Author Topic: Bow Bars Are Perfect For Firewood!  (Read 9694 times)

0 Members and 54 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #20 on: December 20, 2014, 12:40:25 am »
Me too. There is a very faint mark where the oil hole would likely be? Must be plugged?

OIL HOLES

The alternate point of the post is that oil holes are important and somewhat difficult to make in bow bars and must always be considered.

One guy in one of the earlier pictures in this thread had a plastic oil bottle taped to the top handle that dribbled oil on his chain.

Most of these bars were intended for popular saws in the 80's. A narrow bar stud slot is easy to make wider.

But a oil hole in the wrong place or a mounting slot that is too wide must be welded up and repositioned.

New oil holes - well - You have to drill down inside the chain slot to intersect the oil hole. This is limited by the width of the chain slot as well as the thickness of the bar mounting pad. In other words, you cannot break out the side and you must hit the oil hole. It takes a guy used to drilling holes in metal with a 1/16" bit to do this work. Small drill bits have to be spun very fast and fed straight or they will lead off and out the side.

A regular bar for the current popular chainsaws has the oil hole very close to the bottom of the chain slot. If you study one you will find that they went in with a .050" thick saw blade or grinding wheel and deepened the chain slot right at the oil hole to provide a lead for the oil out of the hole and into the chain slot.
We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline 3000 FPS

  • Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 4706
  • Karma: 320
  • Location: Carpenter, Wyoming

  • Total Badges: 43
    Badges: (View All)
    Tenth year Anniversary Nineth year Anniversary Level 7 Eighth year Anniversary Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #21 on: December 20, 2014, 11:16:40 am »
That is interesting about the oil holes and grinding the slot deeper.   I have drilled a couple of bars down through the slot using the flex shaft that I have.   It turned out just fine and worked good.   I have drilled some new oil holes in bars but have not thought about deepening the slot where the oil hole is.
PP 505, 475, 445.

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #22 on: January 06, 2015, 06:46:39 am »
The big question with bow bars is: Will it fit my saw or can it be made to fit my chainsaw?

You may soon wonder if they say it fits your saw - how close does it fit? How well does it oil?

Here are some current bar pattern fitments from Oregon . . .

We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #23 on: January 06, 2015, 12:09:00 pm »
Here's the way my bar looked before the 8mm slot was opened up to 9 mm and the oil hole was moved on the other side from aligning with what would be the adjuster pin position. It was originally a non-reversible D276 style for Macs. It is now a non-reversible D009 mount. See the top bar in the bottom picture.
We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #24 on: January 07, 2015, 11:14:42 am »
This is my bow bar that I plan to use on my Husqvarna 371.
Facts: Unknown actual brand but was a one sided D276 for a McCulloch. 14" diameter
           
           Original oil hole was welded up and redrilled farther away from the slot at the D009 distance (the hole closer to the bar throat)
           A second oiler hole was drilled and cross drilled (away from the bar throat)
           Bar was sanded bare and repainted in TSC Kubota orange
           Broke and spun a loop of Stihl 3/8" X 85 DL X .050" X RS chain shown on bar
           This bow bar oils very well with the two oil holes.

We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline 3000 FPS

  • Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 4706
  • Karma: 320
  • Location: Carpenter, Wyoming

  • Total Badges: 43
    Badges: (View All)
    Tenth year Anniversary Nineth year Anniversary Level 7 Eighth year Anniversary Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #25 on: January 07, 2015, 01:00:28 pm »
Someone sure did a lot of work on that bar.   Just goes to show what can be done and modified to work.
PP 505, 475, 445.

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #26 on: January 07, 2015, 01:18:14 pm »
I'm thinking the dad of the kid I bought the bar from on Ebay did the welding and drilling? I bought the black bar in the picture but he sent me the yellow bar??? I think I like the yellow one better because it hangs lower and there's less to do to my 371?

Only thing about the slot - instead of measuring and scribing a line and then filing to the line, he used a angle grinder to widen the slot enough to fit the bar studs.

A little sloppy and I tried to even it out with a file. But it works fine. Now, you probably wouldn't notice unless you had nothing else to do?

The reason for the two oil holes? I figure the single 1/16" hole up to the slot was thought to not be big enough? The new second hole has a little lead in the direction of chain travel.
We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #27 on: January 28, 2015, 01:20:47 pm »
It's a pretty, sunny day, with little wind. But it's in the teens F and there is 6" snow on the ground. Ideal chainsaw weather for a young man. But I'm not a young man.

I'm in the Easy Boy with Fox news on the TV only because Turner Classic Movies has some foreign movie on.

