainsaw.
Cutting Through Ice
If you apply your instrument in cold temperatures, you should be rather careful since there can be frozen wood and ice. Although the chainsaw can still cut through this, it can be worn out by ice due to more pressure and increased vibration. Frozen wood is also hazardous since it looks like ordinary wood but it’s harder because of ice inside, so you should be really careful.
The Incorrect Choice And Amount Of Oil
Oil as a lubricant helps to reduce the heat and prevent the chainsaw from getting heated too much, so the tool can operate precisely and efficiently. In other words, you should carefully choose the oil as well as implement it as often as it is needed.
Rust
If you clean and oil your chain incorrectly, it can result in the appearance of rust. In addition to this, if you store your chainsaw in some not suitable circumstances, it can rust even more quickly. Of course, your chainsaw should be kept in some place where it won’t be influenced by weather.
Useful Tips: How Long Does a Chainsaw Chain Last?
This video is about the uniform length of time for which chainsaw chains last. When to replace a chainsaw chain is determined by the amount of material available, your chainsaw operation, and your ability to properly sharpen it. A cheap vs expensive component (even a Stihl chain) can or will be determined by your chainsaw practices but the best chainsaw for cutting firewood or any wood is a sharp one and in this video, you will learn a couple of things to think about and a few chains sharpening tips.
How To Understand Whether It Is Time To Replace A Chainsaw Chain
If your power cutter doesn’t obtain the date of expiration, you can try to pay attention to several chainsaw chain wear markers which should be considered in order to make sure that you need to replace the chain. We have decided to collect them for you, so you could understand when your tool is worn out and when it is necessary to replace your chainsaw chain.
Searching The Dents On The Power Cutter Blade
When your tool bumps into nails or rocks, it can receive various dents. Those are very visible wear marks of your tool. Sometimes they can be removed by honing, so you can use a sharpener to deal with small dents But if they are too big, the only thing you can do is to replace the chain.
Looking For Rust On The Chain
Rust is one of the most obvious wear markers. If you fail to keep your instrument in the needed circumstances, you can receive some rust on it. You always have to remember that you can’t do anything with already appeared rust, so you will need to replace it, as well as the rusted and worn chain sprocket.
Of course, you can prevent it by cleaning your tool and chain sprocket regularly and using oil as much as it is needed to prevent this wear marker from even appearing.
Bad Cutting Activity
If your tool doesn’t cut properly, you can understand that you have a dull chain, which is a wear marker. You have to sharpen your it regularly so as to keep your tool efficient, otherwise, it won’t work correctly, which may be a sign that your depth gauge wears off and may not give you an appropriate groove depth.
Bouncing And Rattles
If during the process of cutting you notice that your blade rattles or bounces, as in this case it shows premature wear and it needs replacement. A loose chain that is not of uniform length has a bad influence on the procedure of cutting and its results, even on a depth gauge tool.
The Safety Lines On The Chain
Safety lines happen to be the marks to which links can be sharpened. If your work gets to those wear marks reaches, even a well maintained chain can break into pieces, which is more possible during applying the tool. It can cause injuries, so you definitely have to check these marks regularly and replace the blade if needed.
Uneven Cutting
If your chainsaw feels unbalanced and starts to cut not so evenly or smoothly and needs to be constantly adjusting, you can usually sharpen the tool and improve the quality of cutting or install depth gauge markers for fitting groove depth. However, sometimes it becomes necessary to think of the replacement with a depth gauge for groove depth so you can be sure that your tool will cut precisely and smoothly.
Moreover, you’ll need to choose a component with a depth gauge. A depth gauge is a normal part of a sawing machine used to provide a flat surface across the teeth of your chainsaw’s teeth to provide a guideline for filing them down to the same height with a perfect depth gauge setting and groove depth.
Smoke
If you notice that your tool produces smoke when applying it, you can be assured that the teeth of the drive links have become dull. Initially, the instrument has been developed to cope with hard cutting tasks, so simple friction can’t do any harm. But if the teeth are worn out, the saw starts operating with extra friction, causing the hazard of overheating.
But we also would like to mention that in such a situation don’t hurry to replace or sharpen the drive links. You have to make sure that all the other elements of your instrument operate perfectly and that you have the right chain tension. After this, if there is still some smoke, then you should consider the drive links replacement.
Saw Dust Becomes Not Typical
You should also keep an eye on the sawdust produced by your tool. If during the process of cutting your tool gives off a finer sawdust instead of normal coarse strands, you should pay more attention to the condition of your drive links and sharpen or change them.
Your Chain Is Losing Teeth
A good sign that you need to buy a new chain for your tool is when you see some or even all the teeth broken, damaged or if you even spot some missing teeth on your drive links. This problem shows that your tool is at its normal wear limit and this can’t be solved by honing the cutting teeth, so you will definitely need to choose a brand new chain with all the teeth.
Actually, it may seem strange that we include the point about cutting teeth into our list, but we can surprise you by the fact how many users forget about missing teeth, wanting to solve the issue quickly, missing one or more tooth breaking.
What Else You Should Know About The Chain Replacement
We have also decided to talk about several things which we believe to be good to know for every user who want to replace a chainsaw chain.
How Often You Should Sharpen Your Chainsaw
Of course, you should regularly examine your tool and sharpen it in case you see that it is becoming dull. Moreover, there are typical recommendations to sharpen the blades of your tool each time after applying the tool for five hours. If you do so, you can prevent your tool from cutting worse.
How Many Times The Chainsaw Chain Can Be Sharpened
Even a user of some high quality power cutter can notice that his instrument is wearing out and needs regular maintenance since sharpening helps it to be more effective and convenient in use. We want to say that there isn’t an officially stated quantity of possible sharpenings, but it is usually recommended to get the tool sharpened about five times and only then consider its replacement.
Of course, you should always remember that the way you apply and how often you apply your tool will have an influence on the quantity of sharpenings. And if your tool often hits the dirs or ground, it gets dull more quickly.
How You Can Sharpen Your Chain
Of course, before you decide to replace the component, you should check whether the problem can be solved with sharpening.
There are two methods how we can make the chain sharp, which are to do it manually with a special file guide or to use an electric sharpener. Both of them you can do yourself or go to some local store and get this done for you.
We have decided to tell more about each of these ways so you can get acquainted with each method and know more about how they affect a chain’s life expectancy and how to change a chainsaw blade.
- Applying A Manual Sharpener
A typical file guide happens to be an instrument with many files inside, which is constructed to sharpen chain cutters and guides with the correct angle.
It is recommended to use this sharpener with one or two swipes along the component each time you fuel up your tool to prevent the blades from getting dull. If you notice that the blades are losing their sharpness, you can add some extra swipes to keep the tool efficient.
- Using An Electric Sharpener
If you obtain such a sharpener, a portable one or a stationary one, and you know how to apply them, you can do the sharpening yourself. Nevertheless, for some people it’s easier to pay for it being sharpened, so they choose to take their blades to a local store.
However, we all have to take into account that such sharpeners work really well, but they also take off too much material, so they make the life of your tool shorter, even though it gets sharp and efficient.
Usually you can understand that it’s time to use a grinder when you have already fueled up your tool for forty times. After such an amount of implementations your blades need to be sharpened well to keep efficient and convenient in use.
Although it seems that forty fuel-ups is too long periods before applying a grinder, you should always keep in mind that professional sharpeners reduce the operating time of the component. And, in addition to this, you can do such a sharpening four or five times and then you will need the replacement.
And, of course, if you use your tool in some hard works or bump into some dirt, it may become necessary to use a grinder more rapidly.
How To Prevent Rust On Your Chainsaw Chain
If your saw teeth get rusty, you can’t use it anymore. Therefore, in order to prolong your chain’s life, you have to do the proper chainsaw maintenance to prevent rust from appearing.
You can never face this problem if you maintain and store your tool correctly. We have decided to cover 4 main tips which you should follow if you want to keep your tool efficient and convenient. They are the following:
- You should regularly clean the chain and the guide bar. For this you take off the sprocket cover chrome plating and then wash the seriously worn chain sprocket, the chain and the guide bar track.