I was looking on Ebay at the Bow bars and browsing the offerings. The selection comes and goes and between Thanksgiving and Christmas was a lot better. Half of what's offered today was on Ebay back in the early fall.

The main reason I was making this post is the newer offerings on Ebay are freshly painted bars. Personally, I wouldn't buy one of these! A bow type bar has a hard face area on the rim cutting area. If you have a picture of a old bar with the paint mostly gone, you can see this hard faced area of the bar. It is shiny like chrome. It will not rust. The most important area for this hard face is within 6" of the "stop" or dog. That is where all the pressure and wear is. That is where the hard face is likely to be worn away.

If the bar is all painted up nice, it is difficult to see the wear area on the Ebay pictures. - Beware - ???

I was lucky enough to get essentially a NOS bar. It never had a chain on it. The paint was all skinned up. A little light rust. Looked rough. But you could tell all about it in the picture. And then the guy rattle canned red on one side of it before he sent it to me which I didn't care for. I sanded all the paint off, the original Mac yellow - as well as his thin red. Then after looking it over, I painted it with Tractor Supply Kubota orange which is close to Husqvarna orange.

These bars are likely no newer than the mid 80's and were made for chainsaws of the era when the bars were made. So be prepared for some metal work to make them fit your Stihl or Husqvarna?  With the newer chainsaws, it is typically better to set the bar up to hang low rather rather than the bottom of the bow being parallel with the bottom of your chainsaw. The reason for this is it reduces the changes required around the top of the bar mount area of your chainsaw.

Take note that there were a lot of bow bars made for Poulan chainsaws. It is highly likely that you can find one that already fits your Poulan?

Also these guys in the South Eastern USA that are selling these old bars on Ebay may have a pile of them in the back room? There's a possibility that they may have what you are looking for but have not put it on Ebay?

Keep in mind that the 12" - 14" high bow bar is great for blocking up firewood on a fallen tree. A bow bar is not exactly the handiest bar to fell a good sized tree with. These bars are 60cc or 4 cube size saw bars.

The little narrow bow bars are called "brush" bars and are great for Christmas trees. They can be used with a 50cc - 3 cube chainsaws.

 

 
We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

Offline Cut4fun

  • Administrator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 4666
  • Karma: 216
  • OHIO REDNECK

  • Total Badges: 44
    Badges: (View All)
    Tenth year Anniversary Nineth year Anniversary Eighth year Anniversary Level 7 Seventh year Anniversary Apple User
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #28 on: January 28, 2015, 02:04:17 pm »
Back a few years ago on another puter I had sites marked where you could by new bow bars.  I looked for info yesterday and the new bar bow market must have dried up?  Any info on who is selling new bow bars or did the regulations and lawsuits kill them all off?

Offline 660magnum

  • Global Moderator
  • Nitro Hotsaw
  • *******
  • Posts: 6437
  • Karma: 249
  • For The Love Of Chainsaws
  • Location: NCO

  • Total Badges: 39
    Badges: (View All)
    Seventh year Anniversary Sixth year Anniversary Fifth year Anniversary Fourth year Anniversary 5000 Posts Third year Anniversary
Re: Bow Bars Good For Firewood?
« Reply #29 on: January 28, 2015, 02:16:39 pm »
This company manufactures the Christmas tree bars.

http://www.chainbar.com/products.html

They can also redo the hard face overlay on old wide bars or rebuild the mount area to fit your saw including the slot and oil hole.

This company would also be a good source of guards and spurs or stops (dogs) for bow bars.
We should share what we know... someone may learn...
That knowledge can live after us... and that "Pays It Forward".
Be all that you can be . . .

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
1 Replies
607 Views
Last post January 16, 2013, 05:32:54 pm
by TORX
2 Replies
540 Views
Last post January 28, 2014, 10:50:55 am
by JoeB
64 Replies
3407 Views
Last post August 22, 2015, 08:00:43 pm
by 3000 FPS
24 Replies
1803 Views
Last post September 23, 2014, 08:33:42 pm
by dolmar
1 Replies
587 Views
Last post July 23, 2016, 02:35:48 pm
by 3000 FPS
4 Replies
654 Views
Last post November 14, 2017, 03:20:24 am
by Gregg MacPherson
1 Replies
420 Views
Last post September 19, 2016, 01:13:15 pm
by Cut4fun .
0 Replies
474 Views
Last post November 26, 2016, 02:32:54 pm
by weimedog
0 Replies
520 Views
Last post January 18, 2017, 10:18:04 am
by weimedog
24 Replies
2170 Views
Last post November 04, 2021, 03:52:40 pm
by 3000 FPS