- Don’t forget about the chain and guide bar oil. You should apply the guide bar oil after each cleaning. You don’t have to do anything but put the oil to the oil tank and start the tool with running its blade for several seconds. We have to remember that usually chainsaws are constructed with the guide bar oiler which works when the tool operates and the chain moves.
- Many chainsaws are sold with a special scabbard which covers the guide bar. In order to keep your chainsaw bar safe you should store the chainsaw bar with its scabbard put on so that the guide bar rail wear off slower. It prevents bumps, dings and fine dust as well as protects users from accidental injuries.
- The last but not least thing is that you must store your tool in some building, as well as a garage, a shed or a barn but not outside. You should make sure that the weather won’t affect your instrument.
Why Chains Become Dull Rapidly
If the blade gets dull, it is not really convenient and it is rather challenging to use the tool. But you don’t have to do it since you can solve this issue.
If your blade is worn out really fast, there must be some reasons for it. If you avoid them, your tool will stay sharp for a longer period of time. The wear markers are the following:
- You cut some dirty wood or hit the ground with the tip of the blade
- You choose a really steep angle on your cutters
- The rakers are set in the wrong position
- You apply the inappropriate sharpener for this component
Is The Replacement Of The Chainsaw Guide Bar Needed
Most specialists and professional users who know how to how to replace chain on chainsaw recommend replacing the bar regularly so you can prevent some injuries and keep your corded or cordless chainsaw safe from being damaged. The best way is to immediately replace the guide bar and to replace chainsaw chain Stihl in one time when it is necessary.
How To Make Sure You Have Placed Your Chainsaw Chain Right
You should always be really careful with chainsaws even if you know how to put a chain on a chainsaw since they are rather sophisticated instruments and can be rather dangerous especially if their users don’t automatically maintain them regularly and correctly.
In order to avoid injuries every user should follow safety precautions for power cutter users and take care of their instruments.
If you take off the blades for getting them sharpened or replace them, when you put it back you must be sure that you place it onto the guide bar correctly. It is highly essential since if you put the chains on the guide bars wrong, your tool won’t be able to cut efficiently and, in addition to this, can cause some injuries.
We have decided to cover the steps which are necessary for making sure that your blade is set right onto the chainsaw guide bar. They are the following:
- You should look at the chainsaw guide bars from the top side first. Since the blade spins in the clockwise direction, you have to install the component so that the sharp edges face in that one direction. In other words, sharp edges should point away from the motor and towards the chain sprocket when they are on the top side of the instrument.
- When you look at the tool from the bottom side, you may see that the blade is rotated by the motore in a circular motion zand feed the chain back into the body of the instrument and towards the chain sprocket. From this we can understand that the blades of the chain face away when they are at the top of the rotation, but at the bottom the blades have to meet you. If it’s not like that, you should remove the chain and put it back again in the right direction.
- If your saw teeth are already installed but you are still not sure whether they are put on properly, you should try to cut some wood log. It is something called a troubleshoot. If you see that during cutting the chain rattles or you notice some burning and smoking, this means that the chain on your tool is installed incorrectly and you immediately have to stop and do everything again correctly.
- Another thing which will show that you have to redo the installation is when your tool cuts too slowly. Of course you should be sure that the teeth are sharp enough, so in this situation the problem will be solved by reinstalling the chain without mistakes.
In Closing
We again would like to point out that it’s highly essential to replace chainsaw bars regularly since it’s really dangerous to use dull instruments. Moreover, such tools are less efficient and have worse cutting performance.
We all should remember that if you maintain your tool by regular sharpening and lubrication, you will be able to use your tool longer and with high efficiency and comfort. While it may not lead to the infinite life of your tool, it definitely will keep your drive link number from decresing.
Of course, you should try not to bump into metal or some dirt so as not to get your chain dull more quickly.
Correct storage is also vital so that the tool doesn’t get rusty.
We hope that this article will help you with the question of how often you have to replace saw teeth and why and when you have to do it.
The purchase of the first saw is usually followed by the purchase of the second one. When I realized that I am getting too interested in this topic, I started working as a salesman in this store. I learned a lot of new information every day.
That is how my first and only Blog about saws - Sawcentre.org got created.
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